Feb
17
2022
February 16, 2022
Dear WRPC Member and Friends of the Menominee River,
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Wisconsin Resources Protection Council in Medford, Wisconsin in 1982. The major concern of WPRC was the lack of information about the effects of large-scale metallic sulfide mining on our state’s precious water supplies, on the tourism and dairy industries, and upon the many Native American communities that are located near potential mine sites.
by Ann Meyer
January 30, 2022
MENOMINEE—Opponents of the Back Forty mine project near Stephenson viewed two news events concerning mines in Minnesota last week as promising in their fight against a corporation interested in digging a mine west of the City of Stephenson.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s decision to reject pending mineral lease rights and prospecting permits for Twin Metals in a national forest near the Boundary Waters in Minnesota was considered a victory for anti-mining activists, while a Minnesota Court of Appeals order delayed a decision on a Poly Met mine near fresh water. The court referred the case back to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency for further study.
December 29, 2021
Environmental Alliances with Indian Nations of Wisconsin and the presentation of the GWG Environmental Hero Award
6:30 p.m., Monday, January 17 on Zoom
Oct
28
2021
Oct
28
2021
Oct
09
2021
October 6, 2021
Dear WRPC Member and Friends of the Menominee River,
After 18 years and an investment of over $100 million there is no mine next to the Menominee River and significant, ongoing resistance to any mining in the future. The permits Aquila Resources needs to begin mining have either been overturned, withdrawn, or rendered obsolete because the mine plans have changed to include underground as well as open pit mining.
Gold Resource Corporation (GORO) has NOT conducted “due diligence” regarding Aquila’s false and misleading claims about the permitting of the Back Forty Project.
During a September 8 conference call about GORO’s acquisition of Aquila Resources, Inc., Mr. Allen Palmiere, the President and CEO of GORO stated: “The key takeaway on this particular project [referring to the Back Forty Project] is that it has, in fact, been fully permitted before. The issue that arose was a very technical—it’s really a very administrative matter, but it was the way with which the wetlands permit was worded and it was viewed as being a conditional permit rather than an unconditional permit. And that was really the way—the reason that that particular permit was pulled.”
To: Committee on Michigan’s Mining Future
From: Al Gedicks, Wisconsin Resources Protection Council
Re: Climate Change and Mine Waste Disposal
Climate Change Poses a Risk to Mining Infrastructure
The committee recognizes that “climate change increases the risk of hazardous events” that can damage mining infrastructure. Apart from the mine itself, the largest mining infrastructure on the surface are the contact water basin and the tailings impoundment. Tailings storage facilities are some of the largest human made structures on earth ( Mine Tailings Storage Is No Accident. United Nations Environmental Programme, 2017).
(August 16, 2021) Osisko’s $2.4 million cash infusion into the Back Forty mine project is a desperate attempt to shore up the financial and political mismanagement of this project. The $2.4 million infusion comes just days after the company reported “negative working capital” of $2.1 million “due to permitting and legal activities at its Back Forty Project.” In other words, Aquila’s strategy of cost-cutting by submitting incomplete and scientifically fraudulent permit applications has led to its permits being overturned or withdrawn entirely. In order to avoid admitting their failure to secure the necessary permits after investing over $100 million in the project and that they have lied about their plans for underground mining, they have announced new project plans for a combined open pit and underground mine operation which will require far more capital than the $2.4 million infusion.
Even then, Osisko suspended the original “Equity Financing Condition” for the $2.4 million “Fourth Deposit” that wasn’t supposed to be released until Aquila raised at least $6 million in new investment. Having failed to attract other investors, Osisko deferred the Equity Financing Condition until Aquila requires the fifth deposit of $5 million. However, the other condition for the release of the fifth deposit is the successful completion of the permit process for five permits that will take several years, require far larger capital outlays than the $2.4 million infusion and face legal challenges by a determined environmental and Indigenous resistance movement. Osisko has now invested $17.6 million in a worthless hole in the ground. Most investors would stop digging an even deeper financial hole.
