Buried treasure
UP stands to make millions off copper and nickel, but new mine could pollute pristine wilderness
October 14, 2007
MARQUETTE — Every time the price of copper or nickel jumps, Alexis Raney cringes.
Each new high means the companies prospecting for metals across the wilds of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, near the shores of Lake Superior, have a new reason to explore.
Raney works with Save the Wild UP, one of a half-dozen environmental groups trying to stop a proposed nickel and copper mine near Big Bay.
It would be the first new mine in Michigan in decades and could be the harbinger of a fresh mining boom that could bring hundreds of jobs to this region of pristine rivers, blue lakes, huckleberry fields, forests and high unemployment.
The proposed Kennecott Eagle mine would be dug directly beneath the shimmering Salmon Trout River, home to the rare coaster brook trout, and its tunnel would be blasted below Eagle Rock, considered sacred by the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community.
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