June 6, 2019
Eagle Herald
Dear Editor,
It’s surprising after 16 years when gold was discovered in Menominee County, as was so stated by Curtis Dahlgren in his letter to the editor, he is still concerned about the people who oppose the mine. Maybe he’s hoping to get a job as a gold miner.
May 31, 2019
Eagle Herald
Dear Editor,
Recent letters show the risks of mining here. A picture showed that transportation accidents happen, right here in river city. A semi tanker carrying cyanide to the proposed mine, can kill us. Cyanide kills. Cyanide kills in minutes, before EMS arrives. Even if transported in dry form, when touched by water (rain, puddles, lakes, creeks, rivers, etc.) cyanide kills. Cyanide kills life above and below the water.
Dear Editor,
I am writing in regards to the Aquila Back Forty Mine Project. On behalf of the Illinois Smallmouth Alliance (ISA) and our membership (the largest smallmouth bass community in the nation) We Are Opposed To The Back Forty Mine Project.
Dear Editor,
The number of abandoned mines in the United States is up to nearly 500,000. Over 30,000 have ruined the environment, according to the Government Accountability Office. Thousands more are discovered every year. Abandoned mines on federal land are mainly controlled by The Bureau of Land Management. President Trump is seeking to cut the clean-up funds from $35 million to $13 million.
April 29, 2019
Wisconsin Resources Protection Council
Box 263
Tomahawk, WI 54487
Mr. Oskar Lewnowski, CIO
Orion Mine Finance Group
7 Bryant Park
1045 Avenue of the Americas
Floor 25
New York, NY 10018
Dear Mr. Lewnowski
We are once again writing in regard to Orion’s 14 % ownership of Aquila Resources’ Back Forty metallic sulfide deposit in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Aquila’s President and CEO, Barry Hildred, has stated that Aquila has received all State and Federal permissions required for construction and commencement of operations at the Back Forty Project. This is inaccurate and highly misleading.
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.
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.
April 25, 2018
Mr. Oskar Lewnowski, CIO
Orion Mine Finance Group
1121 Avenue of the Americas, Suite 3000
New York, NY 10036
Dear Mr. Lewnowski:
We are once again writing in regard to Orion’s 14.3% ownership of Aquila Resources’ Back Forty metallic sulfide deposit in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Aquila’s recent press release (March 2, 2018) states that they anticipate a decision on their wetland permit in the first half of 2018. This optimistic assessment has been called into question by the March 8, 2018 letter from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to Michigan’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) stating that the Back Forty project “does not comply with CWA [Clean Water Act] Section 404(b)(1) Guidelines, and EPA objects to the issuance of a permit for this project as proposed” (Christopher Korleski, Director of EPA Water Division to Michigan DEQ).
March 17, 2018
Wisconsin Resources Protection Council
Box 263
Tomahawk, WI 54487
Mr. Sean Roosen, CEO and Chair of Board
Osisko Gold Royalties Ltd.
1100 Avenue des Canadiens-de-Montreal
Suite 300
Montreal, Quebec H3B 2S2
Canada
Dear Mr. Roosen:
We are once again writing in regard to Osisko’s 15% ownership of Aquila Resources’ Back Forty metallic sulfide deposit in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. You have undoubtedly seen Aquila’s March 9 permitting update announcing that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has provided comments to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) regarding the company’s wetlands permit.
July 5, 2017
Mr. Oskar Lewnowski, CIO
Orion Mine Finance Group
1211 Avenue of the Americas
Suite 3000
New York, NY 10036
Dear Mr. Lewnowski,
I am once again writing in regard to Orion’s 19% investment in Aquila Resources’ Back 40 metallic sulfide project in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Local and statewide opposition to this project has grown considerably since my last update (November, 2016) and should be of great concern to your shareholders.
