Exploring the land of pines and mines

Friends staff, including Communications Director Greg Seitz and Northern Communities Program Director Ian Kimmer, spent Thursday and Friday last week touring the Ely area, visiting sites and people affected by copper-nickel exploration, including both state mineral leases and Superior National Forest prospecting. Below are a few photos of what they saw.

Property rights

The first set of photos is from the Great Lakes School of Log Building and Snowshoe Country Lodge, about 40 miles due north of Two Harbors. In April, the Department of Natural Resources auctioned off mineral leases on 120 of the 200 acres under the property, and under adjoining private land, too.

Cabin under construction

The big question.

Sand Lake

Log cabins

Wetland

Under Minnesota law, the mining companies that leased the mineral rights from the state would just have to give the land-owner 20 days written notice before commencing exploration activities, including drilling and road-building. Also by law, the state will not sell mineral rights back to private owners, but only lease them to entities possessing the ability to mine.

Ron Brodigan, the proprietor, and other land-owners went in front of the State of Minnesota’s Executive Council — the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, Auditor and Secretary of State — on June 8 and succeeded in getting the leases sent back to the DNR to attempt to remedy the unjust situation.

Superior National Forest drilling

Greg and Ian spent some time on Birch Lake and the South Kawishiwi River. Located along Highway 1 about 15 miles southeast of Ely, this is the area of intense interest from Twin Metals, and where a significant amount of additional sulfide mining exploration was recently proposed.

Drilling is currently underway on public lands in this area, right now mostly focused on the eastern shores of the Kawishiwi River. River Point Resort, a second-generation family-operated resort located where the river enters the lake, is being seriously affected by the drilling. The owners are worried about what full-scale mining could mean for their business.

A helpful sign

One of the ubiquitous red pipes marking a drill hole, this one located in a spiderweb of roads built to access drill sites.

A pool of the stuff pumped out of the hole during drilling.

Another drill rig, temporarily inactive

An active drill rig near the South Kawishiwi River and Birch Lake

An old drill site -- notice the uncapped pipe.

Steve Koschak, owner and operator of River Point Resort on Birch Lake