anonomoose
New member
Nobody who is sane would walk away from any real job opportunity that new mining might brought in.
What is unique about this is that this is NO ordinary mining operation, and this land lies at a high plains level....meaing any leakage will flow downhill. Sulfide mining is very expedient, but is far riskier than tilden, or other iron ore mining operations that have gone on for decades. Other than some seepage from those older operations and the destruction of the landscape, (if you don't mind looking at the tailings for the rest of your life and your grandkids life,) there is little similarity.
Kennecott will come in...and be gone, by their own public statements in a decade or less. Jobs that are not long term is a stop-gap arrangement...who can consider coming to the area based upon those short term affirmations? Locals who live there can of course thrive on the prosperity for a few years but often will pass on other opportunities which may not pay as well for the short term gain. Okay, that's their choice and I can't fault that decision...something is better than nothing...usually.
The real problem here is one that we humans have learned over and over again....which would put this lesson in the category of NOT learning....at all! Once the ground is cracked open, capped by nature long before man walked the earth, it really can't be sealed up again for any real length of time. Sulfide mining in Arizona, or Australia, isn't likely to come back to haunt us in polluted ground water, or poisoning the most pristine lake in America.
If you don't KNOW what sulfide mining is, or what it does, or how it can bleed into streams which ....in this area flow straight down hill to Lake Superior....then before you decide that "gee whiz....jobs are jobs...and by golly things will grow back and eventually you won't even know that they were there...." statements won't be very relevant.
Seems innocent enough....and boy we need the big tax revenue it will bring, and a few jobs.....but are we willing to someday say....."had we known all this was going to happen...we would have been better off, paying the companies off rather than dig and leave exposed, and we would not be spending billions and billions trying to contain the leaching from the mines....long after Kennecott has gone away."
In my neck of the woods, we have some of THE most contaminated grounds in the USA, with huge quantities of super funds monies having been spent to "control" the leaching grounds....and those monies are a million times the profits made from those, with the sanctions of our government..permits included....ever made.
Are we going to apologize some day to our kids? I hope not....but we may have just opened a can of worms that we can't put the lid on afterwords.....never mind if we pollute the yellow dog river, or the salmon trout river....rivers are expendable.....ground waters are NOT, and the big lake which has the lowest flush rate of all the great lakes might take a big hit which prevents us from selling that water to a thirsty nation....water might well be more valuable than oil eventually....and we might toss that opportunity away for a 100 jobs that the company says might last for a decade?
I'm not very smart, but being the dummy that I am can see the short comings to THAT option.
Read up on sulfide mines...and learn....it is not iron ore mining and nobody knows all the ill effects it might bring upon us....and that is pretty scary to a lunk head like me!
Oh, and I am free to use all the copper and iron and whatever other metal because, in this case, I don't care if they dig up the Australian desert, or some mountain top in Arizona....nobody goes there anyway....and they sure as heck aren't"t gunna destroy any fresh water lakes there are they? We still have lakes that are so polluted from prior industry, that our own government suggests that we don't eat the fish....do we want that caviot placed on our most prized lake of the country?
Is it worth it? How badly do we need those jobs, tax money and anything else that might be promised on the short run in trade for such a long term possibility of doing nasty to the big lake?
Move this mine inland 50 miles and water flows south, not north...really big difference here....trust me!
What is unique about this is that this is NO ordinary mining operation, and this land lies at a high plains level....meaing any leakage will flow downhill. Sulfide mining is very expedient, but is far riskier than tilden, or other iron ore mining operations that have gone on for decades. Other than some seepage from those older operations and the destruction of the landscape, (if you don't mind looking at the tailings for the rest of your life and your grandkids life,) there is little similarity.
Kennecott will come in...and be gone, by their own public statements in a decade or less. Jobs that are not long term is a stop-gap arrangement...who can consider coming to the area based upon those short term affirmations? Locals who live there can of course thrive on the prosperity for a few years but often will pass on other opportunities which may not pay as well for the short term gain. Okay, that's their choice and I can't fault that decision...something is better than nothing...usually.
The real problem here is one that we humans have learned over and over again....which would put this lesson in the category of NOT learning....at all! Once the ground is cracked open, capped by nature long before man walked the earth, it really can't be sealed up again for any real length of time. Sulfide mining in Arizona, or Australia, isn't likely to come back to haunt us in polluted ground water, or poisoning the most pristine lake in America.
If you don't KNOW what sulfide mining is, or what it does, or how it can bleed into streams which ....in this area flow straight down hill to Lake Superior....then before you decide that "gee whiz....jobs are jobs...and by golly things will grow back and eventually you won't even know that they were there...." statements won't be very relevant.
Seems innocent enough....and boy we need the big tax revenue it will bring, and a few jobs.....but are we willing to someday say....."had we known all this was going to happen...we would have been better off, paying the companies off rather than dig and leave exposed, and we would not be spending billions and billions trying to contain the leaching from the mines....long after Kennecott has gone away."
In my neck of the woods, we have some of THE most contaminated grounds in the USA, with huge quantities of super funds monies having been spent to "control" the leaching grounds....and those monies are a million times the profits made from those, with the sanctions of our government..permits included....ever made.
Are we going to apologize some day to our kids? I hope not....but we may have just opened a can of worms that we can't put the lid on afterwords.....never mind if we pollute the yellow dog river, or the salmon trout river....rivers are expendable.....ground waters are NOT, and the big lake which has the lowest flush rate of all the great lakes might take a big hit which prevents us from selling that water to a thirsty nation....water might well be more valuable than oil eventually....and we might toss that opportunity away for a 100 jobs that the company says might last for a decade?
I'm not very smart, but being the dummy that I am can see the short comings to THAT option.
Read up on sulfide mines...and learn....it is not iron ore mining and nobody knows all the ill effects it might bring upon us....and that is pretty scary to a lunk head like me!
Oh, and I am free to use all the copper and iron and whatever other metal because, in this case, I don't care if they dig up the Australian desert, or some mountain top in Arizona....nobody goes there anyway....and they sure as heck aren't"t gunna destroy any fresh water lakes there are they? We still have lakes that are so polluted from prior industry, that our own government suggests that we don't eat the fish....do we want that caviot placed on our most prized lake of the country?
Is it worth it? How badly do we need those jobs, tax money and anything else that might be promised on the short run in trade for such a long term possibility of doing nasty to the big lake?
Move this mine inland 50 miles and water flows south, not north...really big difference here....trust me!
