Anglo American, the London-listed mining group, will this week face accusations that it risks damaging one of the world's most valuable salmon habitats.

Alaskan tribal leaders and fishermen will come to London on Thursday to tell the company's annual meeting that plans to build an open-pit gold and copper mine in the Bristol Bay region will destroy the breeding grounds of sockeye salmon.

They claim that mining the ore deposit, which is located underneath some of the most important salmon spawning grounds, will generate as much as 10bn tonnes of mine waste and require 160bn litres (35bn gallons) of water to be taken from rivers.

Bobby Andrew, a spokesman for Nunamta Aulukestai, a group representing eight local villages, said that he hopes to persuade shareholders to reconsider the project.

"We do not trust that they [Anglo American] will work in an environmentally safe way," he said. "I am not opposed to mining, but the mine is in a wrong location. We, the people who live here, rely on the renewable resource of salmon."

The mine's opponents have already won the support of large businesses in the UK and overseas. Six UK jewellers, including Goldsmiths and Beaverbrooks, have joined eight US retailers, led by Tiffany & Co, which have pledged not to source gold from the proposed mine.

However, Anglo American has said that it will pursue the development only if it can be operated responsibly.

James Wyatt-Tilby, a company spokesman, said: "At the moment this is just an exploration project and there is no mine plan at this stage. We have been very clear that if we cannot build this mine in a safe and responsible way then we will not build it at all."

The protest follows a string of revolts at annual meetings by environmentally aware investors. Last week, BP faced a call from several large investors to review its oil sands activities. A similar shareholder resolution will be voted on at Shell's annual meeting, to be held on 18 May.