dKos: Bureau of Indian Affairs to Investigate Possible Treaty Violations in Mining Bill

[mojowork_n]

The comments section after the post has some interesting information:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/01/29/1059750/-Bureau-of-Indian-Affairs-to-Investigate-Possible-Treaty-Violations-in-Wisconsin-Mining-Bill?via=sidebar

On Thursday, January 26th, the lower house of the Wisconsin legislature (the Assembly) passed a bill to exempt iron ore mining from most of Wisconsin's environmental regulations. The bill passed on a party line vote with Republicans in favor and Democrats opposed. The bill had no sponsors in the legislature and was introduced to the body as a whole by a committee. No individual legislator will take credit for authoring the bill, and it is generally accepted that the bill was written by Gogebic Taconite, the company which will be the sole beneficiary of the exemption.

The bill was rammed through the Assembly over strong objections from environmental groups and Native American tribes whose land and water will be threatened by the open pit mine proposed in northern Wisconsin by Gogebic Taconite.

From way down in the comments section, I read this accusation made by Jack Parker, a "semi-retired mining engineer who lives in the Upper Peninsula."

He's quoted as saying:

"...Like most scams it has to be completed immediately, before anybody has seen through it. Mr Williams, the Front Man, does his best to hustle us with promises and threats. That is normal in the promotion of a scam.
Unfortunately there is no mine. That should be obvious to all. And you wouldn’t buy an invisible truck, would you?
There is a lot of talk about “the orebody”. People on both sides of the issue have fallen into that trap – use the term often enough and they will begin to believe it. Legislators are the worst offenders because they pretend to represent us.
But there simply is no orebody. By definition it would be a mineral deposit which can be mined at a profit. Nobody has seen one, seen pictures of one, read descriptions of one, not even seen convincing evidence which would lead to one. It is a figment of a Florida imagination.
Granted that there is iron in the formations there – but no evidence that it will be in a continuous body rich enough to mine and concentrate into pellet form. Mr Williams himself has told us that nobody has studied the chemistry of the deposit. Thanks Mr. W.
It would therefore be wise to drop the subject and prosecute the would-be winners - who have cost us time and money.
It would also be wise for all involved in the arguments and in the legislation to admit that they had been deceived, had been foolish, and were unfit for public office."