Case Study: Polymet

Polyface is an economically and sustainable family-owned farm evolved during the transition from a stereotypical polyculture configuration to less labor-intensive single output farms. Started in the year 1961, it was formally taken over by Salatin in the year 1982. It has a 550-acre property (100 acres of pasture and 450 acres of woodland) in Virginia. There were 6 full-time employees with the farm:

In addition to environmental concerns, opponents argue that government regulation is too lax and as Bahr states, “It is all too easy to mine on public lands and the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management have made it extremely easy to validate claims.” Although uranium miners recognize federal obligations to reclaim operation sites Roger Clark, Grand Canyon Program

Recently, a contractor working for the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) unintentionally released 3 million gallons of toxic mine waste into the Animas River in the Mountain West state of Colorado. Today, people in the US are debating the efficacy of the EPA (the right-wing is using the spill as anti-government propaganda) and the toxic aftermath the spill will undoubtedly have on local economies, communities and ecosystems. So far, the spill has "contaminated the Animas River, San Juan River, and the Colorado River in Utah."

Alaska should not allow the Pebble Partnership to build the Pebble Creek mine in Southwest Alaska. The benefits of the mine are nothing compared to what would happen to the environment if the mine were to be built. First off, the people in this region make their living off of the salmon who live in the rivers. If the mine were to be built, those rivers would become polluted and all of the salmon would die, meaning that everyone there would have to find a new way to survive. Not only would the rivers and water sources be polluted, but the environment in general. The mine would generate about ten billion tons of waste. This would then go onto pollute the air, kill many of the plants, and harm the animals in the region. While the Pebble Partnership

Copper is a common material used in our daily lives. We use it for electrical generators and electrical wiring. It is used in our phones and other technology. With the increase in demand for technology, the need for copper for those products has also increased. Twin Metals is a Minnesota mining company that wants to open an underground copper mine near the boundary waters. The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) is a Minnesota preserve in the Superior National Forest that has hiking trails and lakes for canoeing. They do not allow motorised vehicles on the preserve. The question I’m investigating is “Can Twin Metals open and safely operate a copper mine near the BWCAW?”

Mining companies haven’t improved the conditions of these communities rather, they’ve mistreated and abused their power. Something’s that attribute to mining is displacement of communities, poor work conditions, mining induces violence and conflict. Therefore, turning a blind to these issues is an easy way to disregard the fact that Canadian policies are false and

Identify one of the parties involved in the issues of coal mining and explain that party’s interest in the issue. One of the biggest industries described in the movie is Massey Energy. This is a large coal mining industry that is mining the Appalachia Mountains. They do not believe they are doing any harm. The workers truly think that they are putting the mountains back to how they left them. To the CEO and president of the company though, they know what they’re doing isn’t right. However, money seems to be more important to them than the lives of the

As humans we rely on the resources around us because we do not have fur coats to protect us from weather, or fast speed to keep us safe from predators. The resources we need have to be mined, and thus the PolyMet mine debate is born. The PolyMet mine is a great idea, and we should follow through with it.

PolyMet is the first of a long list of companies that hope to take advantage of the world’s largest untouched deposit of copper located beneath northeast Minnesota near Hoyt Lakes. The company is hopping to divulge 600 million dollars to operate an old mine in that area. The company has held multiple town meeting in hopes to sway the public into agreeing with the construction of the mine. Though this operation will create a lot of jobs (over 400 permanent jobs and thousands of temporary ones) it should immediately be halted due to not only environmental concerns but also ethics and moral concerns. This project should be halted because it has a sustained life span of two decades, PolyMet is backed by a questionable company, and

PolyMet is planning on mining for copper, nickel, and cobalt in northeast Minnesota. PolyMet will be mining in an area of 6,650 acres which they will be exchanging with The Forest Service for 6,690 acres of PolyMet’s land. There mining operation will go on for 20 years and will process 225 million tons of ore. The project will employ 360 people directly and around 600 people indirectly, and will have an estimated earnings of $515 million annually. Ones they have the correct permits it will take 18-24 months.

“Past uranium mining has contaminated homes, land, and soil at 520 cites across the Navajo Nation… drinking water from at least 22 wells are unfit for consumption… and researchers have documented numerous cancers… among Navajo people attributable to radiation” (Minard, 2). On the other hand, the health effects of coal “emissions result in asthma, bronchitis, heart attack, and premature death” (Rowe, 2). With the extreme dependence on coal for energy in Arizona the health effects of the mining are not researched because without coal many cities will not have energy. “There are no independent studies showing the impact of the mines on the health of the people in the tribal lands” (Rowe, 2). This illustrates a huge point in the exploitation of the Indigenous people. Showing how the government and big companies only care about profit and providing cities with power rather than the health of the Navajo and Hopi who provide this resource. The Indigenous People’s health is not a priority but their manual labor is crucial for the company’s profit. So until there are not enough Indigenous People to work the mines their health will not be a prime

Northern. Ontario is an area richly endowed with metallic mineral resources. It is one of the most important mineral resource regions in Canada if not in the world. One only needs to look at the volume of mineral production to support this view. The region produces nearly half of the world’s nickel and a substantial portion of the nation’s gold, silver, copper, zinc, uranium, cobalt and platinum metals. For a hundred years the federal and Provincial governments have mismanaged these non renewable mineral resources and our renewable forestry resources and in doing

Mountain Top removal mining (MTM), is decimating some of the last pristine environments left in our country, and it needs to stop. The devastation left in the wake of mans’ pursuit to satisfy his insatiable greed for energy, is nothing shy of a brutal crime scene. I feel, like many others, it has got to be stopped, and replaced with a more sensible, and appropriate, appetite for energy. The severe health, and environmental risks are abundant, yet we continue to mask this atrocity behind statistics, and well-orchestrated advertising. As noted by RP Siegel of Triple Pundit Magazine (April 2012), “Coal contains the most CO2 per BTU, the largest contributor to global warming.” Obviously, this should be enough to convince the average, sensible individual that there is no more tolerance for continued MTM practices. However, big mining companies continue to destroy delicate ecosystems, rural family lands, and cause irreversible damage to the geological infrastructure of the land.

Mining is the process or industry of obtaining coal or other minerals from a mine. A new mining project, called the Back Forty, is was proposed and is located on the Michigan and Wisconsin border. This project is said to begin around 2020 and created concern for some people. The Aquila Resources Inc. is the company behind this proposal, and they said “it will invest more than $300 million to extract gold, zinc, copper and silver along the Menominee River” (Bergquist, 2016). The Menominee river is part of the border between Wisconsin and Michigan. The mine will have large effects on the environment and economy for Lake Michigan and Wisconsin. The next paragraphs will discuss the positive and negative effects that the Back Forty could create. One side would be for the mine and say that the economic benefits would outweigh the negative effects on the environment, while the opposing side would say the opposite.

Although the extremist may not be the voice of the masses, they are definitely the loudest voices. These voices usually point their hate speech and angry protests at something called “forced pooling”. They take stabs at the idea, saying it's the private version of “Public Domain”; that it's destroying our environment by destroying the local ecosystem, but have very little evidence to back their outlandish claims and the evidence they do show is very circumstantial or a result of scares, random accidents. These groups are willfully ignorant to the benefits of forced pooling and how it actually protects the land/mineral rights of citizens instead of taking it. To explain forced pooling and its benefits we must first understand the concept of mineral rights versus surface rights, as well as what a mineral lease consists