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Proposed Mine in Michigan's UP: Kennecott Minerals' Eagle Project

   Michigan's Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has before it a proposal by Kennecott Eagle Minerals Company to mine nickel directly under the Salmon Trout River and only four miles from the Huron Mountain Club in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.  Among the land owned by the club is 6500 acres of minimally disrupted old-growth forest.  Unlike existing mines in Michigan, the Eagle Mine would be dug into sulfide ores, which leach acid when in contact with air, rain, or groundwater, a National Wildlife Federation (WWF) fact sheet on the mine states.  According to WWF, it would produce millions of gallons of acidic waste water containing heavy metals. A fifty-foot chimney would release gases from the mine without first filtering them.  Off-site impacts such as noise and truck traffic (eighty per day) are not being considered.  No plan to restore the area to its original condition has been set forth . . .

     Kennecott proposed the Eagle Project Mine in 2006.  In January, 2007, DEQ released a draft decision to issue the permit and it scheduled hearings on the draft for April.  However, at the end of February the National Wildlife Federation informed the head of DEQ, Steve Chester, that DEQ staff had suppressed reports from a consultant questioning the structural integrity of the proposed mine. Chester withdrew his department's proposed decision and initiated an investigation of the non-disclosure of the reports and an independent review of the mine's structure. A report submitted to DEQ in June by Dr. Wilson Blake finds that the revised permit application, though not the 2006 permit application, is adequate from the point of view of structure.  However, as of late July, 2007, DEQ has not yet reissued its draft decision.  (If the DEQ opens a comment period, we shall post a notice under Alerts.)

Sources:

Blake, Wilson. "Review of the Evaluation of Crown Pillar Stability for the Proposed Eagle Mine."  Prepared for the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. June 2007.  Available on the Web site of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, www.michigan.gov/deq .

Lydersen, Kari. "Upper Peninsula Looks Ahead, and Back, as Mine Interests Call." Washington Post, April 3, 2007, p. A03.

National Wildlife Federation, Great Lakes Natural Resource Center. "Analaysis: Kennecott Eagle Minerals Company Proposal for a Sulfide Nickel Mine in the U.P." April 10, 2007, available at www.folkup.org/NWF_factsheet2.pdf .

                                                                    -- posted July 28, 2007