The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday effectively vetoed a proposed open-pit copper and gold mine in a remote region of southwest Alaska that is a trove of minerals coveted by mining interests but that also supports the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery.
The move by the agency, heralded by Alaska Native tribes and environmentalists who have long pushed for it, deals a potentially devastating blow to the proposed Pebble Mine and comes while an earlier rejection of a key federal permit for the project remains unresolved.
