Volcano comes to mining company's aid.

Verner Wilson (L) talks with a Bristol Bay fisherman.Thanks to the Icelandic Volcano incident, a group of Alaskans opposed to the Pebble Mine were unable to travel to London, where they'd planned to address the annual shareholders meeting of mining giant Anglo-American. Anglo, along with Canadian partner Northern Dynasty, is seeking to develop a massive copper and gold mine at the headwaters of Bristol Bay, home to one of the world's last great salmon runs. The Alaskans had intended to impress upon the shareholders what a bad idea they think this is, as any disruption of the salmon run would threaten the survival of the native villages in the area, as well as the $400 million a year commercial fishing industry in the Bay.

But as luck would have it, young Verner Wilson, an Alaskan native, activist, and Brown University grad from the Bristol Bay town of Dillingham, had gone to Europe early to see Paris and was able, via several trains and a ferry, to get to London to be the lone opposition voice. As his facebook status update this morning put it:

Happy Earth Day everyone. As Alaska is sleeping, I will be talking with Anglo-American shareholders, Im the only one from Bristol Bay who's attending it because of the volcano, I'm getting up in 3 hours to talk with BBC radio, nervous but we all have to grow up someday right? these are serious issues that will pollute the earth for a long time if we don't stop them.

He seems to have done fine. As local Alaskan outlets reported:

Verner Wilson attended Anglo American PLC's annual shareholder meeting in London Thursday to deliver a message, as well as a Natural Resources Defense Council petition with 100,000 signatures urging the mining company to divest itself of the Pebble Mine in southwest Alaska.

I've had the opportunity to spend some time with Verner, and I share the opinion of many Alaskans who know him: this kid is going to be Governor some day.