This may be another example of our resources being looted and shipped abroad to places like China as they’re used in the production of cheep and shoddy goods by wage slaves.

I sense a bribe taking place between a multinational corporation (PolyMet) and the sovereign state of Minnesota

http://waterlegacy.org/PolyMetEISin_process

Additionally, per our request, the DNR also sent us sections of the DEIS recently that were commented on by the cooperating agencies.

Greg

The concerns we and many others have are based on a lot of very real evidence about the industry’s history of failed predictions and toxic pollution. The Environmental Protection Agency has listed this type of mining as the number one toxic polluter in the United States. That is not pollution emanating from decades-old mines, it is pollution being created right now. We have previously researched several examples of mines that have wrongly predicted acid mine drainage, heavy metal leaching and other pollution, which are still operating or have been in the last 10-20 years. In S. Dakota, a mine that operated during the 1990s told the public and regulators that there would be no acid mine drainage because they were mining in rock with a sulfur content around one percent. Sadly, they were wrong, that mine is now a Superfund site, and we are all paying to clean it up. In Wisconsin, the Flambeau Mine (which also operated during the 1990s) is the subject of a recent lawsuit over levels of heavy metals leaching into groundwater and the Flambeau River.

The simple fact is that mining companies always promise they will do it right “this time,” and unfortunately they are wrong almost as often. Any new technology is unproven and must be closely examined to determine if it will actually prevent pollution. I have not heard anything from PolyMet that says they intend to use new technology to filter mercury out of water.

It is not accurate to say that this mining should be done here in the United States *instead* of in other countries. If PolyMet opens up, it does not mean a mine somewhere else will not. As long as there are economically-viable ore deposits, mining companies will pursue them. We can’t do much about what goes on in other countries, but we have an obligation to decide what is best for our own state and our natural resources.

While the local staff of PolyMet are indeed from the Iron Range, the company itself is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada and its board of directors is made up of people from all over the globe, including from the Swiss company Glencore. It is they who will have the final say as to what environmental protections are economically worthwhile.

Despite our concerns, the Friends does not oppose the PolyMet project and certainly won’t make up our minds about whether or not it is an appropriate proposal for our state until we’ve seen the DEIS.

Sincerely,
Greg Seitz
Communications Director

Is it better for copper mining to exist in countries that do not have decent regulation, or in the U.S. where we do have good regulation? Polymet has spent $20 million on the EIS process, the people that run and work at the company are from the Range. Give them a chance to put out the Draft.