January 2016 Newsletter
January 14, 2016
Dear WRPC Member,
In case you missed the big news over the holidays, Aquila Resources is once again seeking permits from Michigan’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) for its Back Forty open pit metallic sulfide mine next to the Menominee River. The project had been suspended in July 2012 when Hudbay Minerals of Canada (51% owner of the Back Forty project) pulled out of the partnership with Aquila (49% owner of the project).
Aquila’s Former Partner Accused of Human Rights Violations
Hudbay was facing three separate lawsuits from Indigenous Guatemalans who allege that private security staff at a subsidiary’s nickel mining project committed a gang rape in 2007, the murder of an outspoken mining critic in 2009 and a shooting that left a man paralyzed near the company’s mine in El Estor. The Church of England and a large pension fund in Norway have divested from the company over human rights concerns.
An Open Pit Sulfide Mine Next to the Menominee River?
The open pit (2000 ft. wide and 850 ft. deep) massive gold-zinc sulfide mine is 150 feet from the Menominee River, which forms the boundary between Michigan and Wisconsin. “I question the wisdom of digging an open pit mine on the edge of a river,” said Alexandra Maxwell, executive director of Save the Wild U.P. (SWUP). Local residents in the Front 40 grassroots citizens group have also been critical of the project because the mine, along with the tailings disposal site could pollute the Menominee River with acid mine drainage and cyanide used to extract gold. Aquila has cited the Flambeau Sulfide Mine, near Ladysmith, Wisconsin as an example of a mine that hasn’t polluted nearby waters. This is a lie. The Flambeau Mine has polluted surface and groundwater – and continues today. Flambeau shows that even small, short-lived sulfide mines leave long legacies of complicated water pollution behind.
The Menominee River is the largest river system in the Upper Peninsula with a 4,000 square mile drainage area. The watershed supports a sturgeon spawning area with strong populations of small mouth bass, walleye, northern pike and trout. The river is also culturally significant as a major prehistoric travel corridor for indigenous peoples and the source of Creation for the Menominee people.
Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin Opposes the Back Forty Mine
The Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin has passed a resolution opposing mining activity within the Tribe’s historical range, “specifically that mining activity that threatens the Tribe’s place of origin at the mouth of the Menominee River.” The resolution notes that “the location on the Menominee River is historically and culturally significant to the Menominee people due to the existence of cultural properties by way of raised agricultural fields, funerary objects, multiple mounds, burial sites, and villages…” New information, not disclosed in Aquila’s permit application indicate that mapped archaeological resources of enormous cultural value remain on both State of Michigan and private lands at 60 Islands within the Back Forty Mine project footprint. The Menominee County Historical Society has called for a moratorium to stop exploratory drilling near a known archaeological site of Native American garden beds and other cultural areas.
For more information and Public Comments
The Menominee Tribe held an educational forum on the Back Forty Mine at the College of the Menominee Nation on December 29, 2015. Materials from that forum, as well as my powerpoint presentation on the proposed mine can be viewed at the Oneida County Clean Waters Action website.
Aquila’s mine permit application can be viewed from the MDEQ website:
Unlike Wisconsin’s mine permitting process, Michigan does not require an environmental impact statement (EIS), in addition to the company’s mine permit application. Public comments on the mine permit application may be submitted by mail or email until 5:00 pm on Tuesday, February 2, 2016.
Mail your comments to:
DEQ Back Forty Mine Comments
Office of Oil, Gas and Minerals
1504 West Washington Street
Marquette, MI 49855 or via email to: makij3@michigan.gov
At the Menominee educational forum, Ron Henriksen from the Front 40 group urged everyone to submit comments, however brief, to the MDEQ to demonstrate the widespread citizen and tribal opposition to this project. The MDEQ is not required to take citizen and tribal opposition into account, but the mining industry is acutely aware that mining projects lacking a “social license to operate” are a significant political and financial risk for investors.
Public Forum in Marquette, MI
Save the Wild U.P. and Front 40 will host “Don’t Undermine the Menominee River!” an informational forum reviewing the Back Forty sulfide mine proposal, and what’s at stake. The forum will take place on Wednesday, February 17, 2016 from 6 to 8pm in the Shiras Room of the Peter White Public Library in Marquette.
Stay tuned,
Al Gedicks, Executive Secretary
I am absolutely against a mine on a river…Who in their right mind would give the green light to an open pit mine in this location? Snyder and his cohorts will do to the UP what he has done in Flint Michigan. Usually by the time the meeting is open to the public the deals have already been made. Hopefully we can apply enough pressure to get this stopped.
Wisconsin has done a great job of cleaning up all of their rivers. It will be a shame to see the Menominee River potentially ruined by an open pit mine, within 150 feet of it’s shore line.