March 2023 Newsletter
February 22, 2023
Dear WRPC Member and Friends of the Menominee River,
When the Gold Resource Corporation (GORO) acquired the bankrupt Back Forty Project from Aquila Resources, they told their shareholders that “We fully anticipate that this project is going to be relatively easy to permit.” Allen Palmiere, GORO ‘s CEO also said “We intend to place the Back Forty Project into production on an accelerated basis, funded by cash flow generation.” That was in September 2021. In February 2023 GORO has yet to complete an economic feasibility study, a necessary step prior to submitting all five mine permit applications to Michigan’s Dept. of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE).
GORO suspends its quarterly dividends as their stock plunges to its lowest level
On February 13, 2023, GORO suspended its quarterly dividend “until such time that it may become practicable to reinstate.” Allen Palmiere explained that “the 2022 market volatility, challenging economic conditions and the lower grade profile of our current Mineral Reserves and Mineral Resources, have collectively contributed to an adverse impact on our 2022 cash flows and consolidated earnings.” GORO had previously announced a Third Quarter loss of $9.7 million as a result of lower metal prices, high depreciation expense due to a lower mineral reserve base and Back Forty Project feasibililty study work and permitting expenses.
Changing Ownership of the Back Forty Project Does Not Address the Lack of a Social License to Operate
When Allen Palmiere told GORO shareholders that “most permitting challenges, certainly the ones they’ve experienced in the past, will fall away” he was ignoring the fact that the wetland permit was overturned as a result of the contested case lawsuit brought by the Coalition to SAVE the Menominee River, the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin and Tom Boerner, a private landowner with property next to the mine site. The scientific testimony presented in the contested case revealed a consistent pattern of Aquila’s manipulation of scientific data to conceal significant negative impacts to wetlands from the proposed mine. The grassroots resistance movement that challenged Aquila’s mine permits and brought the company to bankruptcy has not given up the fight to protect the Menominee River and the sacred sites of the Menominee Nation simply because a new owner has taken over the Back Forty Project.
The National Park Service Expects to Complete Its Review of the Menominee Tribe’s Application
For Listing of Anaem Omot (“Dog’s Belly”) on the National Register of Historic Places This Month
On December 23, 2022. the State Historic Preservation Offices of Michigan and Wisconsin jointly nominated the application to the National Register. The nominated area includes the Sixty Islands area along the Michigan and Wisconsin border that contains burial grounds and raised agricultural fields along the banks of the Menominee River. GORO objected to the nomination four days before the meeting even though the nomination had been received by the Michigan State Historic Preservation Board for many months.
Ron Corn, Menominee Tribal Chairman, said that “Anaem Omot is not just sacred to the Menominee people; it is an archaeological and historic treasure that offers important insights for scientists researching the prehistoric peoples of northern Michigan.” If approved, according to a Michigan Live.com report, the boundary would cut through a small but significant portion of the planned mine – the open pit itself…”
(Garret Ellison and Alyssa Burr, “Anaem Omot: Michigan gold mine fights tribe over historic land,” February 14, 2023).
GORO plans to submit an “omnibus” application for all of the mine permits
In September 2021, Allen Palmiere told GORO investors that the company plans to submit an “omnibus” application for all five of the required mine permits and that state regulators “have indicated they will try to deal with this on an expedited basis.” Mine opponents have interpreted this proposal as a way to limit public review of the mine permits by limiting the time allowed for public comments and independent scientific evaluation of the claims made by the mining company.
“The pages in five applications can easily be over 40,000,” according to Mary Hansen and Jeff Budish of the Coalition to SAVE the Menominee River in a January 6, 2023 letter to the Eagle Herald. In the past, EGLE has conducted public hearings and public comment periods on each individual permit. However, in an email exchange with Dale Burie of the Coalition, Adam Wygant of EGLE claimed that “the public likes to have actions bundled so that public comment periods and hearings are consolidated for convenience to the public and to avoid confusion.” Neither the Coalition nor the Menominee tribe has expressed support for a “consolidation” of the permit review process.
In a January 6, 2023 email response to the public outcry, Adam Wygant, director of EGLE’s Oil, Gas and Minerals Division, wrote that “EGLE understands the public concern that if all the permits are applied for at once, that it is a lot to absorb. EGLE is communicating to the company the citizens concern related to this matter and that adequate and reasonable time, perhaps greater than statutory allowances, be given to absorb the massive amount of data and detailed plans/studies related to several permits in order to provide meaningful input to the agency during public hearings, and especially written comment periods.”
Melanie Humphrey of EGLE’s Marquette office says EGLE cannot do a consolidated permit. “You still have to submit separate applications. There’s no provision that would speed up the process.” So why did Allen Palmiere tell GORO shareholders in September 2021 that “the permitting process can be—not short circuited, that’s not the term, but it can be, in fact, expedited such that we would hopefully obtain all of the permits by the end of next year.” [2022].
Adam Wygant responded to citizen complaints in January 2023 by emphasizing that “EGLE does not and has not made any comments about permitting being easy, quick, or otherwise…EGLE does not control what an applicant or their CEO chooses to say.”
This controversy arose because the Environmental Protection Agency posted a document that indicates one of five required Back Forty permits is expected to be submitted in “early 2023.” Everyone concerned about the Menominee River needs to remain vigilant about this process.
Stay tuned,
Al Gedicks, Executive Secretary
