$50 million dollars of funding to support a copper mine project in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula has been cut from the new state budget.
The mine has been incredibly controversial. It received support from economic developers and some local lawmakers, while other lawmakers as well as some environmental groups voiced concerns.
In charge of the project is Highland Copper, a Canadian-based company with a U.S. subsidiary, Copperwood Resources Inc. According to the company’s website, the creation of the mine will boost the economy in the area, creating 300 construction jobs while meeting the state’s mining and environmental regulations. It is projected to generate a total capital of $425 million.
The project would be placed next to the Porcupine Mountains, Michigan’s largest state park at nearly 60,000 acres. It would be the closest facility to Lake Superior on record.
Tom Grotewohl is the founder of Protect the Porkies campaign. Grotewohl said that concerns over disruptions to outdoor recreation and negative impacts on the environment were the reasons why he does not support the implementation of the mining project.
Tribal Nation & Indigenous-led Organizations said in a letter to Governor Whitmer that the site lies within homelands ceded under the 1842 Treaty of La Pointe, where their people retain rights to hunt, fish, and gather. Industrial mining on this scale threatens those rights, the letter read.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), copper mining makes up the largest percentage of processing waste in the US. The agency stated that mining of copper can concentrate and extract radioactive materials.
Grotewohl said that the project’s ore grade is 1.45%, meaning that for every ton of extract, 30 pounds would be copper and the other 1,970 pounds extracted would be waste.
A 2012 study found that over 90 percent of copper sulfide mines failed to contain seepage, spilling toxic waste materials into their surrounding areas. Grotewohl fears the mine could contaminate Lake Superior, the largest freshwater source on the North American continent.
Highland Copper said that the mine project would help revitalize communities, and has received public support from twenty-two units of government, ranging from townships to county boards. It said that the project would reduce reliance on foreign markets and help mitigate the growing copper supply deficiency.
Grotewohl is more skeptical. He said that prospective jobs would last 10.7 years at the maximum, which is the planned duration of the project.
“No amount of jobs justifies a terrible idea,” Grotewohl said. “Storing all that waste next to Lake Superior, 100 feet from Porcupine State park is a terrible idea.”
Harvard Economist James Stock’s research found that initially, mining is economically beneficial, but it erodes over time.
“I think it was very wise to cut funding for infrastructure in uninhabited areas, especially in a place where people visit to escape all of that stuff,” Grotewohl said. “There just aren't enough gains to outweigh the significant harms of this project.”
Grotewohl said their campaign will continue, because the project could still advance through private investment or other funding sources.
