Buried Beneath a Pebble - Part One

This week I'm going to get a little political, a little environmental, and perhaps even a bit mad.

There are forces at work in Alaska that are operating as if being a "resource state" means that nothing is sacred, that the extraction of minerals (gold, oil, copper, zinc, etc) is the be all and end all. 

Before I get rolling on my tirade, I'm giving you, gentle reader, a little homework.  You've maybe heard a bit about Pebble Mine. That little rock of a gold and copper mine being developed in SW Alaska, at the headwaters of Bristol Bay, home of the last great wild salmon run in the world. 

 Williamsport to Lake Illiamna, home to the proposed Pebble Mine

Pebble will be the largest gold mine in North America. One of the largest in the world. And while the money machine behind Pebble rolls over Alaskans, more boulder than pebble, another mine slips quietly beneath the radar.  This other mine is not quite the scale of Pebble, but still enormous in size and value and in an area where people rely on the salmon not just for the fishing industry, but for their very existence.

Do a little research, inform yourself --- what is the name of this gold mine buried beneath the media war for and against Pebble? What are your feelings about it? What other projects are being funded with Alaskan revenue specifically for this mine?