have we looked hard enough at a social license to mine?

We hope everyone gets to enjoy weather as nice as today is here. Temperatures in the low 70's, sunshine, slight breeze. If everyday were this nice, how long might it take for us to start wishing for a thunderstorm or something to break the monotony? We humans are a restless, cantankerous species.

can the Boundary Waters co-exist with mining?

Photo by J. Harrington

Off an on for several years now we've been posting about what we think are improved systems for managing mining exploration, permitting and operations. Our assessment is that some found our proposals interesting but of limited relevance. Energy has been devoted to stopping one of several proposals in Northern Minnesota, particularly PolyMet of Twin Metals.

Recently, the regime in Washington, D.C. has reopened the potential for mineral leasing near the Boundary Waters. We still don't believe the existing system of exploration, environmental review, more environmental review, law suits, games with state and federal legislation, and similar activities offers either a reasonable or a rational approach, but we've discovered some signs that offer hope that, if we manage to minimize and adapt to climate change so that we live long enough, we may some day figure out how to live on this earth without destroying its life and life-supporting systems, including those on which we rely.

Trout Unlimited [TU], at the national level opposes irresponsible mining. We certainly concur with that. In fact, we believe some of our donations help support such opposition. BUT, TU also "sees the potential for responsible mining, and is working with important industry partners, like Tiffany & Co., to encourage responsible mining and to clean up past mistakes."

The Minnesota Chapter of Trout Unlimited calls our attention to Sulfide-Ore Copper Mining and the Risks. The Montana Chapter of TU is supporting responsible mining through "ballot initiative I-186, which seeks to require new mines prove that their operations won’t require perpetual treatment of water polluted by mine waste."

Back in our home state, the Minnesota Environmental Partnership [MEP] asserts that "Sulfide mining in a water-rich environment like northern Minnesota is a high-risk gamble." However, a number of MEP's member organizations, with leadership by the North Star Chapter of the Sierra Club, recommend that "Minnesota should enact a “prove-it-first” law similar to Wisconsin’s sulfide mining moratorium, which prohibits metallic sulfide mines until they have been proven safe through long-term operation and closure of similar mines elsewhere." (We note reports that the Wisconsin law referenced was repealed last year.)

We suggest that, until the excessive and undue influence of corporate and dark dollars on local, state and federal politicians is reduced or eliminated, reliance on legislative solutions may be short-sighted and unduly optimistic. That's one of the reasons we think much more attention should be focused in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Montana, and similar locations on both an approach like TU's and on the mining sector's growing sensitivity to securing a "social license" to operate.

Once the World Was Perfect

By Joy Harjo

Once the world was perfect, and we were happy in that world.

Then we took it for granted.

Discontent began a small rumble in the earthly mind.

Then Doubt pushed through with its spiked head.

And once Doubt ruptured the web,

All manner of demon thoughts

Jumped through—

We destroyed the world we had been given

For inspiration, for life—

Each stone of jealousy, each stone

Of fear, greed, envy, and hatred, put out the light.

No one was without a stone in his or her hand.

There we were,

Right back where we had started.

We were bumping into each other

In the dark.

And now we had no place to live, since we didn't know

How to live with each other.

Then one of the stumbling ones took pity on another

And shared a blanket.

A spark of kindness made a light.

The light made an opening in the darkness.

Everyone worked together to make a ladder.

A Wind Clan person climbed out first into the next world,

And then the other clans, the children of those clans, their children,

And their children, all the way through time—

To now, into this morning light to you.

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Please be kind to each other while you can.