MINING COMPANY WITHDRAWS PERMIT FOR ACID SOLUTION MINE
Michigan decision may have impact on Wisconsin sulfide mining

On Thursday afternoon, May 29, the Copper Range Corporation withdrew its permit for acid solution mining at the White Pine copper mine in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) water manager Jody Traub telephoned Chippewa tribal chairs from the EPA Region V office in Chicago around 3 pm to inform them of the company's decision.

Midwest Treaty Network spokesperson Walter Bresette hailed the company move as a major victory for grassroots environmental organizing and traditional Native American activism. "The death of the White Pine mine shows that mining companies are now on the run in our region. We anticipate the company withdrawal to begin a domino effect across the North Country. Today White Pine, tomorrow Crandon!"

A Copper Range letter stated that the current delays in permitting the acid solution pilot project, and anticipated future lawsuits, are creating "uncertainty" that renders the acid project "economically infeasible." The project would have reopened the White Pine mine, which was closed in 1995, in order to extract or leach out the remaining copper ore with a sulfuric acid solution.

The White Pine acid solution mining project was the cause of a train blockade on the Bad River Chippewa Reservation in northern Wisconsin last year. The Anishinabe Ogitchida (Protectors of the People) blocked the Wisconsin Central Railroad tracks from July 22 to August 18 out of fear that sulfuric acid being transported in tanker cars to White Pine would spill into reservation waterways.

For background on the blockade and the White Pine mine:
Blockade at Bad River Ojibwa Reservation.

For comments, call Walter Bresette at:
Midwest Treaty Network Northwest Wisconsin office at (715) 779-5071.

Witness request from Bad River Aug. 1997