From the Marquette, Michigan Mining Journal:
A small handful of participants turned out Monday night in Marquette for an event supporting the cause of about 560 U.S. Borax workers locked out of their jobs in southern California by Rio Tinto, the parent company of the Kennecott Eagle Minerals Company. Read the rest of this entry »
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After slashing more than 16,000 jobs, offering more shares to investors and selling a number of assets, Rio Tinto is doing really well, reports the company’s Chief Financial Officer, Guy Elliott, only two days after the company locked out over 500 workers at its Borax mine, in southern California.
Elliott told the London press that the company might soon expand spending on new projects and possibly start buying new projects.
“We are very happy with the progress of the recapitalization since June,” Elliott said. “We have lots of organic options and this gives us the flexibility to progress those if they require funding.”
Some are even speculating that Rio Tinto may soon have more cash than it can deal with. Read the rest of this entry »
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The company reviled by mine workers around the world for its union-busting activities is at it again. On Sunday Rio Tinto locked out roughly 540 unionized workers at its huge Borax mine in Boron, California and replaced them with a non-unionized workforce. Members of the International Longshore & Warehouse Union Local 30 are now organizing to ensure that workers and their families will have enough food and other necessities while they are out of work.
“People here are tough and willing to see this through to the end,” union spokesman Craig Merrilees said. “It’s not just about Rio Tinto but all the companies doing this to people across the country. In this little town people are drawing the line.” Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted by LSMN
Resolution Explores for Copper Outside Superior, Arizona; Photo courtesy Flickr
Rio Tinto, a company that has made its name exploiting public and indigenous mineral wealth for decades, is set to make off with an astounding $140 billion in publicly-held mineral rights, in Arizona, for what is expected to be North America’s largest copper mine.
On Wednesday, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee approved a land swap allowing Resolution Copper Mining (a joint venture between Rio Tinto and BHP-Billiton) access to 2,400 acres of the Tonto National Forest. The area contains sites sacred to local Native American tribes and was previously protected from mining activities by the Eisenhower administration.
According to the Arizona Republic, in a deal reached between the Obama administration, Senate Democrats and Arizona Senator John McCain, the only thing standing in Resolution’s way is a federal environmental review that must be completed prior to the land deal.
An opponent of the deal, US Representative Raúl Grijalva has concerns with Rio Tinto’s human rights record and urges a full investigation before a land swap is considered. Read the rest of this entry »
1 Comment | Kennecott-Rio Tinto, copper, economy, human rights, indigenous, public land | Tagged: copper, economy, human rights, native american, public land, Rio Tinto | Permalink
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After addressing pollution concerns at the former Cliffs-Dow site, the Marquette City Commission took public comment on a proposed anti-ballot initiative resolution [read Marquette City Resolution Opposing Water Mining Ballot Initiative]. The “MiWater” ballot initiative would place greater restrictions on metallic sulfide and uranium mining activities in Michigan. Despite offering unanimous support for the resolution, commissioners presented a fairly diverse argument in their opposition to the MiWater ballot initiative. The majority of citizens providing public comment outlined various arguments in support of the ballot effort.
New commissioner David Saint-Onge questioned why the City was considering the resolution.
“As a new guy on the commission, I’m not so sure why this issue comes before us, to be honest with you, why we’re taking the amount of time that we’ve taken to address this issue – not that it’s not important,” said Saint-Onge. “I do believe that there are some portions of the resolution that’s being offered this evening that are unnecessarily inflammatory.” Read the rest of this entry »
Leave a Comment » | Eagle Mine, Kennecott-Rio Tinto, Law, Michigan, economy, lake superior, uranium, water, water pollution, workers | Tagged: cameco, deq, Eagle Mine, economy, humboldt, Kennecott, politicians, pollution, Rio Tinto, uranium, water, water pollution, workers, yellow dog plains | Permalink
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As the result of tightly-controlled verbal public comment, few participated in that part of the PolyMet DEIS process; Photo courtesy Lori Andresen
Hundreds of PolyMet Mining Company supporters were bussed to public meetings in Aurora and Blaine to provide comments on the company’s draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) for the proposed NorthMet project. The organizing effort was combined with a public relations blitz of endorsements from Minnesota state and federal politicians -including the late endorsement of Senator Al Franken – the Minnesota AFL-CIO, construction groups and the Chamber of Commerce. Despite the large turnout, the public was unable to speak at either meeting.
“The ‘public hearings’ didn’t actually allow public comments to the audience,” said retired miner, Bob Tammen. “The only oral comments allowed were by individuals to stenographers in a tightly monitored room separate from the auditorium. That meant that the only outside speakers allowed were Iron Range legislators.”
Citizens wanting to give verbal public comment registered here in order to speak, privately, with a stenographer; Photo courtesy Lori Andresen
In a new public hearing format, described as “enhanced” by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR), public comments were severely restricted with the only speakers allowed to voice opinions on the project being staunch political supporters of PolyMet’s NorthMet proposal. State Senator David Tomassoni and State Representative Thomas Rukavina gave speeches at the hearing in Aurora, on Wednesday, while State Senator Thomas Bakk chimed in at the Blaine hearing, the following day. Read the rest of this entry »
1 Comment | Minnesota, economy, lake superior, public land, water pollution | Tagged: "Sustainable Mining", dnr, economy, Minnesota, PolyMet, water pollution | Permalink
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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.”
Rio Tinto, a notorious anti-worker company has drawn the ire of union workers around the world and is currently attempting to bust Local 30 of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, AFL-CIO, at the company’s large open pit Borax Mine, in California.
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.”
According to Keweenaw Bay Indian Community geologist, Chuck Brumleve, the DEQ’s approval of the Humboldt Project is currently opposed by both the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Yet, in an interview with WLUC-TV6, the DEQ’s director of the Office of Geological Survey, Hal Fitch, claimed that approval of the Humboldt Mill project “hasn’t been a controversial issue.” Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted by LSMN
"These colors don't run!," says a Borax miners' union website; Photo courtesy I.L.W.U Local 30
Regardless of whether it’s true or not, Rio Tinto always seems to know what to say.
Rio Tinto boasts to the public, gullible politicians and job hopefuls in Michigan that the company is doing well financially, in order to lend the impression that the company’s Eagle Mine, in the Huron Mountains of the Upper Peninsula, is an inevitability.
In Boron, California, home of Rio Tinto’s vast US Borax operations, workers are being sold an entirely different tale. To the nearly 600 workers at Local 30 of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, AFL-CIO, fighting for respect and decent working conditions at California’s largest open pit mine, company brass is claiming they are in hard times. While overseas investors are courted and assured that billions more than expected will be available for new project development in 2010 and southern California business leaders are informed that “the financial position of the company is very strong,” workers in Boron are told there is a need for cutbacks. It’s all part of a broader effort to break I.L.W.U. Local 30 and force workers to sign a weak contract. Read the rest of this entry »
4 Comments | Kennecott-Rio Tinto, economy, workers | Tagged: economy, Kennecott, politicians, Rio Tinto, workers | Permalink
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By Gabriel Caplett
One would be hard-pressed to find a major mining region that has left area residents and the local economy with accumulated wealth and economic stability. Consider mining regions such as the Ozarks lead district, Idaho’s Silver Valley, Arizona and Montana copper towns, New Mexico’s uranium district, Minnesota’s Iron Range and the Michigan Upper Peninsula iron and copper ranges. All remain relatively economically-depressed areas.
The idea that a mining economy is sustainable and important to the Upper Peninsula’s economic future ignores several facts about the metals industry Read the rest of this entry »
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By Gabriel Caplett
The White Earth Reservation, in northern Minnesota, has been focusing on bolstering its local economy by promoting sustainable industry that works with and protects the land. According to the White Earth Land Recovery Project’s (WELRP) Founding Director, Winona LaDuke, investing in sustainable and local energy and food production will help her community develop sustainable alternatives to boom and bust industries. WELRP’s Sustainable Communities Initiative synthesizes contemporary and traditional ideas in order to restore the White Earth community to its roots in self-sufficiency and sustainability. According to LaDuke, building a sustainable local economy helps prevent the White Earth Reservation from being “bent over a barrel” when a large mining or timber company attempts projects that would act against the long-term best interest of the community. Read the rest of this entry »
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