PENNY MULLINS, EH news editor/digital director
December 6, 2019
Eagle Herald
MENOMINEE — Tom Boerner, who owns land in Lake Township directly adjacent to the Back Forty Mine, said Wednesday he doesn’t see the recent decision by a state review panel as changing too much in his and others fight against the gold and silver mine becoming a reality in Menominee County.
By Ryan Heise, Peninsula Pulse –
At some point during the summer bustle, I had the occasion to speak with an agitated gentleman who owns a home on the waters of Green Bay in Egg Harbor. He was concerned about air cannons blasting continually on Hat Island across from his home. I envisioned him on the other side of the phone, red-eyed and disheveled from lack of sleep.
PENNY MULLINS, EH news editor/digital director
October 24, 2019
Eagle Herald
GREEN BAY — A federal court has dismissed a lawsuit brought by the Coalition to Save the Menominee River against the developers of the Back Forty Mine in Menominee County, as well as several federal agencies.
September 18, 2019
The willingness of top Michigan regulators to ignore their own scientific staff and approve a wetland permit for a controversial open pit mine next to the Menominee River on the Michigan-Wisconsin border has been reported by Urban Milwaukee, but is only the beginning of a dangerous decision-making process. The proposed Back Forty metallic sulfide mine is owned by Aquila Resources, a Canadian exploration company that has no experience with mining.
by Mark Doremus
August 23, 2019
https://www.facebook.com/back40film/
Mine developer Aquila Resources, Inc., has held at least two private, off-the-record meetings with local government officials, seeking support for its proposed Back Forty mine in Menominee County, Michigan.
by Bruce Murphy
August 20, 2019
![Aftermath of the Brumadinho dam collapse in Brazil. Photo by TV NBR [CC BY 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)]](https://urbanmilwaukee.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Resumo_da_agenda_do_Presidente_da_República_26.01.2019_video_screenshot_01_cropped.jpg)
Aftermath of the Brumadinho dam collapse in Brazil. Photo by TV NBR (CC BY 3.0)
This is a story about an open pit copper, zinc and gold mine on the border of Wisconsin and Michigan that could pollute the waters of both states, including Lake Michigan and also endanger sacred burial grounds of the Menominee Indians of Wisconsin. Scientific staff of both the State of Michigan and federal EPA had significant concerns about the proposed mine with the homey name of the Back Forty Project, and were unsatisfied with responses by Aquila Resources, a Canadian start-up company with no experience operating such a mine.
August 16, 2019
The Menominee River forms the boundary between Wisconsin and Michigan in the Upper Peninsula, and flows into Lake Michigan, feeding an abundant source of clean drinking water for the more than 35 million people. The river has held extremely important spiritual and cultural significance for the Menominee people for millennia.
by Keith Matheny
August 13, 2019
Over and over, Michigan environmental regulators sounded alarms as they reviewed a proposed large, open-pit ore mine in the Upper Peninsula near the Menominee River, prized for walleye fishing and a major tributary to Lake Michigan. The mine would send acidic mining wastes into the river and surrounding waterways, which would then spill into the Great Lake, staff said. More acres of wetlands would be harmed than the mining company was projecting, evaluators found.
Then the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and then-Michigan Department of Environmental Quality approved the mine anyway.
by Keith Matheny
August 13, 2019
The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality agreed last year to participate in a web meeting with an applicant for a controversial, open-pit mine in the Upper Peninsula, specifically to avoid creating a public record out of information the applicant wanted to show the agency.
Mining helped to build the economy of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, but it also has courted controversy for its environmental and cultural impact.
Miners pose with lunch pails in hand on a pile of “poor rock” (waste rock) outside of the Tamarack mineshaft, Photo by Keweenaw National Historical Park Archives, Jack Foster Collection via wikimedia.org (Public Domain)
Canadian company Aquila Resources’ Back Forty Mine has resurfaced long-standing disputes on how to reconcile the immediate economic needs of a community with the potential, long-term impacts mines and their waste leave on the land.
A significant point of concern among some residents and the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin is how Aquila plans to handle the inevitable waste material that will be produced during the mine’s operation.
Separating zinc and gold deposits from sulfide rock requires complex chemical interactions that ultimately end up as tailings: a combination of waste rock, water and toxic chemicals such as cyanide and arsenic.
