The editor of the Grass Valley Union newspaper criticizes Rise Gold's sleazy marketing and underscores their CEO's questionable past.
By Don Rogers, publisher of The Union, Lake Wildwood Independent, and Sierra Sun.
Rise Gold’s PR is a disaster so far. Just sayin’.
Prepaid postcards with prewritten positive responses to reopen the Idaho-Maryland Mind mailed to a few perceived friendlies? Sign here and send on to the county as if original?
Maybe the Nevada County Board of Supervisors is that gullible or jaded, I dunno.
Or the company is more interested in out-of-town investors and wholly unconcerned about the local population, counting more on this community’s quiet apathy than overwrought protest.
Remaining politely reasonable while letting opponents punch themselves out with wild exaggerations is textbook public relations, by the way. Too bad Rise’s flaks can’t follow the script.
The marketing-infused survey last summer was sleazy enough. The prepaid postcard scheme is straight out of LA. In baseball, we’d have to call this an 0-2 count.
Here is Ben Mossman’s biggest whiff.
HISTORY HAUNTS
Reopening a gold mine is Sisyphean, for sure. History literally is against you. The legacy ain’t pretty. Neither Grass Valley’s nor Rise Gold’s own.
We’re still cleaning up from careless and poisonous mining, as well as recalcitrant mining companies, going back to the Gold Rush.
Mossman, the CEO of Rise Gold, still faces criminal proceedings in Canada from a mine his last company abandoned after allegedly flouting environmental regulations and leaving a toxic spill for the locals to deal with. He was fined $15,000 for minor offenses, which were set aside along with a lower court’s acquittals, in a British Columbia Court of Appeal ruling in late 2020. New trial to come.
My point here is that the last thing Rise needs in a public relations strategy is flim-flam.
Read the rest of the article on The Union website. Don goes on to explain why he believes the science is in Rise Gold's favor and despite community concerns, it is possible the mine might be able to reopen, BUT WE BEG TO DIFFER!
The community is currently reviewing the DRAFT Economic Impact Report with a deadline for comments on April 4. They're finding major flaws in the scientific analysis, missing mitigations, and inadequate mitigations. The next draft is likely to show many more significant impacts that can't be mitigated away.