Acid solution mining project at White Pine, Michigan SUSPENDED pending
EPA review
The Anishinabe Ogitchida (Protectors of the People) at Bad River
did not block the acid trains for 29 days in vain. The Copper
Range Company - owned by Canada's Inmet - has suspended its acid
solution mining pilot project, pending EPA review of the project.
There will be an EPA hearing in White Pine on Oct. 21.
Walt Bresette,
Midwest Treaty Network
tel./fax: 715-779-5071
e-mail: bresette@win.bright.net
(See background on web site at "http://www.alphacdc.com/treaty")
(The following is the full text of the amazing company press release,
which gives credit where credit is due:)
Copper Range announced today that it will suspend pilot scale solution
mining at its White Pine Mine. Pilot scale solution mining commenced at
White Pine shortly after Copper Range received a letter from the EPA which
confirmed authorization for the pilot scale activities and committed EPA
to reach a formal regulatory detrmination regarding the commercial scale
operation no later than July 1997. Subsequent to that letter, in
response to pressure from Native American and Environmental groups, the
EPA determined that it would complete a comprehensive "Environmental
Analysis" of the commercial scale facility, a process which it stated
recently would take between 12 and 18 months and possibly longer. Eric
Dudson, President of Copper Range said, "The operation of the pilot scale
solution mining project is a capital intensive undertaking and the timing
of such expenditures is directly related to the timing of the commercial
scale facility. We simply cannot afford to continue to make such
expenditures in light of the uncertainty posed by the new EPA regulatory
process. We continue to believe that solution mining is an environmentally
sound process and we intend to cooperate and work closely with the EPA.