Mine project at issue
To the Journal editor:
Oh, the political drama! With all of the Republican legislators lined up in a column on the front page of the Jan. 8 Mining Journal, it looked like someone just rang the come-and-get-it Highland Copper dinner bell.
Disheartened by the withdrawal of support from Northnern Michigan University, the Republican legislators all tried to plead the case for allowing Copperwood Resources to establish a copper mine alongside Upper Peninsula’s Porcupine Mountain Wilderness State Park.
The legislators got one thing right. Residents of the U.P. understand the benefits and costs of mining. The jobs pay well, but for how long and for how many?
The Upper Peninsula is littered with shuttered mines and their altered landscapes. The Eagle Mine will one day, too, leave its footprint. And we all remember the Torch Lake superfund site.
Copperwood Resources is a subsidiary of Highland Copper, headquartered out of Toronto, Canada. Cleveland Cliffs stock currently sits around $9.75 per share. Highland Copper stock (HDRSF) is on life support, barely registering at 6 cents (US), not very reassuring.
Highland Copper also owns White Pine Copper, which is interested in extracting copper from the old White Pine Mine site in Ontonagon County. Highland Copper is projecting the White Pine mine-life to be 22 years with a processing rate of 15,000 tonnes of ore per day (highlandcopper.com/projects). The White Pine Mine is a brownfield site and the best alternative.
I would like to direct our Republican legislator’s attention to an article published on uppermichigansource.com (TV6), April 17, 2024, titled “New Data Details Impact of Tourism in Western U.P.”
At point was a study conducted by University of Michigan’s Economic Growth Institute. They concluded that the economic impact of tourism in the western U.P. amounted to $350 million per year.
I am sure that the study considered businesses such as hotels, gas stations, restaurants, convenient stores, campsites, grocery stores, retail outlets, bars, and even commercial rentals. Hundreds of businesses, and thousands of jobs.
To be considered a natural resource, you don’t have to cut it down or dig it up. Pristine forests and woodlands are dwindling at an accelerated rate. Why, then, allow a Canadian mining company to unnecessarily put at risk one of the most beautiful and lush areas of the U.P.?
The tourists come to see, enjoy, and take advantage of the natural beauty found in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Like the sun and sand of Florida, the U.P.’s golden goose is green. Don’t kill it.