Gemini Comments on the Gold-Silver Mine-'Eskay Creek Revitalization Project' (it needs to be revitalized?)

 A chat with Gemini about the 'Eskay Creek Revitalization Project' (it needs to be revitalized?' Some are concerned about insults to, and long term degradation of, salmon fishing around Wrangell.

I prompted Gemini for a couple of answers;

Gemini-The Eskay Creek Revitalization Project is a major gold-silver mining project in northwestern British Columbia's "Golden Triangle". Currently in the construction phase, it is on track to begin initial production by Q2 2027.

projects.eao.gov.bc.ca

Current Status and Timeline

Permitting Complete: As of February 2026, Skeena Gold + Silver secured all final provincial and federal regulatory permits.

Construction: Major construction is officially underway as of March 2026.

Production Start: Initial production and cash flow are expected in the second quarter of 2027.

Mine Life: The project is designed as an open-pit operation with an estimated 12 to 13-year lifespan.

iaac-aeic.gc.ca

Key Project Details

Location: Situated approximately 83 km northwest of Stewart, B.C., at the site of the former Eskay Creek underground mine (which operated from 1994 to 2008).

Production Scale:

Forecasted average annual output of 320,000 ounces of gold-equivalent.

Expected to be the largest silver producer in Canada during its first five years, averaging 9.5 million ounces of silver annually.

Economic Impact: The project represents a $713 million investment and is expected to create over 1,000 jobs during construction and more than 750 during ongoing operations.

Indigenous Partnership: It is the first project in Canada to achieve an environmental certificate through a Section 7 consent agreement with a First Nation (the Tahltan Nation), marking a historic shift toward collaborative resource development.

Infrastructure and Environment

Power: The mine will utilize clean energy from the nearby Coast Mountain Hydroelectric Facilities and the main hydroelectric grid.

Logistics: Concentrates produced on-site will be transported to port facilities in Stewart for shipping.

Concerns: Some downstream Southeast Alaska tribes have expressed environmental concerns regarding potential impacts on shared watersheds like the Unuk River.

Would you like to see more details on the feasibility study results or information regarding the Tahltan Nation's specific role in the project?

Gary- Will the mine have heavy metals leached by much rainfall and create a superfund situation comparable to open pit copper mines? WIll it harm fishing?

Gemini- While the project has received environmental certification, it faces significant scrutiny regarding heavy metal leaching and risks to downstream fisheries, particularly from Alaska Native tribes and conservation groups.

Heavy Metal Leaching Risks

The mine’s geology contains potentially acid-generating (PAG) rock, which can create acid mine drainage if exposed to air and water.

projects.eao.gov.bc.ca

Rainfall Impact: In this high-precipitation region, rainfall can accelerate the leaching of metals like selenium, copper, cadmium, and zinc.

Containment Strategy: To prevent a "Superfund-style" scenario, the project plan relies on storing waste rock and tailings underwater permanently to block oxygen and stop acid production.

Model Predictions: Environmental models predict some metals may still exceed British Columbia water quality guidelines at discharge points, presenting potential risks to the immediate environment.

projects.eao.gov.bc.ca

Potential Harm to Fishing

There is a sharp divide between regulatory findings and the concerns of downstream communities:

Regulatory Conclusion: The B.C. Environmental Assessment Office concluded that with strict mitigation—including water treatment and seepage controls—significant adverse effects on fish and fish habitat are not expected.

Tribal and Fishery Concerns:

The Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission (SEITC) and other Alaskan tribes argue the mine threatens the Unuk River, a critical habitat for all five species of salmon and eulachon (ooligan).

Critics highlight that current research estimates 15 tons of dissolved metals may flow out of the site annually, which could cause long-term declines in fish populations downstream in Alaska.

Concerns exist that tailings dams, which must be maintained "forever," could eventually fail, leading to catastrophic downstream contamination.

Gary- The mine is plainly environmentally harmful to the environment and will exist simply to extract silver and gold. Gold has industrial utility. Its value is inflated because of the economic values given to it by economic structures not based in environmental sustainability; and that tends toward being inimical and counter-productive to human life on Earth in the long run- even as AI renders many jobs obsolete.One day robots may replace the thousand humans thought to be employed at the mine

Gemini-You’re pointing out a fundamental tension in modern resource extraction: the clash between speculative economic value and ecological survival.

Your observation about gold is technically accurate. While it is vital for high-end electronics and aerospace, roughly 75% of global gold demand is driven by jewelry and investment (bars and coins). In this sense, the massive environmental footprint at Eskay Creek—including the permanent management of toxic tailings in a sensitive watershed—is being traded for a "store of value" rather than a functional necessity.

The "Economic vs. Ecological" Calculation

The Superfund Risk: You mentioned "Superfund-style" scenarios earlier. These often happen when the economic value of a mine is exhausted, the company dissolves, and the public is left to pay for water treatment in perpetuity. Critics of Eskay Creek argue that "permanent underwater storage" of heavy metals is a high-stakes bet against geological time and climate change-induced flooding.

AI and Automation: You’re spot on about the jobs. The mining industry is one of the fastest adopters of autonomous haulage and AI-driven sorting. While the project claims 1,000 jobs today, the "human benefit" often shrinks over the mine's 12-year life as more tasks are automated to keep the "all-in sustaining cost" (AISC) low for shareholders.

The Long-Term Conflict

The "economic structures" you mentioned prioritize short-term GDP and quarterly returns, which rarely account for the "ecosystem services" a healthy Unuk River provides (like salmon runs that feed people and forests for free, indefinitely).

Inuit Researcher Finds High Arctic Micro-Plastic Pollution in Greenland

 Creating his own micro-plastics filter, a researcher kayaked around a Greenland glacier to look for the presence of micro-plastics. Toxic dust in the air and ocean currents to have redistributed micro-plastic pollution globally and made the Arctic a sink for microplastic pollution. The fossil fuel derivatives evidently harm cod eggs and human health. 

https://www.euronews.com/green/2026/02/14/meet-the-inuit-scientist-kayaking-around-greenland-to-highlight-just-how-far-microplastics

Plainly President Trump should stop sanctions on Russia to expedite the end of the Ukraine war and develop a program to expedite a transition away from fossil fuels- even auto tires lose 15 to 30% of mass over use time as it converts to dust that can become airborne. TWPs (tire wear particles) are a major source of micro-plastic pollution. Every year another two or three billion are manufactured and released to float micro-plastics into the atmosphere and Earth. Ending the Ukraine war would enable closer work together among nations to war upon high Arctic micro-plastic pollution that is probably harmful to whales and various fish species instead of on other humans.

Hydrogen is a good direction for alternative fuels to take. New science is progrogressing on developing hydrogen from seawater at low cost with common materials. Alternatives to fossil fuels are taking many forms and the U.S. tends toward lagging behind in the race to China, Australia and other nations. Solar panels are reducing in price globally although the U.S.A. may have sanctions on importing them. Maybe the administration doesn't want the U.S.A. to develop as an independent off-grid society in order to concentrate wealth to fossil fuel energy corporations.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ford-gm-join-tesla-energy-220000595.html

https://www.rmit.edu.au/research/impact/hydrogen-from-seawater-no-desalination

Gemini wrote this about the Australian hydrogen research;

Gemini- Australian researchers, notably from the University of Adelaide and RMIT University, have developed a groundbreaking method to produce green hydrogen directly from seawater without pre-treatment or desalination. Using specialized catalysts and a Lewis acid layer, this technique achieves near 100% efficiency, offering a sustainable, cost-effective alternative to traditional, water-intensive methods. 

Key Breakthrough Details

• No Desalination Needed: The process skips energy-intensive purification, directly splitting raw seawater into hydrogen and oxygen.
• Catalyst Innovation: Researchers, including those from the University of Adelaide, used a catalyst with a specialized layer (e.g., Lewis acid) to prevent chloride corrosion, allowing the system to run for over 100 hours.
• Efficiency: The technique demonstrated performance close to platinum-based catalysts that currently require highly purified water.
• Environmental Impact: This method provides a sustainable pathway for producing green hydrogen, utilizing the ocean as an "almost infinite resource" while avoiding chlorine byproduct issues. 

New Developments (2026)

Recent advances in 2026 from the University of Sydney have introduced a method using liquid gallium and sunlight, allowing for the direct extraction of green hydrogen from seawater without requiring external electricity, furthering the efficiency of the process. 

This innovation is considered a major step toward making the green hydrogen economy more viable, bypassing the need for freshwater, which is crucial for water-scarce regions."- end Gemini quote 

Humans apparently occupied a cave site in Greece named Theoptera from 130,000 BC. A structural weather wall was built there about 23,000 B.C. It is notable that politicians find it so difficult to advance from a dysfunctional polluting fossil fuels tool kit to a newer one technologically. It was perhaps difficult for Neanderthal and human political leaders at Theoptera to accept new technologies when they appeared as well. 

https://www.futura-sciences.com/en/the-oldest-human-built-structure-ever-discovered-is-changing-how-we-see-humanity_25268/

https://visitmeteora.travel/theopetra-cave-prehistoric-site/

The Greatest Ever Chiseled

 Presidents recently have wanted to be ranked as the greatest or smartest in history. They would have their images imposed on Mt. Rushmore if they could after a month or year in office. They are given Nobel prizes or Popes to feel good about themselves- so why not go ahead and use some kind of laser-holography to put their images on Mt. Rushmore at night over those already existing in repose, chiseled serenely in stone by day.

  When the next greatest ever leader arrives the new face of glory may be presented to awestruck masses breathing free with some minor percent of carbon monoxide spoiling the purity of things.

Alaska's Stikine River Fishery is Endangered by a Canadian Mine Upstream

 It won’t be too easy to save the Stikine. The Red Chris Mine was owned by the Newcrest Corporation that was bought in 2023 by the Newmont Corporation. Newcrest was only founded in 1990. Four years ago Newmont bought the Canadian Goldcorp and became a very large corporation. Newmont has returned nearly 7 billion dollars to investors in the past several years. It is the world’s largest gold mining corporation; a multi-national corporation listed on the N.Y.S.E.

https://salmonbeyondborders.org/comment-red-chris-mine?fbclid=IwY2xjawJmjqdleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHlOnN5K37o8T-jz2rHZu0Ha2tdM2Xk3k-ZVREMftxmOeAHpWRlUxXMuYgYSx_aem_wo284ki8KRxjGmWDlpLfZQ

The Stikine River king salmon return is estimated to be just 10,000 fish this year. The run used to be millions of fish. The Red Chris Mine about 60 miles away on a tributary of the Stikine, located in a rain forest, is a large open pit copper mine with low grade ore. The corporation wants to expand the mine drilling tunnels horizontally underground and blow them up to sort through the debris. When water runs through the mining channels and demolished rocks it leaches toxic chemicals into waterways eventually.

I have the impression that those large mining corporations typically sell off depleted mines to some foreign shell company. The very rich harvest the profit and leave the cleanup to the E.P.A. and Superfund sites occasionally. The cost of cleaning up the Stikine someday if worst cases develop like that of Leadville  Colorado and Helena Montana could be billions. With the E.P.A. being cut there may be fewer dollars for the work. In the future maybe governments will increase funding to cleanup depleted mining sites.

Gemini described a shell company; “A shell company, or a single-purpose entity, is a legal entity with minimal or no active business operations. Large corporations often use them to sell companies with ecological liability, such as mining companies, to limit their own exposure to potential lawsuits or fines. This is done to shield the parent company from liability for the actions of the subsidiary”

https://www.amazon.com/Leadville-Struggle…/dp/1559633859

Red Chris Mine in Canada Presents Dangers for American Fish Downstream

 There is a proposed expansion of the Red Chris mine in Canada upstream of the Stikine River from Wrangell. It is an open pit mine and they hope to make tunnels through substrate and then blast to collapse the overhead and extract low grade ore from the  rip rap for rock crushing.  The mining technique is called block caving.

Water running through new underground channels take toxic minerals with it, and that can persist for centuries. Good luck with getting Canadians to be concerned about downstream American fish. There are a couple of books on U.S. experience with the problem. I doubt the current President would care.

https://riveroflostsouls.com/river-of-lost-souls/

https://islandpress.org/books/leadville#desc

Musk's Starlink Satellites Might Soil the Stratosphere

Elon  Musk's plan to place 42,000 Starlink satellites above the Earth present a danger when making reentry for destruction by releasing aluminum oxide that will reach the stratosphere. So it makes sense that DOGE would want to trim the Environmental Protection agency and prevent legislation from arising to compel those that launch satellites that orbit the Earth to pay a tax for the safe disposal of satellites rather than burning them up in the atmosphere. The amount of aluminum oxide released into the upper atmosphere greatly surpasses anything approaching normal. The consequences may be profound down the road.

https://www.businesstoday.in/visualstories/news/starlink-killing-atmosphere-the-environmental-threat-to-earth-elon-musk-isnt-talking-about-214537-06-03-2025

I once bought a used sailboat on the Severn River and sailed it to the Chesapeake without a motor or  depth charts. Unfortunately with some ways and no wind the vessel eventually rand aground in shallow water with the full keel and the waves took it to a concrete berm where it had holes broken through the fiberglass. I was informed that on the Chesapeake Bay it is illegal to let a boat become derelict-- a felony crime actually. So I therefore had to pay a business $2000 dollars to haul the boat away and break it up safely for disposal. The rich have no kind of similar responsibility to safely dispose of their space trash that threatens the safety or well being of human life on Earth and that is wrong.

Jesse Watters said recently that all boomers are rich and the generation spoiled. Such statements is why people hate journalists.. President Johnson began he war on poverty in the 1960s because so many Americans were poor. Some boomers died in Vietnam and other wars. not everyone was a pampered journalist in the 3rd millennium. Many Boomers are still poor and many never made it to old age. When I got off that sailboat on the Eastern shore I bought some chicken for dinner and ignored the subtle head shake of the sales lady at the service station convenience store. I went to a hotel room across the street and ate a drumstick and got a sharp shard of chicken bone stuck in my throat sideways where it remained until it dissolved much later because I couldn't afford to remove it. Watters would have 911 there if such a circumstance befell him with full medical coverage. He has no idea about the inconvenience of poverty.

Building on automatic trash cleaning machine to gobble up dead satellites in space, compact them and shoot them into the sun should not be beyond the technical capacity of those disposable, non-recycling kind of people that dominate in government. Maybe people would even pay something for the service or face federal charges for placing aluminum oxide sources into the stratosphere above the United States.