To celebrate Michigan’s vast and precious water resources, Governor Granholm has declared June 6 – June 14 as Water Week 2009.
Let the Governor know how you feel about protecting our fresh water resources from the threat of sulfide mining in the Upper Peninsula. Click here for the full announcement and contact information
Rio Tinto Group has scrapped a planned $19.5 billion investment by Aluminum Corp. of China, or Chinalco, and will instead seek to raise $21 billion from a share sale and by selling iron ore assets to BHP Billiton Ltd.
The world’s No. 3 miner announced the new deal Friday, after the Chinese-state owned steelmaker rejected amendments to its initial agreement, leading to a breakdown in talks.
Click here to read the entire article
The annual Kirtland’s Warbler singing male survey of the US Fish & Wildlife Service will be conducted June 6th through June 15th for the entire Upper Peninsula.
Interested volunteers for the Yellow Dog Plains survey can contact Nancy Moran by calling the Yellow Dog Watershed Preserve at 906-345-9223. Surveyors will meet daily at 7:00 am at the intersection of Co Rd 510 and the AAA Road. Maps of the survey area and instructions will be provided. (Water, bug spray, and a compass/GPS are recommended supplies)
The survey is conducted by driving or hiking this large area, listening for birds and investigating singing warblers.
If you are interested in participating in the survey of other areas of the UP, contact Christie Deloria at USFW, 906-226-1240.
Adult Description of the Kirtland’s Warbler
* Small songbird; large warbler.
* Bluish gray face and back.
* Yellow throat, chest, and belly.
* Black stripes down sides.
* White crescents above and below eyes.
* Constantly pumps its tail.
* Two white wingbars.
Immature Description
Similar to adult female, but duller, and with black spotting across chest.
A rare bird of the Michigan jack pine forests, the Kirtland’s Warbler is dependant upon fire to provide the small trees and open areas that meet its rigid habitat requirements for nesting.
Save the Wild U.P. Celebrates 5 years
Group plans summer of fundraising
By CHRISTOPHER DIEM Journal Staff Writer
POSTED: May 14, 2009
MARQUETTE -Members of the environmental group Save the Wild UP are celebrating the organization’s fifth anniversary by enjoying that which they strive to protect – the Upper Peninsula wilderness.
Members and supporters of Save the Wild UP -along with partner organizations Yellow Dog Watershed Preserve and Freshwater Future -are putting on a summerlong fundraising event called Great Lakes Walk, Paddle and Roll.
The event kicks off on June 6 with a 5-mile paddle around Lake Independence, continues on July 12 with an orienteering event in Big Bay and a biking event in August in Marquette.
“It’s a really positive way to get people out and enjoying the out-of-doors,” said Kristi Mills, director of Save the Wild UP.
She said participants can either solicit pledges by setting up a Web site at www.firstgiving.com/freshwaterfuture or donate directly to the organizations. All proceeds will support environmental outreach and educational activities around the Great Lakes region.
Babette Welch, board president and co-founder of Save the Wild U.P., said she and Dick Huey of Marquette started the organization to protect the open land and access to water, hunting, fishing, biking and hiking widely available in the U.P.
“We saw that that was becoming at risk … because many of the large tracts of land were coming up for sale and being sold. We were also concerned when we saw this proposed proliferation of mines,” Welch said.
The organization is strongly opposed to Kennecott’s proposed Eagle Mine on the Yellow Dog Plains. In February, Kennecott’s parent company, Rio Tinto, deferred the mine project until market conditions improve.
Welch said members of the organization will continue to oppose the mine project but will also begin new efforts to preserve the water and land in the area, encourage activity in the outdoors and try to promote economic development while protecting the environment.
“Everyone recognizes water is going to be one of the next real in-demand resources on the planet, and preserving the quality of the water in the Great Lakes is critical,” Welch said.
Save the Wild U.P. staff compiled data from Michigan courthouses and environmental protection advocacy Web sites in assembling a Lake Superior-area map showing the locations of proposed metallic sulfide mining sites and proposed metallic sulfide/uranium exploration and mining sites.
“These are all near watersheds too, so that’s a big concern,” Mills said about the exploration sites.
Mills said there is uranium mining exploration going on near the Ottawa National Forest.
“That’s some scary stuff to a lot of people who know a little bit about the dangers of radioactive materials and the handling of those,” she said.
Welch said the organization also wants to educate the public about surface-owners’ rights.
“The rights of surface owners have been divorced from the mineral rights and right now mineral rights trump surface owners,” she said, adding people’s homes and camps could be affected. “If mining companies want to develop the mineral rights underneath them, mining companies can come in and build a road, put a building, put a vent shaft, whatever they need to access those minerals.”
Members of Save the Wild U.P. support only non-violent opposition to Kennecott’s and other proposed mining activities. In a recent news release, the organization said it will not condone or tolerate violence and will take legal action if the organization or its members are targets of violence.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced a 12-month finding on a petition to list the coaster brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) as endangered under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act). The petition also asked that critical habitat be designated for the species. From the USFWS: “After review of all available scientific and commercial information, we find that the coaster brook trout is not a listable entity under the Act, and therefore, listing is not warranted. We ask the public to continue to submit to us any new information that becomes available concerning the taxonomy, biology, ecology, and status of coaster brook trout and to support cooperative conservation of coaster brook trout within its historical range in the Great Lakes.”
For further media coverage:
http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/120559/
In April (2009) Lutheran pastor Jon Magnuson, from Marquette, Michigan, and Gabriel Caplett, of Dukes Farm in Skandia, Michigan, attended the Rio Tinto Annual General Meeting to represent citizens from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula who are opposed to a metallic sulfide mine on the Yellow Dog Plains. One document they delivered to the Rio Tinto Board, was a letter from the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community. Recently, The Business and Human Rights Resource Center obtained a response to KBIC’s letter from Rio Tinto. You can access it by clicking here
According to one paragraph of the letter, “Rio Tinto has earned significant community support for the Eagle mine project over the last five years. Notably, this support has been demonstrated by townships near the mine, as well as other organisations, passing resolutions welcoming Kennecott Eagle Minerals Company, their families and contractors to their communities to live and work. A coalition of six counties has enacted
support resolutions, written letters of support and has testified at public hearings in support of the project.”
Apparently Rio Tinto thinks the majority of people in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula support the Eagle Project. And, it seems our township and county officials are speaking for themselves and not for the citizens they represent. We encourage you to continue to contact your representatives, attend township and county meetings, and let your representatives know that if they want your vote, they need to represent the citizens of the UP and not their own self interests. We must speak up louder before it is too late.
 Click Image for Full Report (.pdf) |
Please contact your local, state, and federal representatives regaurding this new information which has come to light, and ask the the question, “Is the Eagle Project Idiocy or Outright Fraud.
Chuck Glossenger’s letter to the editor of the Mining Journal on mineral exploration in the Ottawa Forest.
To the editor:
The Ottawa National Forest in Ironwood is accepting comments during the public input process on whether to grant Kennecott three permits to do exploratory drilling on federal land.
One of their permit requests is the Bates parcel, a 395 acre site right on the shore of Perch Lake. The immediate question is, do we want a sulfide mine on the shores of an inland lake? What about one of the Great Lakes?
Kennecott already has the controversial Eagle Project nickel mine beneath the headwaters of the Salmon Trout River, and now they want our lakes?
Trans Superior, Inc. wants to drill near the Sturgeon River Gorge Wilderness, next to Pricket Lake and the Sturgeon River. Do you want a sulfide mine in this area?
My concern is that Kennecott will want to do sub-aqueous tailings disposal at these inland lakes, like they want to do at the Humboldt Mill facility. This is exactly what Coeur Alaska Inc. wants to do at their proposed Kensington Gold Mine in the Tongass National Forest at Lower Slate Lake.
They will kill off the fish and aquatic life and then replant fish when the mine life is over. This case has now been submitted for a ruling by the United States Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, the United States Environmental Protection Agency has signaled it is going to crack down on mountain top removal coal mining. Mountain streams are being used for deposit of overburden and entire valleys are being filled. So far, over 500 mountains in Appalachia have been decapitated with dangerous heavy metals being placed in aquifers.
The problem is that mining is the largest producer of solid waste in the world!
For example, the Kennecott Eagle Project ore body is 3.68 percent nickel, 3.06 percent copper and gold, palladium and platinum at one-tenth of an ounce per ton. This means that 92 percent of the mining is WASTE – such as arsenic, boron, mercury and other carcinogens.
Due to lax interpretation of the Clean Water Act during the Bush era, the subject of mining waste and its toxic legacy was ignored. Now President Obama wants science to trump politics at the EPA. I urge all to call the Ottawa National Forest at 906-932-1330 and urge them to halt their prospecting permit process until the Supreme Court and EPA decide their cases.
Chuck Glossenger
Big Bay
DEQ recently received public comment on Kennecott’s proposed Humbolt Processing Mill.
FOR MINING PERMIT, KENNECOTT EAGLE MINERALS
PROPOSED HUMBOLDT MILL PROJECT
Michigan Department of Environmental Quality
April 15, 2009
Proposed Decision
The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) is deferring the proposed decision on the application for a Mining Permit submitted by Kennecott Eagle Minerals Company (KEMC) for the Humboldt Mill Project in Humboldt Township, Marquette County. The application was submitted under the provisions of Part 632, Nonferrous Metallic Mineral Mining, of the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act, 1994 PA 451, as amended (NREPA). KEMC also submitted applications under the NREPA for a Michigan Air Use Permit – Permit to Install under Part 55; a National Pollution Discharge Elimination System Permit under Part 31; and an Inland Lakes and Steams Permit under Part 301.
Part 632 requires the MDEQ to make a proposed decision by April 15, 2009. However, KEMC waived the deadline for the proposed decision to allow for processing all MDEQ permits related to the project in a coordinated fashion. Section 63205(15) of Part 632 provides that the applicant may waive certain timelines to facilitate the coordination. It is anticipated the MDEQ will make a proposed decision on the application for a Mining Permit by June 17, 2009. In addition, at that time the MDEQ will establish a time and place for a consolidated public hearing on the proposed decision for the Part 632 application and draft decisions on the applications for the other MDEQ permit applications noted above. Notice of the public hearing will be posted on the MDEQ web site.
Application Review Process
The MDEQ received the KEMC application for a Mining Permit on December 26, 2008. Prior to receiving the application, the MDEQ had formed a Mining Application Review Team (the “Mining Team”) to review the application and public comments. The review team consisted of technical experts from MDEQ, MDNR, and one outside contractor.
The MDEQ determined the application was administratively complete (i.e., it contained all of the required documents and information) on January 9, 2009. The MDEQ held a public meeting on the application on February 18, 2009 and accepted public comments for 28 days after the meeting.
The Mining Team conducted an initial review of the application and identified areas that needed clarification or additional information. MDEQ sent KEMC a letter on February 25, 2009 listing areas where supplemental information and data are needed to complete a thorough, accurate, and comprehensive review of the application. Part 632 provides for the submission of additional information and data to supplement and clarify information supporting the application.
All information submitted to date by KEMC relating to the Part 632 application has been posted on the MDEQ internet site. Paper copies of the information were made available for review at the Peter White Library in Marquette, the Humboldt Township Hall, and MDEQ offices in Gwinn and Lansing. As additional information is submitted by KEMC it will be made available at all of the locations listed above.
Public Comments and DEQ Response available at the following link:
http://www.michigan.gov/documents/deq/Response-Public-Comments-2009-04-15_275038_7.pdf
UP Citizens Return to London to Address Rio Tinto About Eagle Mine
For pictures and more information visit: http://riotintoagm2009.wordpress.com/
London UK—A beleaguered Rio Tinto board defended itself from criticisms coming from a number of shareholders at the company’s annual general meeting (AGM) Wednesday (April 15th, 2009), in London, England. High on shareholder’s minds was the proposed $19.5 billion deal to sell access to a number of key company assets, including Kennecott, to the Chinese government-owned Chinalco as part of what many speakers described as offensive to existing shareholders and a direct result of poor investment and management decisions made by the company over the last several years.
At the meeting, Lutheran pastor, Jon Magnuson, from Marquette, Michigan, presented a document signed by one hundred faith leaders of ten faith traditions in Marquette, Baraga and Keweenaw counties. Magnuson said that the document was part of a petition that collected roughly ten thousand citizen’s names in opposition to Rio Tinto’s Eagle Project nickel and copper mine, located on the Yellow Dog Plains, in Marquette County.
“Many of our parishioners and members of our faith communities are . . . involved in the mining industry,” said Magnuson. “But on this particular project we have taken a very strong position – in this place, at this time, for these specific reasons. And one is the massive environmental damage that is threatened to the Great Lakes and the second and most prominent concern is that, what we perceive and experience is a cavalier dismissal of the claims of one of the major Indian tribes in Michigan, the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community.”
In response, company CEO Tom Albanese said that Rio Tinto is “not unmindful of the questions and the controversy” and claimed that Rio Tinto Copper CEO Bret Clayton “visited the site and met with a number of the stakeholders as a result of requests of some of the questions that came up in last year’s AGM.”
While Clayton did visit with a number of parties sympathetic to the mine’s development, including the local Chamber of Commerce and various local politicians, he made no attempt to meet with Michigan citizens and tribal representatives while in the area.
Gabriel Caplett, from Skandia, Michigan, spoke to a lack of competence and care in designing the Eagle Project mine.
“I’m just wondering if other shareholders are curious as to why this project hasn’t been brought on line yet and I think there’s a very simple reason for that and it lies within the mine design itself,” said Caplett. “The mine as designed could be charged with fraud under Michigan’s metallic mining law. The mine, as designed, would collapse – the crown pillar holding up the mine ceiling would collapse. Many technical experts have agreed on that.”
Caplett explained that Dr. David Sainsbury, a rock mechanics expert hired by the State of Michigan to review the mine’s mine structure inquired with Rio Tinto if anyone at the company had rock mechanic’s expertise. “He didn’t receive a response,” said Caplett. Sainsbury, who was transferred to work overseas after continually reporting to the State that the company’s conclusions regarding the crown pillar’s stability were “not defensible,” told a mine engineering colleague that the Eagle application, produced by Golder & Associates and Foth & VanDyke, was equivalent to “high school level” work.
Caplett asked the Rio Tinto board if, “after deferring the Eagle Project mine are you willing to waste any more shareholder money on this project or will you ultimately abandon it instead of pursuing this project.”
Two shareholders addressed concerns regarding Rio Tinto’s continued involvement in the controversial Grasberg Mine, in West Papua. According to shareholder Andrew Hickman, last year the government of Norway divested roughly $800 million in shares, calling the company’s record in West Papua “grossly unethical”. Hickman said that mine officials have acknowledged to paying the Indonesian military “less than” $1.6 million to guard the facility and repress local opposition to the mine.
Other shareholders addressed the recently acknowledged leakage of roughly one-hundred thousand liters of contaminated tailings water at Rio Tinto’s Ranger uranium mine, in Australia; as well as concerns regarding the company’s joint venture arrangement with Muriel Mining Co. in Columbia that has forced the relocation of an indigenous community and occupied a sacred mountain.
The Reverend Magnuson and Caplett have also met with representatives at the Church of England’s Pension Board and Ethical Investment Advisory Group and will be meeting with the United Kingdom’s Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Review on Friday.
For more information, or to conduct an interview, please contact Teresa Bertossi at teresa@savethewildup.org