Mining Conference Picketed By Opponents

[CORRECTION] Environmental activists protested the mining industry on Wednesday while hundreds of people gathered for the annual mining conference at the DECC in Dululth.

The ‘No Sulfide Mining Group’ emerged in February in response to a proposed copper-nickel mine in Minnesota. If it’s approved, it would be the first of its kind in Minnesota.

‘No Sulfide Mining Group’ member Carl Sack of Duluth opposes the Gogebic Taconite, LLC effort on the Penokee-Gogebic Iron Range in Iron and Ashland Counties, though he makes it clear that he is expressing his own opinion and not that of the No Sulfide Mining Group.

“A massive new open pit mine with serious potentially severe impacts on the recharge zone of the Penokee aquifer and the Bad River watershed. I have major concerns about the environmental safety of that mine. The industrial zone of the Northwood’s which relies on tourism, farming, clean water, and wild rice,” Sack said.

‘No Sulfide Mining’ spokesman Bob Tammen of Soudan worked on the Iron Range in the late 60s. He says he saw millions of gallons of hazardous waste leak from abandoned iron ore ponds. He says the environmental aftermath of the Gogebic Taconite mine would hurt the economy in the long run.

“We have difficult economic times. We need jobs. A lot of times this is posed as a conflict between jobs and the environment. The mining industry does not create jobs the way it once did. Productivity doubled in my working lifetime. It only takes half as many employees to produce the same amount of ore,” Tammen said.

Sack said the approach taken by Gogebic Taconite has been much more open compared to Minnesota mining companies.

“So far in Minnesota that process has remained extremely undemocratic. In Wisconsin they have a different approach which allows for public input via a real public hearing. You get to get up on a microphone in front of your peers, in front of the general public in a room with officials and the public gets to comment on a project,” Sack said.

Sack and Tammen hope to raise awareness about the affects of mining so that more sustainable practices can drive the resource economy.

This article by Joe Cadotte first appeared on Wisconsin Public Radio.  The correction noted above removes all references to the "No Sulfide Mining Group" opposing the Penokee mining effort.  According to Carl Sack, who contacted the Ashland Current on Sun., April 17 via a comment shown below, the group has not taken a position on mining in the Penokees.