First Nation protesters call for mining slowdown
Lindsay Kines, Times Colonist
Published: Tuesday, February 27, 2007
http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/business/story.html?id=3d848213\
-fcc6-4f2d-8b58-5347826171fc
A pair of women from the Tahltan First Nation called on the provincial
government yesterday to slow a mining boom they fear threatens their traditional
territory in northwest B.C.

Rhoda Quock and Eileen Doody, who were in Victoria for Mining Day at the
legislature, said more than a half-dozen mines are proposed for Tahltan lands
that include the Klabona or "Sacred Headwaters" of the Nass, Skeena and Stikine
rivers.

"If it all occurred at the same time, our land, our wildlife, and our people
will be devastated," said Quock, who speaks for the Iskut elders group Klabona
Keepers.

Members of the group were arrested in 2005 for blocking a mining road in their
territory.

"We're saying that we support one mine at a time," added Doody, a community
liaison for the Iskut band, one of the members of the Tahltan First Nation. "If
all these mines go through at once, it's basically cultural genocide."

But Mining Minister Kevin Krueger said that while some within the Tahltan First
Nation have raised concerns, the government has followed a "careful
consultative" process with its elected leaders.

Those leaders, he said, have supported NovaGold Canada's plan for a $1.6-billion
open-pit copper-silver-gold mine at Galore Creek, which recently received
provincial environmental approval.

"About 50 per cent of the workforce at the Eskay Creek mine is Tahltan people,
and that mine is nearing the end of its natural life, so they're very much
interested in remaining employed in the industry," he said.

Krueger rejected the idea of moving ahead with just one mine at a time.

"We're at a very rare point in our history where there is so much opportunity,"
he said. "Mining markets, commodity markets are cyclical, and that might well
mean that opportunities are missed if we only acted on one mine at a time."


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