(Last) weekend's Protect the Earth Summit turned out to be even more successful and amazing than any of us anticipated.

Indicative of how broad the opposition is to metallic sulfide mining along the Great Lakes, there was a wide diversity of attendees that included members of the Mole Lake Sakaogon Chippewa, a strong group that successfully stopped Exxon, BHP-Billiton, Rio Algom from opening a mine right next to their reservation in Wisconsin.

In a response to the event, Jon Cherry says that because of activities like Protect the Earth, Kennecott is now "better able to ensure our plans and activities align as closely as possible with the community's priorities."

Protect the Earth (of) 2008 reminds Kennecott that this community's priority is to protect our valuable and sacred freshwater. Attendees affirmed that the only "plans and activities" Kennecott has community permission to perform is to pack up and leave.

Cherry maintains the company's Flambeau Mine "was successfully reclaimed nearly 11 years ago" and that Kennecott received a certificate of completion for the mine.

It is true that Kennecott received that certificate. They were able to do so because it doesn't address the actual 32-acre mine site and did not include consideration of groundwater issues, only the surface.

This worked well for Kennecott because the company buried its waste, unlined, right at the site and that waste will be, according to Kennecott's own figures, leaking high amounts of heavy metals and other contaminants into the Flambeau River for tens of thousands of years.

I propose a debate between Cherry and Laura Furtman, an expert on what Kennecott did and did not do at the Flambeau Mine. Furtman can bring the Wisconsin DNR and Kennecott's own data showing the mine is polluted and Cherry can bring his wishful thinking.

I am not sure how Cherry defends the idea that "support has grown over the years for the Eagle Project."

The same proponents of the project today have endorsed for years, before anything was even known about it or a mine plan formed - the Chamber of Commerce, various politicians, Kennecott/Rio Tinto employees and people that are on the payroll or think they will make money off of it.

Gabriel Caplett

Skandia