Lake Superior Mining News

Sticker distributed before meeting by Rio Tinto's Senior Advisor for Government and Community Relations, Chantae Lessard

West Ishpeming, Michigan - Last week Rio Tinto’s head spokesperson for the proposed Eagle Mine, Deb Muchmore, informed AP that she is the new spokeswoman for a “citizen” campaign:  Citizens to Protect Michigan Jobs.  Today’s public meeting regarding Rio Tinto’s proposed haul road, for the mine, featured public comment from a number of current and potential Rio Tinto employees, many sporting pro-road stickers passed out by Chantae Lessard, Senior Advisor for Government and Community Relations for Rio Tinto.

The organizing effort paid off for the company with a large turnout in support of the project and, as is the case at any meeting concerning the proposed mine, jobs were a main talking point among Rio Tinto supporters with high unemployment, locally and statewide, cited as an incentive to approve the road plan.  Details of perceived employment benefits were not outlined.

While advertised as a “multi-use” road that would benefit the logging, gravel and tourism industries, and only incidentally the mining industry, the road, as designed, goes from the proposed Eagle Mine to the proposed milling facility, in Humboldt, the project will not get off the ground if Rio Tinto can’t use it as part of its mining operations and the company is paying the entire $50 million cost to build the new road.

On September 29, Rio Tinto’s chief operating officer for the haul road project, Ken Wooley, insisted that the road was not specifically for the proposed Eagle Mine:  “The road is not tied to the mine. This is truly a multi-use road.”

At today’s meeting, Mark Holmes, a concerned citizen, said , “As of right now it [the road] has nothing to do with the mine – although in the future it might have.”

However, the Marquette County Road Commission was not sure if the road would move forward regardless of whether the Eagle Mine would go in or not.  Darryll Sundberg asked Rio Tinto’s lobbyist and community relations manager, Matt Johnson, “is this road going to be built whether or not the mine goes through?”

Johnson said that “depending on whether or not the mine goes in” Rio Tinto would have to consult with other partners in the project to decide whether or not the road should move forward.

Adrian Baker, from Big Bay, told the commission that while the Pledge of Allegiance was spoken at the beginning of the meeting,  “this country was not founded on catering to British business interests.”  Baker showed the audience that Marquette County will actually lose tax money with Rio Tinto’s plan to build a new road, rather than use existing roadways, to much laughter from the audience.

One man, claiming to represent “the tourism industry” said that Lindberg & Sons, the contractor planned to build Rio Tinto’s road, has “been building state and federal highways for years.  I can’t imagine that they couldn’t build a quality road that would meet the county road commission’s specifications.”

According to an expose by the New York Times, Lindberg & Sons is one of few known violators of the federal Clean Water Act in Marquette County.

Safety concerns weren’t addressed at the meeting.  According to a confusing statement on Rio Tinto’s website, the company believes that using existing roadways would be safer for the public than building a new road:

“Ore-carrying trucks, familiar to area residents, would likely follow the AAA and County Road 510 to County Road 550 to area rail connections, which would then transport the ore to existing offsite processing facilities. Use of existing truck routes will help ensure public safety and minimize burden on area roads.”

Jackie Koski, Humboldt Township trustee assured the commission that the township was in full support of Rio Tinto’s project, while Deb Pellow and Bob Struck indicated that the Marquette County Board was also in full support of the project.

Michigamme Township supervisor, John Olson, expressed his township’s support of the project.  A visibly agitated Olson said that it is “ironic” that mine opponents drove to the meeting in metal cars and noted that he saw “two people” talking on cell phones outside of the meeting hall.

“How do they get here if they don’t use mining projects to get here,” said Olson.

According to Rio Tinto’s John Meier, the company plans to fill in wetlands to construct the road over the Yellow Dog River, Mulligan Creek, Wildcat Canyon Creek, the Dead River, Voelkers Creek, Koops Creek, Second Creek and the Middle Branch of the Escanaba River.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 20th, 2009 at 1:57 am and is filed under Eagle Mine, public land. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.