A new paper by Bob Loeffler, visiting professor of public policy at ISER, examines whether valid assessments of the ecological risks posed by mining projects can be done at the pre-design stage—that is, before a mining company submits a detailed mine design to government regulators. The author draws conclusions by analyzing three existing ecological risk assessments for mining projects in Alaska: post-design assessments for the Kensington and Red Dog mines and a pre-design assessment for the proposed Pebble mine.
