by Al Gedicks
Wisconsin Resources Protection Council
Aquila’s Communications Manager Dan Blondeau has claimed that the tailings management facility at the Back Forty is not a traditional upstream raised tailings dam design and that it is “significantly different” from the failed Brumadinho tailings dam in Brazil. Blondeau says that “Our facility was designed to mitigate the known risks of common upstream raised tailings facilities.”
by Al Gedicks
Wisconsin Resources Protection Council
agedicks@eagle.uwlax.edu
The proposed Back Forty tailings waste storage uses the upstream dam construction method.
by Al Gedicks
Wisconsin Resources Protection Council
agedicks@eagle.uwlax.edu
Tailings Dams Are the Biggest Environmental Disaster Threat of Modern Mining
My main concern with the amended permit application is with the expansion of the Tailings Management Facility which largely accounts for the mine’s footprint expanding by some 200 acres.
by Al Gedicks
February 8, 2019
The recent collapse of a mine tailings dam in southeastern Brazil has already resulted in 134 fatalities, leaving an estimated 300 people still missing, according to rescue workers.
The spill flooded nearby homes, submerging cars and buses under a river of reddish-brown sludge. This environmental disaster should raise red flags for Michigan regulators and the communities downstream from Aquila Resources’ proposed open-pit metallic sulfide mine and tailings dam next to the Menominee River on the Wisconsin-Michigan border.
Saturday, February 2, 2019
Dear Editor,
On Jan. 25, a 40-year-old, 280-foot-high tailings dam in Brazil failed, releasing almost 12 million cubic meters of mine waste. Tailings dams are large structures containing wastes left over from the crushing, grinding and chemical (including cyanide) processing of mineral ores. Tailings often contain residual minerals — including lead, mercury and arsenic that can be toxic if released to the environment.
The Brazilian dam is owned by the mining giant Vale, the same company responsible for a tailings dam failure three years earlier in Mariana that buried three communities, killed 19 people, leaving hundreds homeless and contaminating hundreds of miles of river valleys with toxic sludge. It was one of the worst environmental disasters in Brazil’s history.
The spill flooded homes, submerging cars and buses under a river of sludge, resulting in 65 fatalities and leaving an estimated 300 people still missing, according to rescue workers. This accident occurred in a technologically-advanced country with a history of mining and with a mining company that has the financial ability to use state-of-the-art technology to construct and maintain tailings dams.
Aquila’s revised mine permit application minimizes the possibility of a tailings dam failure at the Back Forty project but doesn’t recognize the risks to people and water quality from the prevailing design of tailings dams that have caused dams to become progressively dangerous as their height increases.
Despite Aquila’s claim mining technology and regulation have made modern mining safer, a recent study by the Center for Science in Public Participation (CSP2) found nearly half of all recorded serious tailings dam failures happened in modern times, between 1990 and 2010. “These failures,” according to the report, “are a direct result of the increasing prevalence of tailings storage facilities with greater than a 5 million cubic meter total capacity necessitated by lower grades of ore and the higher volumes of ore production required to attain or expand a given tonnage of finished product” (https://files.dnr.state.mn.
In Aquila’s original mine permit application, they proposed to store 5.1 million cubic meters of tailings. In their revised application, they propose to store 4.9 million cubic meters of tailings. Whether it is 5.1 or 4.9 million cubic meters, the large volume of tailings poses a serious risk for a tailings dam failure which isn’t addressed in the 900 pages of Aquila’s revised permit.
To address this regulatory failure, the Front 40 Environmental Group and the Mining Action Group of the Upper Peninsula Environmental Coalition have contracted with the CSP2 for a scientific review of Aquila’s tailings dam design.
Al Gedicks
Executive secretary of the Wisconsin Resources Protection Council in La Crosse, Wis.
January 23, 2019
Dear WRPC Member and Friends of the Menominee River,
Aquila’s “Final Permit” isn’t Final at all
The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) issued the “final permit” needed for Aquila’s Back Forty open pit mine in June 2018. Aquila spokesperson Dan Blondeau said the decision was “a major milestone” for the project that would allow the project to move forward.
However, instead of moving forward, the DEQ has determined that because the project footprint has expanded by 200 acres, including the enlargement of the tailings and waste rock structures, Aquila is required to submit a Mining Permit Amendment Application (MPAA) and an associated Environmental Impact Assessment Amendment (EIAA). The timing of this announcement and the difficulty of accessing the 904 pages of the application have created serious obstacles for citizens, tribal members and environmental groups wishing to participate in the review and public comment on Aquila’s latest mine plan.
October 24, 2018
Dear WRPC Member and Friends of the Menominee River,
Aquila Resources needs to convince its investors that the Back Forty project is moving forward in order to raise the pre-production capital cost, estimated at $294 million. Aquila has celebrated Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ)’s issuance of a controversial wetland permit while downplaying the 28 pages of special conditions attached to the permit because of serious hydrological concerns that were overlooked in Aquila’s incomplete application.
August 9, 2018
Mr. Alan Hair, President and Chief Executive Officer
Hudbay Minerals
25 York Street, Suite 800
Toronto, Ontario M5J 2V5
Canada
Dear Mr. Hair,
We are writing in regard to Hudbay’s 10.9% investment in Aquila Resources’ Back Forty metallic sulfide project in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. While Aquila has celebrated its recent receipt of the final permit for its controversial open pit sulfide mine next to the Menominee River, the mine is no closer to construction now than when the project was first discovered in 2002.
July 5, 2018
Dear WRPC Member and Friends of the Menominee River,
On June 4, 2018, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) issued the final required permit for Aquila’s controversial Back Forty open-pit sulfide mine next to the Menominee River on the Michigan-Wisconsin border. Environmental groups and the Menominee Indian Tribe were outraged at the unwarranted approval and are calling on DEQ Director C. Heidi Grether to explain her decision.
