Rio Tinto Tries to Avoid Federal Oversight with Eagle Mine Plan

March 2, 2010

Rio Tinto (Kennecott’s parent company) has come to appreciate the ease that comes with securing permits through the State of Michigan, rather than the federal government.  Now, with state regulatory departments combining to form the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, the company is likely to get what it wants more quickly in order to try opening the Eagle Mine this year.

From an article by the AP’s John Flesher:

A company preparing to build a nickel and copper mine in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula wants to change its wastewater treatment system in a way that could negate the requirement for a federal permit, officials said Tuesday. Read the rest of this entry »


Homes Evacuated After Cliffs’ Rail Accident

February 12, 2010

From Marquette, Michigan’s TV6:

A Canadian National Railroad locomotive and an LS&I Railroad made contact with a propane tank car at the LS&I Eagle Mills yard early Friday morning. Read the rest of this entry »


Video: Hearing on Rio Tinto’s Michigan Haul Road

February 11, 2010


Rio Tinto Reneging on Power Upgrade Plans

February 10, 2010

Despite claiming at public meetings in Powell Township that a $6.4 million power upgrade specifically for the proposed Eagle Mine would be paid for by Rio Tinto, the Alger Delta Electric Co-op is suing the owner of Granot Loma Farms for not giving up his property for free for the project. Rio Tinto's power line to service the proposed Eagle Mine is illegal without an amendment to the mining permit

“This is a capitalist country”, said Tom Baldwin. “They should pay for the easements. I’m willing to sell it. I don’t have a problem with that. But I didn’t buy my property so Kennecott could profit.”

Alger Delta’s General Manager, Tom Harrell said that if the utility had to compensate Baldwin for his property “that just drives up the cost of electricity for everybody.”

Baldwin contends that Alger Delta has paid non-customers for easements.

“Membership is like being a prisoner, because they have a monopoly and you have to buy electricity from them”, Baldwin said.


Rio Tinto Receives State Approval for Humboldt Milling Facility

February 9, 2010

Satellite map of Rio Tinto's planned Humboldt milling facility; Photo courtesy Google Maps

One day before a hearing on the company’s proposed 22-mile haul road, Rio Tinto is announcing it has obtained all state permits for its planned Humboldt milling facility.

At a December public hearing on the mill, Keweenaw Bay Indian Community geologist, Chuck Brumleve, noted that the DEQ’s approval of the Humboldt Project was opposed by both the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

Reading from an EPA statement, Brumleve reported that the agency is “concerned the currently proposed project may have significant adverse impacts on the ecosystem.  We object to the issuance of a permit for this project.”

Brumleve said that the US Fish and Wildlife Service requested “that the MDEQ not issue a permit for the proposed work.” Read the rest of this entry »


More Coverage: Controversial Kennecott mine permits OK’d at 11th hour

January 15, 2010

Dept. rules that sacred rock is ‘not a place of worship’ 

by Eartha Melzer, Michigan Messenger 

A member of the Summer Cloud drumming group performs during a 2008 ceremony at Eagle Rock

Two days before the DEQ ceases to exist and a week after its director stepped down, DEQ moved to wrap up a long standing fight over permits for a planned nickel sulfide mine by concluding that only buildings may be considered “places of worship.”  

A rock that is sacred to Anishnabe people need not be considered when issuing a mining permit because state law only recognizes buildings as places of worship, the Department of Environmental Quality announced Thursday.  Read the rest of this entry »


Through the Looking Glass: Michigan DEQ Says Michigan DEQ Followed Law In Rio Tinto Approval

January 14, 2010

The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) announced today that it is giving final approval of Rio Tinto’s proposed Eagle Mine project, located on public land in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. 

The decision comes during a time of transition for the agency.  Steven Chester resigned from his post as head of the DEQ three week’s ago and was temporarily replaced by Deputy Director Jim Sygo.  Today’s news release issued by the DEQ does not indicate who, at the agency, made today’s decision.

According to DEQ press secretary, Bob McCann, Jim Sygo “delegated” decision-making authority to Frank Ruswick, DEQ Senior Policy Advisor, who ”conducted the review of the case and made the decision to sign the final order.”

The DEQ had earlier approved Rio Tinto’s mining application in December 2007.  The decision was appealed in a lengthy contested case hearing.

In an August 2009 recommendation, Administrative Law Judge Richard Patterson stated that Rio Tinto and the MDEQ “did not properly address the impact on the sacred rock outcrop known as Eagle Rock” and suggested moving the mine’s entry portal away from the rock.  During the contested case , DEQ lawyers argued that Eagle Rock is not a place of worship because it is not a constructed building, such as a Christian church or a mosque.

In November, then DEQ Director Steven Chester requested that Judge Patterson clarify his position on the one stipulation that wasn’t fully in Rio Tinto’s favor.

Today’s DEQ decision affirms the agency’s opinion that Eagle Rock is not a legitimate place of worship, as defined under Michigan mining law, and that the religious rights of area Native Americans are irrelevant in the Eagle Mine case. Read the rest of this entry »


Polluting Pays: Cliffs’ Partner Set To Scam £1billion in “Carbon Offset Credits”

December 7, 2009

ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steel producer – Britain’s richest man, Lakshmi Mittal, owns 43% of the company – may benefit from a £1 billion European carbon emissions trading scheme (ETS).

ArcelorMittal owns a 21% stake in Cliffs Natural Resources’ Empire Mine, located in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and a 62.3% share in Cliffs’ Hibbing Taconite facility.  Cliffs’ has been taking some heat from Minnesota steelworkers for deals reached with ArcelorMittal that workers say are costing them their jobs. The company is expected to recall workers soon. Read the rest of this entry »


Economy, Water and Government Corruption Main Themes at Rio Tinto Humboldt Mill Hearing; Two Federal Agencies Opposed to Michigan’s Approval

December 3, 2009

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 »


Rio Tinto Drops Exploration Plans on Public Forest Land in Iron County, Michigan

November 19, 2009

Rio Tinto has notified the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the Ottawa National Forest (ONF) that it “no longer wishes to pursue” exploration on public forest land in Bates Township, located in Iron County, Michigan.  Rio Tinto’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Kennecott Exploration, applied to explore the lakefront parcel in 2007.

A fisherman docks his boat on Perch Lake, no longer a proposed Rio Tinto exploration site; May 2009 GC

“I would like to think the public opposition that formed, when residents were finally indirectly informed of Kennecott’s application, was a major factor in Kennecott’s decision,” said Richard Sloat, lifelong resident of Iron County.

According to Gale Stowell, Bates Township Zoning Administrator, the township has a strong zoning ordinance that places certain restrictions on mining and exploration.

“If anyone came to do mining in our township they would have to have a public hearing.” Read the rest of this entry »