Kennecott and Feral Pigs

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DETROIT (AP) – With thousands of feral pigs threatening farms and native species, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment has declared the bristly swine an invasive species and given the Legislature until July 8 to come up with regulations on breeding and confining the tusked animals or ownership of them will be banned.  Mining Journal, Sunday, February 6, 2011 Read More...http://www.miningjournal.net/page/content.detail/id/558515/State-looks-for-feral-pig-solutions.html?nav=5006

Similarly, Kennecott/Rio Tinto:

  • is from a foreign country
  • destroy everything in their path
  • carry and spread disease (toxins, acid mine drainage, social problems)
  • is an ‘invasive species’
  • a nasty looking animal

Most seriously, Kennecott/Rio Tinto is building a nickel mine in Big Bay, MI without having a sound transportation plan to move their ore. This map is similar to a path  a pig would take, rooting around aimlessly until finding the ‘cheapest’ and most productive passage.

The following article attempts to  ‘soften  the bristly blow’  from Kennecott’s decision to haul though the city of Marquette – thanks John Pepin for writing…Sunday, February 6, 2011

MARQUETTE – Over the past several years, the Kennecott Eagle Minerals Co. considered more than a half dozen transportation routes, including rail options, before settling recently on a trucking route through the city of Marquette.

“We spent a significant amount of time looking at alternatives to meet our business purpose,” said Matt Johnson, Kennecott manager of external affairs.

The routes were evaluated using criteria including length, land ownership, environmental features and impacts, community impacts, ability to gain permits, construction costs and project purpose.

Kennecott officials detailed pros and cons for each of the routes considered.

The option Kennecott is now pursuing using Marquette County roads AAA, 510 and 550 through Marquette is cost-effective, was a route stipulated by the company in 2006 and uses existing public roads currently used by industrial traffic, with Kennecott willing to make major structural, environmental and safety improvements. The wetlands impact of this route would be 1 acre.

But the city of Marquette objects to hauling through the city and there is a petition with 900 signatures from the community asking Kennecott to develop an alternate route. The trip length is 66 miles one way.

The 22-mile Woodland Road, which was supported by local units of government and the county road commission, would improve transportation corridors in Marquette County and remove industrial traffic from County Road 550 and the city of Marquette, Kennecott officials have said.

But federal regulatory and mine opponent objections remain. The wetlands impact was 27 acres.

County Road 595 was proposed in the same corridor as the Woodland Road and had many of the same benefits in addition to being more cost-effective than many of the alternatives. Five to eight miles would need to be built, the rest improved. The wetlands impact was 22 acres.

Federal permitting timelines for County Road 595 were deemed unlikely to meet the projected start of mine production in late 2013.

An option upgrading the Peshekee Grade was determined to be “not prudent due to the length and dramatic private property, wetland and stream impact.”

A County Road 510 to Red Road alternative had reduced wetland impacts compared to the Woodland Road, but was determined to be not prudent or feasible because of a significant number of miles needing reconstruction to Class A standard and not being cost-effective compared to the Woodland Road. Detailed engineering of this alternative was conducted last summer. The wetlands impact was 13 acres.

Using County Road 510 would remove industrial traffic from County Road 550 and the city of Marquette, but did not meet the project purpose due to length, cost, required wetland improvements and geographic location adjacent to another paved industrial route (County Road 550). This option was more costly than County Road 595 or the Woodland Road and there would be residential impact on the southern end of the route.

“The entire road would need to be reconstructed, moved in some places,” Johnson said.

Another route was considered along the Mulligan Plains Truck Trail as a limited location for a railroad to traverse grade changes between the mine and U.S. 41. Johnson said industry standard for railroad grades is no more than 2 percent. Kennecott officials said this would rule out a direct north-south rail route from the mine to the mill. Any rail route was deemed cost prohibitive, largely because of length and associated environmental improvements, which would be needed. The wetlands impact of the Mulligan route was 15 acres.

The Mulligan Plains route has a conservation easement on the north end at the Yellow Dog River. To avoid the easement, a gorge poses a significant obstacle. A road would still be needed to access the mine for employees, deliveries and other uses.

A Dishno Road alternative would provide better access for timber, mining and aggregate haulers than county roads 550 and 510; but there are a significant number of private land owners, requires rebuilding the entire route and would present a lengthy trip cycle for haulers.

John Pepin can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 206. His e-mail address is jpepin@miningjournal.net.

Back by Popular Demand: Lois Gibbs

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A viewing and discussion of Lois Gibbs’ riveting presentation given last October at NMU will take place at the

Federated  Women’s Clubhouse beginning at 7:00 pm, Tuesday, February 15th

Gibbs, Executive Director of the Center for Health, Environment and Justice (CHEJ) together with Peter Sessa, Boston Attorney and Activist and CHEJ Board Member, will be connected via phone to the event and look forward to participating in the discussion.  For more information call 228-4444.

Homemade pies will be available for sampling and purchasing.

If you would like to donate or purchase a pie, call 228-4444.

Print and distribute this fine poster Encore-Lois 7 sponsors

Visit Center for Health, Environment and Justice website,   www.chej.org

Opinion: Kennecott Trucking

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Peshekee Road: A cautionary tale gives perspective

January 23, 2011 by Jon Saari http://www.miningjournal.net/page/content.detail/id/558055/Another-opinion.html?nav=5003

In 1890-1892 the Iron Range and Huron Bay Railroad built a mine hauling railroad along what is now called the Peshekee Grade/County Road 607. As recounted in an enterprising history by Robert D. Dobson, this venture was designed to link the Champion Mine with an ore dock on Huron Bay, a distance of about 40 miles.

Fifteen hundred workers laid the tracks and blasted cuts through the rocks, but the project failed miserably. Engineers had underestimated the steepness of the slopes descending to Lake Superior, and steam locomotives were unable to negotiate the climb or the descent. It became the Railroad to Nowhere.

The chief engineer fled to Mexico, the workers went unpaid, the ore dock was dismantled and the rolling stock sold. But the failed railroad eventually became the main route of a gravel road that facilitated modest development in the western part of the Michigamme Highlands: camper associations, second homes and logging.

Most of the land stayed wild and undeveloped. Parts of it became protected wilderness areas: Craig Lake State Park and the federal McCormick Tract. As late as the 1990s, it was possible to buy whole sections of land with undeveloped lakes on them – a rarity anywhere in the lower 48.

Kennecott’s Eagle Mine lies about 12 miles east of the Peshekee Grade. Some area residents imagine that a new, little settlement may grow up around it, like the mining locations of the past. The mine and a new proposed North-South road, so the storyline went, would open up the back country to development: a few stores, a bar, maybe a resort or motel.

But I think this is an illusion. This alternative mine haul road, officially cancelled by Kennecott this week, would likely have barely outlasted the mine, which has a projected life of 6-8 years and no guarantees beyond that.

A better image of that haul road’s likely future would be today’s Peshekee Grade: created by an inflated vision of usefulness, it has become a step-child of the Road Commission, abandoned to the bruising elements of wintertime ice and snow, freeze and melt. The Kennecott Highway would have become an expensive Road to Nowhere.

This region stayed undeveloped because the land is harsh and inhospitable to inattentive humans, including engineers, investors and recreators. Snowmobilers better be thickly clothed and fully fueled when they head out across it, and even then they are running risks.

I met a man in L’Anse who was once snowmobiling along the headwaters of the Peshekee when his machine broke through the surface; he had unknowingly been sledding on top of the tag alders, on six feet of compacted snow!

At a public hearing on the North-South Highway, a Township Supervisor once remarked that the extensive McCormick wilderness should be “enough playground” for us silent-sport environmentalists. He misses the point. It’s not primarily about recreation or scenic beauty, but prizing intact ecosystems, appreciating their contributions for healthy populations of native plants and animals, and not degrading them.

To protect its intact ecosystems, the U.P. cannot be a few islands of wildness. It needs bio-gems as core areas, but the linking corridors and buffer zones are really the key to long term sustainability. These are areas of mixed usage, of working forests and backwoods camp culture and recreational trails. Here we must be particularly careful when we add a road, a trail, a power line, a pit or a mine.

The small changes do add up, inexorably. Will the “next generation” of natural resource users, in particular non-ferrous mining and biomass energy projects, get it right? Don’t expect Rio Tinto or even the DNR/DEQ to speak up for the best and highest uses of the land. Be part of the watchdog movement over industry and government that offers a hope that this place we call home will remain special for a long time.

Editor’s note: Jon Saari is a retired Northern Michigan University professor and member of the Upper Peninsula Environmental Coalition.

From Teresa Bertossi:  http://www.miningjournal.net/page/content.detail/id/558089/Bad-planning-here.html?nav=5067

And from the Editor of the Mining Journal:      http://www.miningjournal.net/page/content.detail/id/558053/Kennecott-move-to-halt-road-work-is-regrettable.html?nav=5003

Headwaters News:  http://headwatersnews.net/feature/mining-road-plan-must-have-public-priorities-not-rio-tinto-profits-in-mind/

Kennecott changes ore hauling plan

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Kennecott’s permitted transportation route has ALWAYS been on existing roadways. Yes, they were pursuing a more direct route to their newly acquired processing site, (not part of the original permit) but were operating outside of the Mining Law, Part 632. The company wasn’t going to amend the permit unless they had a solid route in the bag. This process is backwards, as mining expert Jack Parker has stated repeatedly.

Kennecott’s plan is to truck tons of acid generating rock over our quaint county roads and through our suburban neighborhoods, profoundly impacting our health, safety and tourism-dependent communities.  According to several regulatory agencies,  the Woodland Road was not a viable solution to their transportation problems.  It is the State of Michigan’s responsibility  to revoke all mining permits and terminate construction of the mine until these problems can be resolved with appropriate public input.

The company was willing to invest $80 million in a doomed haul road, but refused to fund a $1.5 million hydrological study of the water rich Yellow Dog Plains region, or to complete a fully developed environmental impact study on the entire project (including the Humboldt Mill) and on any potential transportation route.

Kennecott’s implementation of Part 632 Mining Law has been an illegal fiasco from the start. They have arrogantly operated outside of the law for both the power lines and the transportation issue while the MIDEQ stands guard, allowing the company to potentially and  immeasurably  impact our local communities.

Save the Wild UP

Public Response to the Decision: http://www.miningjournal.net/page/content.detail/id/557966/More-objections-voiced-to-Kennecott-trucking-plan.html?nav=5006

CR 595 project abandoned

January 18, 2011 – By JOHN PEPIN Journal Staff Writer

ISHPEMING – After investing more than $8 million and nearly five years into developing a north-south haul route from its Eagle Mine, the Kennecott Eagle Minerals Co. has announced it will scuttle that effort and instead put money toward upgrading existing county roads for trucking ore to a processing facility in Humboldt Township.

The decision comes after a December meeting between representatives from the Marquette County Road Commission, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment, Grand Rapids company King and MacGregor, which does environmental engineering for Kennecott, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

At that meeting at the DNRE offices at K.I. Sawyer, federal officials said prior wetlands destruction and other objections raised over a 22-mile road proposed in 2009 by Woodland Road LLC, which included Kennecott, remained in place for a revised project called County Road 595, which the road commission voted to pursue in October.

“We were optimistic that we could successfully develop a solution that would address Kennecott’s needs as well as long-standing community requests that Kennecott develop a route for our trucks, and lessen some traffic in and around the city of Marquette,” said Kennecott Eagle Minerals Acting Project Director Andrew Ware. “Unfortunately, due to environmental obstacles imposed by federal regulators coupled with the uncertain timelines and cost, we must move forward with the originally designated route, one we are committed to making work.”

Kennecott began work on surface facilities for the Eagle Mine in Michigamme Township in April. Construction is on schedule and is continuing through the winter, according to Matt Johnson, Kennecott manager of external affairs. The mine is expected to produce 300 million pounds of nickel, 250 million pounds of copper and trace amounts of other minerals.

“We need to make decisions today that the existing roadways will be ready when the Eagle Mine is in production, which would be in late 2013,” Johnson said.

The Woodland Road -which was to run from Marquette County Road AAA to U.S. 41, roughly one mile east of M-95- was expected to cost roughly $50 million and would have been paid for by Kennecott. The road would have taken two years to build, opening in 2013, with 125 jobs created during construction along with a dozen ongoing maintenance positions.

After that project was shelved last May because of federal objections, Kennecott said it would finance construction of Marquette County Road 595, which was estimated to cost between $50 million and $80 million. That road was slated to be laid out within a corridor eight miles wide. A final route was not determined.

In its original plans for the mine, Kennecott planned to move ore from the mine east across County Road AAA to County Road 510, then south along County Road 550, through the city of Marquette to a railhead west of town.

Environmentalists and other Kennecott opponents objected to that plan and suggested a north-south route be developed. Later, when the Woodland Road and County Road 595 were proposed, opponent concerns were raised over the north-south route being developed in a largely undisturbed area.

Since its original plan was first proposed, Kennecott has decided to use the Humboldt Mill as a processing center. The company will now develop the original trucking route along those existing county roads from the original plan, but in Marquette will use Wright Street to U.S. 41 and then west to Humboldt.

“Any change to the original route would have to be amended (with the state),” Johnson said.

Kennecott explored the possibility of using other roads, including the Peshekee Grade and Marquette County Road 510, but those options didn’t pan out.

“Over the summer and this fall, we put extensive resources into mapping alternative routes,” Johnson said. “Other routes were deemed not prudent or feasible to construct in comparison to the County Road 595 corridor or existing roadways from the original plan.”

Kennecott plans to now begin working to determine what structural, environmental and safety improvements, including bridges and other stream crossings, will be needed along the route. The company plans to implement a development plan over the next several weeks, which will include discussions with residents.

“While we believe the proposed County Road 595 was a better solution, we are prepared to use existing truck routes county roads 510/550 as specified in permit conditions approved for the Eagle Mine,” Ware said. “Kennecott is committed to working with residents and to paying for necessary upgrades and significant safety and structural improvements to the Triple A, county roads 510 and 550, Wright Street, and other transportation infrastructure.”

Kennecott will begin immediately to work with local permitting authorities, residents and others in the community to solicit input on future plans for road improvements.

“We understand there will be questions that we need to answer,” Ware said. “We are prepared to listen, and do what we can to ensure the best possible solution.”

Johnson said the cost for the improvements has not been determined yet. The road commission would likely submit permits for the work, with final approval needed from the DNRE, Johnson said.

In its development of the Woodland Road and County Road 595, Kennecott invested more than $8 million to purchase property to enable development of the roads, as well as funding costs for environmental, engineering, alternatives analyses, and permitting studies.

John Pepin can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 206. His e-mail address is jpepin@miningjournal .net.

Letter to the Editor about Kennecott’s ramrodded power-to-the-mine project:

http://www.miningjournal.net/page/content.detail/id/557800/Mistakes-made.html?nav=5067

Who owns the Oquirrhs, Rio Tinto or Utahns?

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http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/opinion/50953786-82/rio-tinto-public-utah.html.csp#disqus_thread

By Randy Crane

First published Dec 31 2010 01:01AM in the Salt Lake Tribune
Updated Jan 6, 2011 12:57PM

The United States may have gained its independence from England after winning the Revolutionary War, but today Utah finds itself locked in a David and Goliath struggle with a new version of the British Empire — London-based mining colossus Rio Tinto.

Our nation’s 1872 mining law is a legal relic from the pick-and-shovel age, still being used by mining companies, even foreign ones, to lay claim to American public assets at 1872 prices.

With little environmental restraint or public health protection, it still allows miners to virtually steal public land, paying next to nothing to the government, poisoning the land and water and often leaving American taxpayers to clean up the mess.

Rio Tinto/Kennecott has exploited every word of this law while putting on a public facade proclaiming their environmental sensitivity and community loyalties.

Their true loyalties revealed themselves recently when Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon challenged the British Goliath, demanding public health protections before it begins swallowing up the south end of the Oquirrh Mountains. Rio Tinto refused.

The outcome of this fight will permanently shape or destroy the landscape at the heart of Utah more than any other single issue. But for residents of the valley’s west side, this has also become up close and personal.

Most of the canyons on the east side of the Salt Lake Valley are protected, but Rose, Butterfield, and Yellow Fork are the last three canyons on the west side offering any hope of public accessibility because Rio Tinto has closed all others to public access. Now the company has filed mineral claims on those canyons and is threatening to mine all three.

Moreover, Rio Tinto is aggressively pursuing a 1,000-foot expansion of its open-pit Bingham mine to the south, and wants surface rights to add to its mineral rights in Rose Canyon Ranch. Rio Tinto seems determined to go wherever it wants, never mind the aesthetic, environmental and health consequences. The nearby residents feel like a cancer has started spreading throughout their community, and that could be literally and figuratively true.

Rio Tinto plans exploratory drilling in Rose Canyon Ranch at the 2,000-foot to 3,000-foot level. Some 20,000 people in unincorporated Salt Lake County, Herriman, Bluffdale, and Riverton get their water from an aquifer that would be penetrated by the drilling.

If Rio Tinto decides to mine in Rose Canyon, the aquifer could be at serious risk for contamination or depletion by the ensuing underground blasting, tunneling, and water diversion from shaft mining. There already is evidence that existing Kennecott activity is depleting our aquifer.

Furthermore, if the county sells the surface rights, our open-space “jewel” could end up like Butterfield Canyon, plastered with No Trespassing signs, or worse, obliterated by a new mountain of mining waste rock. Even without Rose Canyon, an expansion of the Bingham pit will add millions of tons and hundreds of feet to the south waste-rock piles seen from every corner of the Salt Lake Valley and even by space satellites.

But for every Salt Lake County resident, especially on the west side, this is much more than an issue of destroying natural beauty in our collective backyard. It means more dust pollution contaminated with heavy metals and more diesel emissions, both with extensive health consequences, including higher rates of cancer.

Mayor Corroon has courageously declared that the county will not sell the surface rights to Rio Tinto unless it agrees to a sensible plan for monitoring and mitigating the air and water pollution that will surely accompany any expanded mining activity — hardly an unreasonable position. Several County Council members have echoed their support.

But Rio Tinto refuses to cooperate, which speaks volumes about its commitment to the community versus maximizing profits at London headquarters ($5.3 billion last year).

Old-fashioned British Empire resource colonialism is alive and well in Utah. This modern-day English tyranny is worthy of some tea party righteous indignation. But while most Utah politicians are still hiding in the bushes, Corroon has picked up his musket and fired a “shot heard round the valley” and all the way to London.

The end result of this battle will answer these questions: “Who owns the Oquirrhs?” and “Who owns our air and water, British CEOs or Utah citizens?”

Randy L Crane is a member of a Herriman home owners group opposed to Kennecott’s expansion.

Read more on Kennecott in Utah:

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/opinion/51005673-82/kennecott-plan-utah-power.html.csp

Mine power issue debated

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1-4-11 by John Pepin, Mining Journal Staff Writer

MARQUETTE – Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment officials are refuting claims by Kennecott Eagle Minerals Company opponents that a recent public hearing included testimony from members of the public preferring the mine run on diesel generator power, rather than electricity from lines run to the mine by the Alger Delta Electric Cooperative.

The hearing was held as part of the process of the DNRE determining whether Kennecott’s change to its mining permit, to use electricity instead of electric generators as it had originally planned, constituted a significant change. After the hearing, the agency determined the change was not significant.

In a press release, DNRE officials said comments received focused primarily on the DNRE not requiring Kennecott to include the extension of power from Marquette County Road 550 to the vicinity of the mine site in their amendment application.

Others voiced concerns over the entire permit process for the mine. But according to the DNRE, no objections were received to Kennecott’s plan to use the Alger Delta electrical line versus diesel generators as their primary power source.

Gabriel Caplett of Skandia said he videotaped the meeting and there were several people who testified against the use of electricity. Hal Fitch, chief of the DNRE’s Office of Geological Survey, said he listened to the tape of the meeting and reaffirmed the agency’s position.

“Nobody said we would rather have two generators running 24-7 than electrical cable,” Fitch said. “Nobody objected to the cable in lieu of generators.”

Kennecott officials requested the amendment in November. The DNRE release said the original KEMC mining permit application called for power to the mine to be provided by two diesel generators. The new power source is electric lines run to the mine by the Alger Delta Electric Cooperative, funded by Kennecott, along Marquette County Road AAA.

Jack Parker, a mining engineer from Baltic who has been outspoken against the Kennecott project, said the company’s original permit application sought three generators, not two, as the DNRE suggests.

Fitch said the company’s permit requested three generators, but only two would be used. The third generator would be on the mine site as a backup. Fitch said a back-up generator will remain at the mine, even with electricity being used, in case of power failures.

DNRE officials said their decision followed the state’s nonferrous mining law, which requires Kennecott to request permit amendments for anticipated changes in its mining operation. Amendments must address potential impacts to the mine site and surrounding area from activities within the mining area.

Parker said: “permits must be denied simply because the power line ought not to be there. It should not have been extended from County Road 550 to a point at the site opposite the gatehouse.”

Parker said the DNRE was required to consider the whole operation for power line installation, both the point of departure and the destination. He said the DNRE only dealt with the destination at the mine.

“The presence is illegal. The contractor should be required to take up the cables and lay them again if or when permitted, under Part 632 of the law,” Parker said. “Injunctions may be appropriate.”

Michelle Halley, an attorney with the National Wildlife Federation, said the comparison of electric lines to diesel misses the mark. She agrees with Parker the lines should not have been extended to the mine without review.

“The real issue here is that the company had the lines run from (County Road) 550 to the edge of the site with no environmental assessment, no amendment to the permit – nothing,” Halley said. “So the hearing that discussed the extension of the power lines from the roadside to the fence line was a farce. I know plenty of people objected to the procedural joke this power line made of (mining law) Part 632’s requirements for public involvement.”

DNRE officials said the mining area at the Eagle Project mine lies within the fenced area where the mine surface facilities are being constructed. The mining area does not include the right of way where the electrical cable was run. Also, the electrical cable will serve other KEMC facilities, including a core shed building at the site, that are not subject to the mining permit, Fitch said.

John Pepin can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 206. His e-mail address is jpepin@miningjournal.net.

Opinion: Professors, knowledge and the politics of mining

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December 19, 2010 – Jon Saari, as published in the Mining Journal

University professors occupy an unusual niche in American society. I speak from the experience of having been one for 34 years at Northern Michigan University.

Professionals by virtue of their long and specialized graduate training, professors are considered an educated elite, and looked up to by many.

But disdainful critics see only too-smart experts and intellectuals.

Our democratic noses sniff out patronizing and smug attitudes. Yet we often enjoy demeaning caricatures of our supposed ” betters” as well as our “inferiors.” Along with the greedy fat capitalist and the baby-kissing conniving politician is the figure of the bumbling professor who is hopelessly out of touch with reality.

The truth is professors are interested in much more than the real world. Take the concept of profit and loss. It means the bottom line to a corporate executive, or the keys to electoral victory to a politician.

The university community fairly hums with multiple perspectives on the concept: economists theorize about externalized costs, linguists trace the changing meanings of the word “profit,” historians construct portraits of economic life in different cultures and eras, and philosophers look at the logic and consistency of our use of the terms.

Stop, you say! Just give me a common sense definition. But reality has many faces in the university, and in becoming educated we learn to try them all on, like dancers putting on masks at a ball.

Such reality testing is at the heart of what professors do; we are trained not to be cogs in a machine, but critical thinkers who take very little at face value. But however much Americans praise free-thinking, many of us actually prefer like-thinking.

Conservative parents are horrified that their daughter has a Marxist professor, corporate clients want research that produces results favorable to their interests, and legislators often want to run universities like businesses.

Because of these pressures, special traditions have evolved around universities to protect them as sanctuaries for free inquiry. On principle, parents and legislators are held at arms length from the classroom, and professors (after five-to-seven years probation) are granted career-long tenure that can only be ended for serious misconduct or demonstrated incompetence.

In recent years, the mining controversy in our region has drawn NMU faculty into its vortex. At least five faculty members (three retired, including this writer) have been active opponents of the Eagle Project on the Yellow Dog Plains, while a number of others have seen it as an opportunity for professional research, even collaboration with a new multinational mining corporation.

Such diverse reactions are to be expected in an academic subculture of free thinkers and professional entrepreneurs.

But one recent collaboration between two NMU faculty members and Kennecott Eagle Mineral Company has a number of observers raising their eyebrows.

Tawni Ferrarini (Economics) and Marcelo Siles (International Studies), as independent contractors, have undertaken a study of community attitudes for Kennecott.

The first phase was completed during the summer of 2010, and utilized a SWOT analysis, which stands for an analysis of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats related to new mining in parts of Marquette and Baraga counties. A second phase is being launched.

The main scholarly concern is that Kennecott is a client paying for this research study. It wants the information, and will ultimately use it as part of a strategy for building ties in this community.

To their credit, the researchers and their focus groups turned up perceived weaknesses and threats, even though opponents were excluded in phase one. But other problems remain.

Ferrarini and Siles emphasize that they are not representing NMU in this study, but in fact the credibility of the study rests on their degrees and university affiliation.

It would have been more transparent and convincing if it had been funded by NMU research monies instead of KEMC community outreach funds.

Editor’s note: Jon Saari is a retired Northern Michigan University professor and member of the Upper Peninsula Environmental Coalition.

Also read Thomas Polkinghorne’s letter to the editor concerning the controverial Kennecott haul road:

http://www.miningjournal.net/page/content.detail/id/556865/Changes-are-coming.html?nav=5067

WI: Mining Project Execs Gave Governor-elect Walker $10,000

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Wisconsin Democracy Campaign
Mining industry, law firm contributed nearly $40,000 in two months

December 15, 2010

http://www.wisdc.org/pr121510.php

Madison – Republican Governor-elect Scott Walker accepted $10,000 in campaign contributions from a mining company owner and one of his executives around the time the company reportedly contacted Walker about developing an open-pit iron ore mine, a Wisconsin Democracy Campaign review found.

In addition, mine developer Christopher Cline of Beckley, West Virginia, several executives with his out-of-state mining companies, a law firm he does business with and owners of the northern Wisconsin land where the mine may be located contributed $29,750 to Democratic State Senator Jeff Plale, Republican Representative Mark Honadel, both of South Milwaukee, and Republican legislative candidate Shirl LaBarre of Hayward.

Continue reading →