Grow Detroit
by Dave Nelson
Posted January 11, 2007 @ 9:57 pm
Right now, it seems that the only people in favor of opening the Eagle Nickel Mine north of Marquette are Kennecott ‘ the company that owns the mine ‘ and the state regulators who gave the project a tentative greenlight on Tuesday:
‘This type of mining is a return to the boom-and-bust resource extraction, which caused so much damage to the U.P. in the 1800s,’ Roberson [a long-time U.P. resident and Sierra Club member] said.
Although it is true that the mine will create 120 good jobs, it is also true that those jobs will be gone in less than a decade. Furthermore, since the minerals to be mined are embedded in sulfide rocks, there is a very real risk that exposing those rocks will lead to sulfuric acid and heavy metals contaminating the home of the last naturally reproducing strain of coaster brook trout.
We need the jobs, but let’s take a pass on this one, Michigan.
Story appeared in the Grow Detroit.
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I recall reading that the mine in Wisc. had little impact on the local economy. I believe it was located in Barron county. Barrow County was one of the poorest counties in the state before the mine and was and is still has the poorest economy in the state. So the mine had little positive economic impact.