Ads urge boycott of Canadian company's gold mine

A new ad campaign aims to convince jewellers to boycott gold from a proposed mining project that an Alaskan native group says threatens their way of life.

Earthworks, a Washington D.C.-based environmental group, placed ads in National Jeweler, an industry paper, asking retailers to pledge their support to Nunamta Aulukestai, an association of eight Alaska Native villages in Bristol Bay.

The native group opposes the Pebble Mine project in the Bristol Bay watershed, an open-pit mine proposed by Canadian company Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd.

The ad, which will run in the January, February and March issues of the newspaper, says: "We need your help. Bristol Bay is the wrong place for a gold mine. No responsible jeweller would knowingly buy gold mined there."

Northern Dynasty Minerals says its plans are still in the developmental stages. The company has applied for permission to build a 200-metre high dam as part of the mining project.

Steve D'Esposito, Earthworks president, said in recent years consumers have been asking more questions of their jewellers, demanding to know how their diamonds and jewels have been procured.

D'Esposito said the recently released film Blood Diamond, about theviolent diamond trade in Sierra Leone has changed the way consumers think.

"I think Blood Diamond is the 'Ah-ha!' moment when the consumer says this wedding ring does not come magically, it comes from some place," D'Esposito said.

But since 2002, diamond industry officials say they have changed the way diamonds are acquired thanks to the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, which was enacted in 2002. Officials say the program, which tracks diamonds from the mine to the store, has successfully curbed the "blood diamond" trade.

In December 2006, a First Nations group in Ontario launched a campaign asking Americans to boycott Canadian diamonds, saying the jewels were mined at the expense of its people.