Chilkat Valley News - Serving Haines and Klukwan, Alaska since 1966

There’s a lot of contradictory and confusing information surrounding the issue of ore transport for the Palmer project. It is important for us to understand what is actually going on and what is being discussed. Constantine’s 2022 amended PEA requested by Canadian securities regulators cited a transportation plan from 2019 saying it will use the AML facility at Lutak Dock, but the company president admits they are not in touch with AML. How can that be? They say they plan to ship their ore to Skagway, but Skagway’s Mayor says “that’s news to us”, Skagway hasn’t spoken to CMR in three years, and Skagway is dismantling their ore terminal in 2023. Another huge contradiction. The PEA says CMR should determine the cost of building an ore terminal in Haines. If a terminal needs to be built here CMR says it “doesn’t expect the cost difference to be material to the project” – but a recent AIDEA report said refurbishing the existing ore terminal in Skagway could cost upwards of $50 million. How could such a huge cost not be important to the project? Are they expecting it to be paid for with our tax dollars? Or through a loan from AIDEA that our tax dollars will have to repay? A lot of important questions are being raised but the contradictions and conflicting information are confusing, and it all leaves me worried that local folks are not being included in important discussions that will impact our lives for many years to come.

Vanessa Caldarelli