A high court in Guatemala has ruled against HudBay Minerals, a partner with Aquila Resources on the Back Forty open pit gold-zinc metallic sulfide mine, in Menominee County Read the rest of this entry »
Menominee County Explorer Loses Human Rights Court Case
April 28, 2011
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Uncategorized | Tagged: Aquila, back forty, gold, guatemala, hardrock mining, hudbay, human rights, menominee river, murder, sulfide mining, upper peninsula | 
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Menominee County Group Has New Website
April 22, 2011The Front 40 , a grassroots citizen group in Menominee County working to protect the Menominee River and the Shakey Lakes Savanna from metallic sulfide mining, just revamped their website. Check out their new look at MenomineeRiver.org.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Aquila, gold, hudbay, menominee river, Michigan, mining, zinc | Permalink
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Menominee Prosecutor Asks Michigan Attorney General to Investigate Mineral Claims
January 25, 2011
Letter from Menominee Prosecutor to Michigan Attorney General requesting information on mineral rights claimed by VMS Development
Leave a Comment » | Aquila | Tagged: Aquila, back forty, hudbay, menominee, michigan attorney general, mineral lease, mining, vms development | Permalink
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HudBay Embroiled in Human Rights Lawsuit for Killing a Teacher
January 2, 2011From a link on the Front Forty’s Website. HudBay, the majority owner of the Back Forty zinc-gold mine proposed along the Menominee River, is being sued for killing a citizen in Guatemala who got in the way of their mining plans:
HudBay burns a home to the ground while forcibly evicting citizens in Guatemala; James Rodriguez
- On September 27, 2009, fears of forced violent evictions of several Mayan communities located near the Fenix mining project sparked a series of community protests.
- In the early afternoon of September 27, 2009, Adolfo Ich was with his wife at his house in La Uníon when he heard gunshots being fired from the direction of mine buildings, located not far from his house. Adolfo went to find out what was going on, to warn people to stay back and to see if he could help restore calm. He was not carrying any weapons.
- When Adolfo Ich arrived, private security forces of the mine recognized him as a prominent community leader and appeared to invite him to speak with them about the community protests.
- As Adolfo Ich approached, approximately a dozen armed security forces surrounded him, beat him and hacked at him with a machete, before shooting Adolfo in the head at close range. Adolfo Ich died of his wounds shortly after. Read the rest of this entry »
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PolyMet Caught Lying; Mine Plan Bad As It Gets
March 9, 2010In February, the US Environmental Protection Agency issued a strong condemnation of the environmental review of PolyMet’s proposed NorthMet mine. The project, and its environmental review have been heartily endorsed by state and federal politicians, including US Senator Al Franken and US Representative James Oberstar.
According to EPA statistics, PolyMet’s “draft environmental impact statement,” (DEIS) is incredibly incompetent. Less than 0.4% of all such reviews obtain such a bottom-of-the-barrel rating.
Disturbingly, PolyMet’s amateurish DEIS was conducted by a firm working with Aquila Resources to develop a zinc-gold mine on the Menominee River, in Michigan. Read the rest of this entry »
2 Comments | Law, Aquila, Minnesota, PolyMet | Tagged: Law, Aquila, Minnesota, PolyMet, EPA | Permalink
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Lawmakers Downplay Possibility of U.P. Uranium Mining
November 14, 2009But mining company spent more than $700,000 on U.P. uranium exploration in 2009
By Eartha Jane Melzer, Michigan Messenger
Upper Peninsula lawmakers are railing against a ballot measure to create standards for uranium mining, claiming that no uranium ore has been discovered in Michigan. However, a Canadian uranium mining company says it’s found uranium in the U.P., scientists have warned that its uranium exploration could harm groundwater, and the Western Upper Peninsula Health Department is warning that residential wells in several counties already have elevated levels of the radioactive metal.
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 »
Leave a Comment » | Kennecott-Rio Tinto, Law, Michigan, uranium | Tagged: Aquila, Kennecott, Law, Michigan, Rio Tinto, uranium | Permalink
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Aquila Claims Ability To Open Gold-Zinc Mine by 2012; Local Residents Skeptical
July 14, 2009Stephenson, MI - Aquila Resources, a small Canadian junior exploration company, has informed the Lake Township Board, in Menominee County, Michigan, that it intends to commence mineral production possibly as early as 2012 at its controversial “Back Forty” gold and zinc project located on the banks of the Menominee River.
Menominee River; Photo courtesy Carol Henriksen
At the township’s regular meeting, Aquila President and CEO Tom Quigley told the board that the company expects to receive mining permits from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality in 2010 and begin construction the following year. Read the rest of this entry »
6 Comments | Aquila, gold, Michigan | Tagged: Aquila, dirty gold, menominee | Permalink
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Aquila Representative Faces Criticism at Public Meeting
December 15, 2008Menominee, Michigan – Canadian junior mining exploration company, Aquila Resources, hosted a public information meeting at the VFW Hall, Monday, to present its opinion on a controversial topic: acid rock drainage. The company has been exploring its Back Forty Project under intense opposition from local residents and elected officials. The company recently sold its Humboldt Mill facility to Kennecott-Rio Tinto. The company also supplied Kennecott with state mineral leases for its proposed Eagle Project mine over a decade ago.
Aquila hosted “guest speaker” Al Trippel, an environmental consultant with Environmental Resources Management (ERM), based out of London, England. Trippel acted as the mining company’s representative throughout Michigan’s “Part 632″ statute and rules process that crafted legislation regulating the metallic sulfide mining industry. Trippel is currently on Aquila’s payroll, conducting baseline environmental studies necessary prior to submitting a mine application.
Aquila consultant, Al Trippel; Photo courtesy Teresa Bertossi
Aquila’s advertisement for the presentation, in the Menominee County Journal, noted that the meeting was being held “in response to public requests for unbiased, educational, fact-driven information from an expert.”
Teresa Bertossi, Marquette County resident, claimed that publicity surrounding the event showed a lack of “integrity” at Aquila. According to Bertossi, the advertisement did not disclose that Trippel works for the mining company and, in order to be truly unbiased, the company should “have brought in a university professor or a scientist that does not work for Aquila” to present information. Read the rest of this entry »
3 Comments | Aquila, gold, Michigan, public land, water pollution | Tagged: Aquila, gold, Michigan, public land, water pollution | Permalink
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Protect the Earth Summit Considered a Success
August 27, 2008Over 200 concerned individuals from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ontario and Michigan attended Marquette County’s Protect the Earth Summit on the first weekend in August. Saturday events included workshops on treaty rights, successful grassroots opposition to metallic sulfide mining projects and a presentation on the polluted Flambeau Mine, in Wisconsin. A rally was held, at Marquette’s Presque Isle Park that featured musicians and speakers, including Fred Rydholm, Laura Furtman, Al Gedicks, Bobby Bullet, Victor McManemy and Jim St. Arnold, as well as traditional Anishinaabe shawl and hoop dancing, performed by Megan Tucker. On Sunday, over 120 people walked to
Eagle Rock from the Yellow Dog River and held a rally and sacred eagle feather ceremony at the site of the proposed Kennecott Eagle Mine. The event was sponsored by Yellow Dog Summer, Keepers of the Water and Students Against Sulfide Mining.
Citizens from Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan Walk to Eagle Rock, on the Yellow Dog Plains; Photo courtesy Teresa Bertossi
Leave a Comment » | cameco, civil disobedience, Eagle Mine, human rights, indigenous, Kennecott-Rio Tinto, lake superior, Michigan, public land, water pollution | Tagged: Aquila, cameco, civil disobedience, human rights, Kennecott, native american, Rio Tinto, yellow dog summer | Permalink
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Foth & VanDyke Contracted by Aquila
April 2, 2007by Gabriel Caplett
The National Environmental Policy Act, 1969, delegates responsibility in creating an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) to relevant state and federal agencies, such as the DEQ or DNR. The Michigan DEQ has allowed Kennecott Minerals to conduct its own EIA. By rejecting repeated calls by Michigan citizens and legislators for an independent United States Geological Study (USGS) hydrologic study of the Yellow Dog Plains [1], the DEQ has insured that the permit process will rely on company-projected data. This has allowed Kennecott to hire the consulting and engineering firm, Foth & VanDyke to perform an EIS for the project.
In the case of the Flambeau Mine, Kennecott Minerals hired Foth, based in Green Bay, to assist in the permitting, development and final closure of the mine, including conducting environmental studies to determine projected environmental impacts. More recently, Kennecott retained the firm’s services in producing an EIA for the Eagle Project. Read the rest of this entry »
Leave a Comment » | Aquila, Eagle Mine, Kennecott-Rio Tinto, Wisconsin | Tagged: Aquila, Kennecott, Michigan, Rio Tinto, Wisconsin | Permalink
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