ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Pebble Limited Partnership CEO Tom Collier has resigned following the release by an environmental group of secretly recorded videos of Collier and Ron Thiessen, president of Pebble parent company Northern Dynasty Minerals, discussing the company’s relationship with Alaska politicians and regulators.
A statement released by Northern Dynasty Minerals on Wednesday said Collier’s resignation has been accepted by Northern Dynasty’s senior management and board of directors.
“Collier’s comments embellished both his and the Pebble Partnership’s relationships with elected officials and federal representatives in Alaska,” including Gov. Mike Dunleavy, Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan and senior representatives of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the statement from Northern Dynasty said.
“The comments were clearly offensive to these and other political, business and community leaders in the state and for this, Northern Dynasty unreservedly apologizes to all Alaskans,” the statement said.
Collier and Thiessen were recorded on video discussing what they described as their influence with Alaska politicians and regulators.
The Environmental Investigation Agency, an environmental group, hired people to pose as potential investors in the project in video meetings with the Pebble executives in August and September.
Dunleavy, the senators and the Corps strongly denounced the statements as false and embellished.
“The unethical manner in which these tapes were acquired does not excuse the comments that were made, or the crass way they were expressed,” Thiessen said in the statement. “On behalf of the company and our employees, I offer my unreserved apology to all those who were hurt or offended, and all Alaskans.”
Former Pebble Partnership CEO John Shively will be Pebble’s interim CEO while the company seeks a new leader, the statement said.
The videos come at a critical time for the proposed copper and gold project about 200 miles southwest of Anchorage. It would be built near headwaters of the valuable Bristol Bay salmon fishery, and the proposal has prompted years of widespread criticism that it will hurt the commercial fishing industry and subsistence fishermen there.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is in the final stages of determining whether to issue a permit for the mine that could lead to construction. President Donald Trump recently tweeted about the project, saying there would be “NO POLITICS” in the permitting process.
Shively, the state’s former Natural Resources commissioner under Democratic Gov. Tony Knowles, stepped aside from his top role at Pebble in 2014, allowing Collier to take the helm.
Shively, recently the board chair for Pebble Mines Corp., general partner for Pebble Partnership, said in the statement Wednesday that the project is too important not to be built.
“My priority is to advance our current plan through the regulatory process so we can prove to the state’s political leaders, regulatory officials and all Alaskans that we can meet the very high environmental standards expected of us,” he said.
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