Jewelers from the U.K. and France have joined ranks with U.S. jewelers such as Tiffany & Co. (TIF) to oppose the construction of a large Alaskan gold and copper mine that could harm one of the world's largest wild salmon habitats.

Fraser Hart, a leading U.K. independent jewelry retailer, and Paris-based Boucheron have teamed up with John Hardy and Ingle & Rhode to become the latest jewelers to sign a pledge not to buy gold from the proposed Pebble mine in Alaska.

The Pebble project, which is located in southwest Alaska, is jointly owned in equal measure by global diversified miner Anglo American PLC (AAL.LN) and Canada-based Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd (NDM.T). Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto PLC (RIO) owns a 19.8% stake in Northern Dynasty while Mitsubishi Corp. (8058.TO) owns an 11% stake in the miner.

There are now 50 signatories representing $5.75 billion in jewelry sales who have signed the pledge. The signatories are concerned that the Pebble project, one of the world's largest undeveloped gold and copper deposits, will destroy an important spawning habitat for wild sockeye salmon and jeopardize the livelihood of over 5,500 people, according to Earthworks, one of the groups campaigning against the mine.

The project hasn't been fully designed but it will likely include an open-pit mine and possibly an underground mine that could potentially produce 350,000 tons of copper annually and a significant amount of gold and molybdenum by-products. The projects' partners envisage such a project would require the construction of waste-storage facilities, a deep water port, possibly a power plant, and miles of roads and pipelines.

Earthworks expects the mine would produce 10 billion tons of waste during the mine's lifetime based on initial resource estimates from the partnership.

Anglo American has so far invested about $300 million in the project and said it would commit $1.4 billion to take the project through various stages of development but only if a mine could be designed in accordance with Alaska's stringent environmental standards and to the benefit of the local community.

"Our bottom line remains that, if the project cannot be designed in a way that provides the proper protections for Alaska's fisheries and wildlife, or to the livelihoods of Alaskan communities, then it shouldn't be built," said John Parker, Anglo's chairman, in April.

Anglo American believes that mining and fishing can co-exist in the region and acknowledge that it would have to bear the burden to prove it. A spokesperson for Northern Dynasty urged local communities to wait for a development plan to be proposed before commenting on the project's environmental impact.

The jewelers, Earthworks and the Bristol Bay Corporation, which represents about 8,000 local shareholders, said the mine could harm Bristol Bay's salmon industry, which supplies a third of the world's commercial supply of wild sockeye salmon and generates an average of $400 million a year.

"In Bristol Bay, we believe the extraordinary salmon fishery clearly provides the best opportunity to benefit Southwestern Alaskan communities in a sustainable way. For Tiffany & Co.--and we believe for many of our fellow retail jewelers--this means we must look to other places to responsibly source our gold," said Michael Kowalski, CEO of Tiffany & Co.

Jewelers consumed nearly half of the world's global annual gold output last year.

But not all of Alaska's communities are opposed to the project. Five of Alaska's 13 native corporations, which are located closest to the Pebble project and represent the interests of local communities, urged caution in jumping to conclusions before evaluating the full scope of the project.

"We are disappointed in the actions by these groups and organizations who have taken a stand against Pebble without seeking the complete picture, especially without any consideration for our perspective," the five corporations said in a letter to Anglo.

They mentioned that they would evaluate the project fully, taking into account the project's impact on the fishing industry, the environment and the region's high unemployment rate.

The Pebble partnership has hired an independent company to facilitate dialogue with stakeholders about the review of scientific data and any eventual mine proposal. It expects to complete a pre-feasibility study in 2011.

-By Alex MacDonald, Dow Jones Newswires; 44 20 7842 9328; alex.macdonald@dowjones.com
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