EPA vetoes Alaska mine to protect salmon in win for environmentalists

Move is a victory for the environment, economy and tribes of Alaska's Bristol Bay region, and is victory for science over politics'

The US Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday in effect vetoed a proposed copper and gold mine in a remote region of south-west Alaska that is coveted by mining interests but that also supports the world's largest sockeye salmon fishery.

The move by the agency, heralded by Alaska Native tribes and environmentalists who have long pushed for it, deals a potentially devastating blow to the proposed Pebble mine and comes while an earlier rejection of a key federal permit for the project remains unresolved.