April 23, 2025
Dear WRPC Member and Friends of the Menominee River,
The Gold Resource Corporation’s (GORO) Back Forty Project continues to be on indefinite hold. GORO lost $56.5 million in 2024, while cash reserves dropped from $6.3 million in 2023 to $1.6 million as of December 31, 2024, according to CEO Allen Palmiere.
August 28, 2024
Dear WRPC Member and Friends of the Menominee River,
The Gold Resource Corporation’s (GORO) Back Forty Project continues to be on indefinite hold. When CEO Allen Palmiere was recently asked whether the project was “in limbo” by an investor, he said that he didn’t like the term limbo but it was not inappropriate. “In the current financial climate for junior companies,” he said, “it would be virtually impossible for us to finance it. And rather than spend money on Back Forty currently, what we’ve chosen to do is spend the money on exploration in Don David (GORO’s Mexican mine) where we know we can generate cash flow.” GORO reported a net loss of $27.7 million for the second quarter of 2024 and a cash balance of $5.3 million. The longer GORO postpones the Back Forty permitting process, the more expensive it will be to resume the process when inflationary pressures have dramatically increased the cost of the project.
May 22, 2024
Dear WRPC Member and Friends of the Menominee River,
The Gold Resource Corporation’s (GORO’s) Back Forty Project is on indefinite hold. After spending over $10 million on mine permitting for the Back Forty Project, GORO has suspended any further investment in the permitting process. GORO’s cash on hand dropped from $33.7 million at the end of 2021 to $6.3 million in May 2024. The longer the project remains on hold, the less likely GORO will be able to raise sufficient capital to revive the project. “In light of the continued challenges facing the Company,” GORO told its shareholders, “the Company’s Board of Directors has decided to initiate a formal review process…to evaluate strategic alternatives for the Company…including a potential sale of the Company.” (GORO 2023 Annual report, p. 5).
October 30, 2023
Dear WRPC Member and Friends of the Menominee River,
In June 2023 the National Park Service added Anaem Omot (“The Dog’s Belly”), a Menominee Nation cultural landscape along the Menominee River near Stephenson Michigan, to the National Register of Historic Places. Tribal Historic Preservation Director David Grignon said the listing “has been a long time in coming, but now our sacred sites, mounds and historic sites on the Menominee River at Sixty Islands are recognized.” Menominee tribal chairperson Gena Kakkak added, “Our ancestors can now rest better in their places of burial. Our original spiritual and ceremonial grounds are recognized, and our children can continue to learn and find their heritage in our places of origin.”
September 1, 2023
Dear WRPC Member and Friends of the Menominee River
October 28th marks the 20th anniversary of the historic victory over the controversial Crandon mine project adjacent to the Mole Lake Sokaogon Chippewa Reservation. Veterans and supporters of the 28-year (1975-2003) battle against the Crandon metallic sulfide mine will gather on the Mole Lake Reservation to commemorate the grassroots environmental, sportfishing and tribal victory over the world’s largest energy company (Exxon) and the world’s largest mining company (BHP Billiton).
June 7, 2023
Dear WRPC Member and Friends of the Menominee River,
Despite assuring shareholders that the Gold Resource Corporation (GORO) would have all of the necessary mine permits in hand by the end of 2022, they have not even applied for any permits to date. However, on January 23, 2023, GORO filed a petition with the Keeper of the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) to reject the nomination of Anaem Omot (The Dog’s Belly) historic and cultural site by the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin. The nominated area along the Menominee River contains burial grounds, raised agricultural fields and ancient dance rings of cultural significance to the Menominee Nation.
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).
October 12, 2022
Dear WRPC Member and Friends of the Menominee River,
On September 23 the Michigan Historic Preservation Review Board voted unanimously to support the nomination of Anaem Omot (The Dog’s Belly), the Menominee Tribe’s cultural sites to the National Register of Historic Places. The nominated area is 50 miles upstream from the mouth of the Menominee River and includes the site of the proposed Back Forty mine. The location contains burial grounds, raised agricultural fields and ancient dance rings of cultural significance to the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin. The Menominee people occupied the Menominee River area for millennia, until an 1836 Treaty with the U.S. forced them to cede their original territory in Michigan.
June 14, 2022
Dear WRPC Member and Friends of the Menominee River,
In July 2009 Aquila Resources President and CEO Tom Quigley told the Lake Township Board, in Menominee County, Michigan that the company expects to receive mining permits for the controversial Back Forty metallic sulfide mine next to the Menominee River in 2010 and begin production as early as 2012. Ten years later Aquila Resources is bankrupt and the mining permits have either been overturned or withdrawn thanks to the combined public education and legal challenges by the Coalition to SAVE the Menominee River and the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin.
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.
