Where The Heck is Donlin? The Movie

Where the Heck is Donlin?

Sited deep in the Bush of Southwestern Alaska, the Donlin Gold prospect is the largest proposed gold mine in Alaska's history. However, an overwhelming majority of Alaskan residents are unfamiliar with the details of it's development and implications. Located above a tributary that flows into the mighty Kuskokwim River, this open pit mine would bring both economic opportunities and environmental consequences to this remote region. Numerous local residents seek employment at the mine, with promise of an increased quality of life on a monetary scale, barring the threat of acid-mine drainage and mercury contamination of the watershed. 

Open Pit Gold Mining (Fort Knox, AK)

Donlin Creek would produce 30% more ore per day than Fort Knox, and the total resource is several times larger.

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Careful engineering, promised by Donlin LLC (a NovaGold and Barrick Gold collaboration), could mitigate the negative impacts. However, open-pit mining can require the perpetual storage of harmful waste material and if so, the tailings pond dam would need to be diligently monitored and maintained to ensure containment of toxins detrimental to the watershed and subsistence-based lifestyles. Forever.

The Journey

Noting the absence of available data, as well as the lack of awareness surrounding the proposal, Bjorn and Kim took on the ground-truth-trekking model of investigative research, and set out to explore some of the unanswered questions from the source. Completing a two-part, 850 mile human powered wilderness expedition through the proposed footprint of the mine, they engaged the people that they encountered on the subjects of perpetual waste storage, the significance of subsistence fisheries, the energy demands of a large-scale mine, and the challenges facing rural residents to name a few.

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The Film to Be

We rode our snow bikes on 350 miles of the historic Iditarod trail. We paddled our Alpacka packrafts on 500 miles of wildly remote Kuskokwim waters. We visited residents, lodge-owners, trail-users, small villages, schools, and fish camps. We met and interviewed the people in the region. We documented it all with our small budget and simple equipment. Now it's time to share our story in a feature length documentary: Where The Heck Is Donlin?

Give a Donation and Help Us Tell the Story

You’ve already read about how high the stakes are with the construction of this mine – and how important this film project is -- but it cannot be done without funding. We’re not asking for much, but this story cannot be told without money to pay for hard drives, editing guidance and post-production exposure.  We’ve already taken this film off the ground with hundreds (if not thousands!) of volunteer hours, a modest amount of funding from grants and our own pockets, but it’s not enough to finish it.
 
The completed film will provide enough visibility to leverage additional funding for things that can make a tremendous difference if the mine is built – things like a high level, comprehensive study on the mercury threat, environmental advocacy work to bring the Alaska mine permitting system into the 21st century, and a constant monitoring effort to make sure the mine is not putting profits before people.  Your few dollars will help realize not just the film, but the greater awareness and action it will create.
 
We’re fully dedicated to the completion of this film. Help us make it timely; even the most modest donation will help.

Click the link below to donate to this project via Paypal

Checks and money orders can be sent to:

Donlin Film Project, Ground Truth Trekking, P.O. Box 164 Seldovia AK 99663

    -Bjorn and Kim

Donlin Expedition Photos

Mosquito net sunset

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Date Created: Tue, 11 Oct 2011 13:24:49 -0800

Last Modified: Tue, 8 Nov 2011 08:21:58 -0900