May 18, 2026 — Canagold Resources, the company proposing to open the New Polaris gold mine on the Tulsequah River in British Columbia, says it’s taking steps to protect the environment.
The Tulsequah is a tributary of the Taku River in Alaska, which is known as the most productive salmon stream in Southeast. All five Pacific salmon species spawn in the river, including the largest Chinook run in the region. Although there hasn’t been a concerted effort to study whether mining has affected Taku River salmon, some are concerned it could.
Chris Pharness is the senior vice president of sustainability and permitting at Canagold. He said the company plans to operate in ways that avoid harming the watershed and the fish in it.
For instance, he said Canagold originally planned to use cyanide to separate gold on-site.
“We were going to produce doré, which is unrefined gold, on site,” Pharness said. “But, you know, in consideration of the fisheries values and water quality values and things like that, we decided against that.”
Instead, Pharness said they’ll use another method that involves less chemical processing, called flotation. A foaming agent creates bubbles to concentrate gold out of waste rock. He said the gold concentrate will be shipped somewhere else for further processing.