To the Journal editor:

Please entitle this “UP’s Golden Goose has Copper Feet”. If you need to shorten it, perhaps “UP’s Au Goose has Cu Feet”. The numbers in parentheses are my word count and may be removed.

Gotta love those republican stooges squealing like piggies as they line up to feed at the mining industry’s money trough. Reminds me of the song “Pigs (3 different kinds)” by Pink Floyd, recorded more recently by the Kitchen Dwellers.

NMU’s dropping of support for a specific mine may be a good idea. Perhaps rather, NMU might better support the concept of mining the UP when mining company complies with all pertaining state and federal laws.

Although the UP is “littered with shuttered mines and their altered landscapes”, one must remember past mining occurred in the absence of adequate laws or concern for the environment. Except for the more recent discovery of selenium leaching from iron mine waste rock piles, I think the waste rock piles and iron mine pits are cool. Too bad they stopped doing tours. Negaunee’s Old Town landscape of collapsed mines is cool.

Eagle Mine will one day close and leave a minimal footprint that will mostly disappear over time as the forest reclaims it. The most permanent footprint will be the paved CR510 and AAA highway, which provides the Yellow Dog tree huggers quick and easy access to their properties.

It is unfortunate that the local Anishinabek people cannot take over the Eagle Mine above ground facilities near their sacred rock. These facilities could probably be modified into a walleye rearing facility.

Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park has definite legal boundaries. Related tourism will go on unimpeded and unreduced by the existence of a mine outside the park. (26, 252)

Tourism requires transportation of tourists. Transportation requires automobiles, ORVs, motorcycles, delivery trucks, airplanes, burning of fossil fuels, etc. Metals mining is required to build these vehicles. Are anti-mining interests merely NIMBYs who think it is acceptable to rape somebody else’s back yard for metals?

Much ado is made of Copperwood Resources being a subsidiary of a Canadian company, Highland Copper. So what? They still must follow our laws and rules. They cannot rape us any worse than some American companies currently do.

Much ado is made of the short-term boom/bust employment nature of mining. Again, so what? Construction itself is short term. Workers build a structure, complete the job and then move on to another job. Will anyone turn down a mining job just because it is “temporary”? Life itself is temporary.

Much ado is made of a mine hiring of non-residents. If the required expertise and skill does not exist locally, then of course outside help will be imported. However, locals will be hired and trained, just as the Eagle Mine has done. When Eagle Mine closes, many local trained, experienced people will become available to work the Copperwood mine.

Allowing the Copperwood mine to move forward will be a gamble. “Exact” figures computed by humans using quantitative mathematical models to estimate environmental impacts are automatically suspect because of assumptions and fudge factors used that build inaccuracies into the results. These models cannot accurately predict quantitative outcomes. However, they can qualitatively help predict the directions that processes will go, thus helping to identify what practices must be employed to protect the environment.

I personally am not excited about the prospect of a mine next to the park. However, metal mining is a “necessary evil” to support tourists, tourism and “going green.” Yoopers themselves are often tourists visiting areas outside the UP. Yooper’ enjoying the benefits of tourism in the U.P. should not expect all mining to occur in somebody else’s backyard.