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VALUE-ENHANCING STRATEGY: ENVIRONMENT & SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY, SAFETY, AND GOVERNANCE
Our approach to developing Donlin Gold and Galore Creek is focused on the principles of sustainability and community engagement – and on ensuring a transparent, comprehensive process that always adheres to best practices.
To cite just one example, Donlin Gold has logged over 1.9 million the Middle Kuskokwim River. (Rainbow smelt are an important
work-hours (that’s more than eight years) without a single
lost-time incident. Training for safety awareness and emergency preparedness is required of all employees, building a strong safety culture not only while on the job, but also for the entire region.
Donlin Gold and its external a airs team, in partnership with Calista and TKC Board members and their shareholders, continue their extensive engagement e orts throughout the Y-K region. NOVAGOLD continually works to inform residents of our plans and solicit their input on how to make the project better. Consistent community outreach and involvement has helped shape the project and will continue to ensure a balanced development plan that brings tangible, long-lasting bene ts to the region while upholding a commitment to responsible development.
During the past 20-plus years, Donlin Gold has conducted exhaustive environmental, biological, and social baseline studies. In planning and performing these studies, a primary goal has been to maximize input from – and, importantly, the involvement of – local residents. This work has generally been done to support the impact assessment and permitting of the proposed project. These data and analyses, however, also provide the important information necessary
to help residents and communities understand and, where appropriate, work to address current and future conditions in the region – and identify potential risks to human health and the environment. Examples of these e orts are broad-based and wide-ranging:
f Fisheries In addition to extensive aquatic resource characterization work in the Crooked Creek watershed, Donlin Gold has completed several major studies of sh populations in the Kuskokwim River. More speci cally, these included studying the abundance and distribution of adult and juvenile Paci c salmon and resident shes in targeted reaches of the river. Donlin Gold also conducted surveys of rainbow smelt spawning in
subsistence food for villages in the Y-K region.) These studies were among the rst of their kind, providing valuable data to help characterize and manage the resources.
f Subsistence Harvest and Use Subsistence practices change over time; accurate harvest data are therefore critical to enable agencies and community interests to make e ective resource management decisions. Over the past 15 years, Donlin Gold has provided resources to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game to complete updated subsistence surveys for many of the villages along the Kuskokwim River, including compiling harvest data for sh, mammals, birds, and berries.
f Hydrology and Erosion The Kuskokwim River watershed
is a dynamic system in which hydrologic and erosion-induced changes can have signi cant impacts on residents’ lives. Donlin Gold has conducted extensive river characterization studies (e.g. erosion, ow, physiography) and developed state-of-the-art tools to predict and track natural and man-made changes in the system.
f Emergency Response Training One of the issues raised by communities is how Donlin Gold can ensure timely and e ective response to potential spills of fuel or chemicals along the
barge route on the Kuskokwim River, as well as other potential emergency response situations arising from the Donlin Gold project. Through our partnership with TKC, we’ve sponsored emergency response training for Middle Kuskokwim village residents – located along the barge route on the river – not only supporting Donlin Gold, but also helping villages address existing emergency response needs in and around their respective communities.
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