IRON RIVER - Representatives from local environmentalist groups and the mining industry addressed a packed room at the West Iron District Library on Saturday during a public forum entitled "Mining Heritage: Past, Present, and Future."
The afternoon session included presentations and a three-person panel consisting of Teresa Bertossi of Save The Wild U.P., an anti-sulfide mining group from Marquette, Ron Hendrickson of the grass roots, anti-sulfide mining group the Front 40, and John Gardner of Prime Meridian Resources, a Calgary, Alberta-based mining company that owns land in the Upper Peninsula.
Bertossi claimed that sulfide mining has been proven to pollute the local water supply with heavy metals 95 percent of the time. This is too big a risk for the Upper Peninsula to take, she said.
"We have one of the largest freshwater bodies in the world - Lake Superior - and we need to protect it," said Bertossi. "Right now, companies are looking at mining the entire surrounding area of Lake Superior - the U.P., Minnesota, and Canada."
Even with newer technology, mining companies will never be able to guarantee that mining will be safe for the environment, she continued.
Bertossi's other major point was that mining companies, especially Kennecott Minerals, can not be trusted.
"Mining companies in the U.P. will cut corners," she stated. "They're not in the best interest of the miners or the local communities, because they're in it for the profit."
Bertossi also claimed that Michigan's Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) lacks funds and staff, so it will be unable to visit and confirm that all of the mining companies in the Upper Peninsula are conforming to regulation.
"Are they really just going to depend on company honesty?" she asked.
Hendrickson agreed that water pollution is the biggest argument against sulfide mining in the Upper Peninsula. His group, the Front 40 is specifically against mining company Aquila Resources' proposed Back 40 mining operation along the Menominee River in Menominee County.
"You've got to have clean water," he said. "We have good smallmouth and sturgeon fishing in the Menominee, and we even get tourists from Green Bay coming to take advantage of that."
When trying to come up with a list of pros and cons for sulfide mining, Hendrickson said that he could think of only one benefit - jobs.
"Sure there may be some low-entry jobs, but we don't know how many," he said. "It just won't add up to the water pollution, air pollution, noise pollution, and decrease in our property values."
Aquila Resources owner Tom Quigley was not able to attend the forum, but he sent a letter with apologies for his absence. He also sent an open invitation for all those interested to attend the company's monthly public informational meetings in Menominee County.
"We are in strict conformance will all local and state guidelines for mining," he said via his letter.
With Quigley's absence, Gardner was the only person on the panel speaking for the pro-mining side. He explained that Prime Meridian Resources is currently looking for copper and nickel at various sites in Iron, Dickinson, Marquette, and Gogebic counties.
"Our focus is in the Lake Superior area, where there are known occurrences of copper and nickel deposits," he said. "We have been testing, but not every drill hole is a discovery, and not every discovery is a mine."
When asked by the audience to be more specific, Gardner said that approximately one in 100 drill holes will lead to a discovery, and maybe, one in 100 of those discoveries will become a mine.
Gardner also explained the importance of acquiring these metals.
"You use nickel for stainless steel and batteries in electric cars, and copper for pipes," he explained. "We can't recycle nickel, so we always need to mine more."
During the question and answer session with the audience, Gardner assured the public that currently, mining explorations in Iron and Dickinson County are lower-grade projects.
"We drilled three holes at Kiernan Sills (site outside of Crystal Falls) back in 2007 and didn't find much," he said.
Later, Gardner told The Daily News that he is currently compiling data from the Kiernan Sills site, the Wilson Creek site in northern Iron County, and the Norway Lake site in Dickinson County.
"They're all long-shots, really," he said. "We're concentrating on the Keweenaw Rift (in the Keweenaw Peninsula) right now."
Representatives from the Upper Peninsula Building and Construction Trades Council were also on hand to distribute fliers for the pro-mining side. The council is comprised of 15 different local building and construction unions.
"We just want to let people know that we support responsible mining that will create jobs," said representative Nathan Nakkula of Iron Mountain.
According to the council's position statement, the organization supports tough laws to prevent harmful mines, supports exploration for new mines in the Upper Peninsula, and believes that not allowing mining in the United States will create a harmful dependence on foreign metals.
Nikki Younk's e-mail address is nyounk@ironmountaindailynews.com.