In a recent statement, local politicians Sen. Mike Prusi, D-Ishpeming, Sen. Jason Allen, R-Traverse City, Rep. Mike Lahti D-Hancock, Rep. Steve Lindberg, D-Marquette, and Rep. Judy Nerat, D-Wallace, accused sponsors of a proposed 2010 ballot measure on mining of talking about uranium mining in order to scare people and destroy the mining industry.
This irresponsible statement tells us more about politicians than the group, Save Our Water, and the ballot initiative. Read the rest of this entry »
Westwood High School, Ishpeming, Michigan – Perhaps reflective of a general lack of responsiveness at the state level on the metallic sulfide mining controversy in Michigan, few attended a hearing on Rio Tinto’s proposed Humboldt Township milling facility, located in western Marquette County. As with a previous hearing, in February, employment, water quality, worker safety and incompetence at the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and Rio Tinto were primary themes.
Baraga County Mine Inspector, Don Carlson, expressed concern that fugitive dust leaving the proposed mill site could affect worker’s health and the health of their families since he has not seen an adequate plan to both capture and dispose of the fine material. Carlson also highlighted Michigan’s poor economy – Baraga County has one of the nation’s highest unemployment rates - and said that any mining jobs need to be performed by union workers, citing the closed White Pine Mine as a good example of how workers could be treated.
“When this company comes to the area are the area people going to be hired or are the companies going to bring the people from other areas,” questioned Carlson. “We have an influx in Michigan of no jobs, people being laid off every day, all these types of things and these workers aren’t being able to go and get a job, a union job, with these companies.”
Chris Mofatt, a Marquette County prison worker and lifelong Upper Peninsula resident said, “I don’t oppose mining, I don’t oppose jobs, but I do oppose liars and I think that Rio Tinto and the DEQ are not credible.”
“Rio Tinto’s track record is poor,” said Mofatt. “They want to come in here and do the same thing in the UP they’ve done in other countries. I oppose that. Michigan deserves better than that and we’re not getting it right now. Our corporate government wants to run an eighteenth century industry down the throat of twenty-first century enfranchised Americans. . . we deserve better and so does everybody in the world because we have twenty percent of the fresh water.”
In a statement this week, Sen. Mike Prusi (D-Ishpeming), Sen. Jason Allen (R-Traverse City), Rep. Mike Lahti (D-Hancock), Rep. Steve Lindberg (D-Marquette) and Rep. Judy Nerat (D-Wallace) accused sponsors of a proposed 2010 ballot measure on mining of talking about uranium mining in order to scare people and destroy the mining industry.
“No ‘uranium mining’ activity has ever existed,” the lawmakers stated, “nor has any uranium ore been discovered, in our state.”
However, according to a July 2009 financial report from Bitterroot Resources Ltd., a 17-hole uranium exploration drilling program concluded last December “identified several areas which warrant additional exploration.” The company said it spent $717,403 on Michigan uranium exploration in the first nine months of 2009. Read the rest of this entry »
Upper Peninsula politicans have issued a statement opposing a ballot proposal to somewhat strengthen Michigan law regulating metallic sulfide mining and impose restrictions on uranium mining.
Michigan Senator Mike Prusi was one of five politicians to issue a statement attacking a proposed mining ballot; Photo courtesy State of Michigan
State senators Mike Prusi and Jason Allen, as well as state representatives Michael Lahti, Steven Lindberg and Judy Nerat issued the statement claiming the proposal attacks the Upper Peninsula’s (U.P.) economic interests.
Dishonestly, the politicans claim that the ballot proposal would “BAN any future mining.” The ballot proposal affects only “Part 632″ Michigan mining law, which regulates only nonferrous metal mining.
Gail Griffith – Retired Professor of Chemistry, Northern Michigan University, Marquette, Michigan
In a recent letter to the Mining Journal titled “No U.P. Uranium”, there is a statement: “There is no uranium ore anywhere in the state of Michigan.” The important word here is “ore”, which is defined as a naturally occurring material that can be profitably mined. This does not mean that there is no uranium in the state of Michigan. It means that no one has yet found of a profitable ore body.
Steven Chester, Michigan DEQ Director; Photo courtesy State of Michigan; Oddly enough, Chester makes the final decision on whether or not his own agency followed the law in approving Kennecott-Rio Tinto's Eagle Mine application
The article, on a planned ballot initiative to somewhat strengthen Michigan’s weak metallic sulfide mining laws, quotes Deb Muchmore, “a spokeswoman for Citizens to Protect Michigan Jobs.”
The article makes no mention that Muchmore has been Rio Tinto’s lead public relations spokesperson for years as they attempt to open the Eagle Mine in Marquette County. Read the rest of this entry »
Kennecott’s spokeswoman for the proposed Eagle Mine, in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan is Deb Muchmore. While retaining that post, Muchmore is now, curiously, spokeswoman for Citizens to Protect Michigan Jobs, a “developing opposition group that is expected to soon include mining interests.” It is unclear at this time if Muchmore is being paid by Kennecott to spearhead the company’s front group.
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