Wisconsin Resources Protection Council

WRPC’s Al Gedicks was on WPR’s Joy Cardin show on Thursday, October 27.  After clicking here to listen to the program, drag the bar to the 20-minute mark to begin Al’s segment.

Read Al Gedicks’ Z Magazine article on resource colonialism in the Lake Superior region by clicking HERE.

Listen to Ken Rose’s in-depth interview with Al Gedicks at What Now.

Originally published by the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel

by Al Gedicks

May 19, 2011

Should the state’s regulatory authority over the metallic mine permitting process be dramatically reduced to accommodate the wishes of a mining company to receive a permit in record time?  This is not a hypothetical question.

Gogebic Taconite (GTAC) has met with several legislators about its proposed open pit iron ore (taconite) mine along the border of Ashland and Iron counties to push legislation that would drastically speed up the mine permitting process.

For Immediate Release, January 18, 2011

Lawsuit Filed to Stop Release of Toxic Metals at Wisconsin’s Flambeau Mine

MADISON, Wis.— The Wisconsin Resources Protection Council, the Center for Biological Diversity and Laura Gauger filed a Clean Water Act citizen suit today against Flambeau Mining Company over its partially reclaimed Flambeau Mine near Ladysmith, Wis. According to the suit, the mining company is violating federal law by discharging pollutants, including potentially toxic metals like copper, iron and zinc, into the Flambeau River and a tributary known as “Stream C” that flows across the company’s property.

By Matt Hrodey, Milwaukee Magazine

December 16, 2010

A Milwaukee-based mining company, the Commerce Group, is suing the government of El Salvador for $100 million, arguing it unjustly revoked permits for a gold mine in the country. Some environmental activists are crying foul, saying the lawsuit, filed under the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), seeks to exploit the country, where the government has halted all gold and silver mining due to environmental concerns.

Proposed Lynne mining sparks new debate over ongoing issue

Deborah Bedolla, The Lakeland Times

September 14, 2010

It has been more than a year since Tamerlane Ventures, a publicly-traded international mining firm, first expressed interest in exploring a sulfide ore deposit near the town of Lynne.

The Oneida County Mining Oversight Committee has since been considering opening a public bid for leasing mineral rights to allow exploratory studies. The committee’s consideration has been, in the words of chairman Dave Hintz, “slow and deliberate” in the face of the myriad technical, economic and environmental issues the proposal raises.

A well-attended July 24 information session in Lynne brought some of those issues before the public, but it was only the beginning of a process that is likely to become contentious quickly.

“It’s going to be extremely controversial and it’s going to be extremely long term. It’s not going to happen quickly, if at all,” Dan Kuzlik, the UW-Extension professor who facilitated the information session and is serving as liaison for the committee, said.

Hintz underscored the long-term nature of the conversation at a committee meeting last week: “Mining is not going to happen in Oneida County for some time. We’re in the early stages of this process.”

To: Wisconsin State Journal, Op-Ed Page
wsjopine@madison.com

May 18, 2005

From: Al Gedicks
210 Avon Street # 4
La Crosse, WI 54603

(608) 784-4399
info@wrpc.net

By Al Gedicks and Zoltan Grossman

See Map: Indian reservations and mining sites on Chippewa ceded lands in Northern Wisconsin

Al Gedicks is an environmental and Indigenous rights activist and scholar. In 1977 he founded the Center for Alternative Mining Development Policy to assist Indian tribes and rural communities in the upper midwestern US in resisting ecologically destructive mining projects. He teaches at the Department of Sociology in the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse.

Ever since the Romanian cyanide disaster of January 2000, there has been a worldwide movement to ban the use of cyanide in mining. Cyanide is an extremely toxic and volatile chemical. A teaspoon of 2% cyanide solution can kill people and much smaller amounts are deadly to fish and wildlife. The Romanian spill occurred when a dam holding mine wastes overflowed and released cyanide and toxic heavy metals into the Tisza River, a major waterway that spans Romania, Hungary and the former Yugoslavia, eventually emptying into the Danube. Thousands of fish washed up dead on the shores of the Danube and threatened the drinking water for tens of thousands of people. One commentator called the spill Europe’s worst environmental disaster since Chernobyl.