Essay: Sulfide Mining - 1/10/07

Let’s look at the pros and cons of the proposal to drill a nickel and copper mine under the Salmon Trout River in northern Marquette County, where many of the residents are either moose or bear.

Kennecott Minerals Company says their mine would create about 120 good-paying jobs, in a region where people are scare and good-paying jobs are scarcer. That’s the upside.

On the downside is that the big dig, which Kennecott calls the Eagle Mine, would only operate for six to eight years, after which the ore would be gone and the jobs would go away.

But that may not be the only problem. Though the mine proposal received tentative approval this week, nobody really knows what the long-term environmental effect would be.

The problem is not the removing of nickel and copper from the rocks. It is the kind of rocks they are in -- sulfide rocks.

When sulfide rocks are exposed to air, the reaction generates sulfuric acid, and dissolved heavy metals that could contaminate ground water. This mine is to be drilled underneath the headwaters of a river which is home to the last known naturally reproducing strain of coaster brook trout. The company says it has a foolproof system for removing the rock safely and taking it to Ontario for processing.

But if there is a major malfunction, well -- there go the trout.  Nor would the environmental repercussions of turning portions of a fresh stream into sulfuric acid stop there.

I am not saying this is a likely outcome. But I can say that a number of people who voted for the governor feel betrayed.

Some of them expressed shock that an administration that talks about the new economy seems to have sold out to one of the worst forms of the economy -- mineral exploitation.

A spokesman for the League of Conservation Voters said, “if this is the next Michigan of which the governor preaches, it looks an awful lot like the old Michigan -- a handful of temporary jobs from a 19th Century industry at the expense of natural resources.”

Andy Buchsbaum of the National Wildllife Federation was appalled that the state is “unwilling to set the bar at a level which protects water resources and the tourism-related jobs in the UP.”

Marvin Roberson, who lives in the UP and works for the Sierra Club, added “people here aren’t opposed to mining. What they are opposed to is reckless exploitation of the land’s most sensitive areas for a few dozen temporary jobs.”

He added, “ten years from now the jobs will be gone and the profits will be in London, headquarters to Kennecott’s parent company. We’ll be left with whatever legacy remains.”

Upper Peninsula voters overwhelmingly supported Jennifer Granholm last year. I wonder what they now will have to say.                                    

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Comments

[Andy McFarlane]

Well done.

There's a great site on this whole issue called Save the Wild UP. A couple of interesting facts are that the river the mine would be on is the last spawning place of the coaster brook trout and also that there are sulfide mines from the ROMAN EMPIRE that are still kicking out toxic waste.

This is a very, very, very bad idea.

[Andy McFarlane]

That address is:
http://www.savethewildup.org/