Some info on mining in N. Wisconsin

[mojowork_n]

From our friends' up North. Interesting comments following the story, too:

http://wcmcoop.com/2012/02/18/facade-of-responsible-mining-crumbles-new-mining-bill-misleads-the-public/

...the bill uses the terms “ferrous” to mean iron oxide ore, and “sulfide” to mean sulfide ore, presumed to be two different types of ore. But iron ore is associated with varying amounts of sulfide in the form of pyrite (ferrous sulfide). By distinguishing the two as different, Huberty claims the language hides the fact that there are sulfide minerals in the iron ore.

“The committee is not talking about this, but the bill treats the waste rock from the mine as if it does not contain the sulfide minerals. Representative Tiffany testified that the chemicals to process sulfide won’t be needed based on the mining of ferrous oxide, thereby taking out one of the risks. But this is a lie,” states Huberty.

“He also says this is a 21st century mining bill, and not like the 19th century mining bills. The fact is, their mining was safer. It took millions of year to concentrate the iron at the surface. And that iron, on the surface, has mostly been removed. What remains,” said Huberty, “is an iron that is approximately 60% waste silica.” And according to the only study ever done on the iron ore of the region, sulfide is present everywhere in the area. The implication is that the overburden, or what is left after the ore is removed, will be filled with sulfide ore.

Huberty’s testimony left Vos scrambling to divert attention away from his statements. Rushing through objections, Vos refused to allow questions and stubbornly continued reading off names of those who were to testify. Next up in the queue, however, was Huberty’s associate Joseph Skulan....

Edit to add:

This isn't new stuff but you probably haven't seen it referred to in your local paper, or on the TeeVee news. It was new to me, so I posted.

[hue]

1. Thanks for posting!! Vos can't answer questions--he's too stupid to do so..n/t

[mojowork_n]

2. The flip side of what's revealed here....

....that the possibility exists that the mining will cause "100's of
millions... billions of gallons of sulfuric acid being produced..."

is what we already knew, that aside from the toxic impurities,
this is really low, low grade ore and it will be difficult and expensive
to extract it.

Below a certain concentration, because taconite is less than 50% iron, you
can't use magnets. (Which the Gogebic Mining website proudly
touts as what they'll be doing.)

So what was posted elsewhere in this forum, earlier, about this
mining bill really being about fracking, and sand mining, is making
more sense.

Corporate bait and switch, to stick taxpayers with the inevitable
cleanup costs and consequences.

[Scuba]

3. During testimony for the last version of this monstrosity, the Repukes said under oath....

... that the bill did not change any of Wisconsin's environmental standards (as a previous version had).

What they failed to mention was that their bill exempted Geobic mining from all the Wisconsin environmental standards.


These fuckers are NOT to be trusted.