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 »
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.
“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.
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.
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 »
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 »
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.
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.
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 »
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).
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.”
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 »
Posted by LSMN 
LSMN
teresabertossi
doncorvette
