![\"The](\"http:\/\/elyminnesota.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/last_wall.jpg\" "\\"last_wall\\"")
This photo is of the Last Wall of Zenith Sibly Savoy Mine’s Dynamite Shack. It reportedly had 2 foot thick walls and a 10″ thick solid oak door that would have hung in the opening in this wall. The mines shared this shack for safe storage of that vital component of their work. This is all that’s left. So just what town are we going to be?<\/p>\n
The other day four young entrepreneurs from International Fall were arrested for busting into a hotel down in Eveleth. They broke into the place, because they were there to steal as much copper as possible. Right now the price of copper is so high that people are breaking into places in order to help fill the demand for copper, by stealing as much of it as they can. The price of copper is also fueling the demand of pro mining people to allow them to by-pass current environmental laws so that they can get down to business and take advantage of the current market.<\/p>\n
A few years ago, the pro mining people told this blogger that the best reason to mine non ferrous minerals in Minnesota is that we have the highest standards in the world, and if the mining is done here, rather than in Africa: It will be better for the world, because then we know it will be done right. Last year one of the companies interested in developing the second largest deposit of copper and nickel in the world, the biggest is in Africa, submitted their EIS to the State of Minnesota, it was rejected as being inadequate. The company plan to mine in Minnesota just wasn’t up to our standards. The state people told the mining company to come back with a better plan. <\/p>\n
But what if there isn’t a better plan to mine non ferrous minerals in Northeastern Minnesota? What if the EIS was the best the mining people could come up with, and that there really is no safe and good way to develop this vast reserve of potential mineral wealth without forever damaging the quality of the area’s valuable amount of federal water? That just might be the reason Tommy Rukavina and David Dill came out in favor of raising the amount of sulfides we allow to be dumped into our water system. Currently the issue is about the concerns some people have over how much pollution our wild rice crop can take before we kill it. I don’t know if anyone really knows what that limit of tolerance is, and I don’t think many pro mining people even care. Fortunately for the canoe country, there are many people all over the nation and the world who do care about things like water, fish, loons, and wild rice. <\/p>\n
The only possible hope I see that the two camps might be able to come together on is the possibility that the mining companies would agree to install and operate a sludge treatment plant at each of the mines granted permits to operate in Minnesota. The issue is really one of what will be done with all the pulverized waste rock that in most cases will be over ninety percent waste and less than ten percent product. I would like to see some of the pro mining people join me in calling on the mining companies to admit that unless they remove the caustic chemicals from their waste sludge that there isn’t any good way to mine here, and that if we do open Pandora’s Box we are sure to leave the lasting effects of ruining our water, and forever altering life here as we know it.<\/p>\n
This issue is all about dollars and cents. The mining companies want our copper for the same reason those four young men broke into the hotel down in Eveleth; they were looking for a profit for their efforts. The price of copper is very high, and these are desperate times. There is no doubt that we have the technology to remove the bad things from the sludge we will have to put somewhere if we allow mining here. My doubts are whether or not the price of copper will ever be high enough to justify the costs of installing and then operating sludge treatment plants. Sooner or later the sludge is going to drain into our water, just like it is already doing in the St. Louis River. There is just no way to prevent that. In time even the best built dikes are going to leak, and if we allow things like sulfur to be left in that sludge we are going to see acid drainage polluting the Boundary Waters. It is only a matter of time. So what kind of town are we? Are we going to take the pieces of silver now, and leave the mess to the future, or are we going to hold to our high standards which now say that if mining can’t be done right, then it shouldn’t be done at all. <\/p>\n
Picture and Post by Mike Hillman<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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