Can mining be sustainable in Minnesota?

Back around the turn of the millennium, I read a book by John Elkington titled Cannibals With Forks. The title derives from a question the Polish poet Stanislaw Lec asked, “Is it progress if a cannibal uses a fork?” Reading recent articles about mining in Minnesota and the degree to which environmental regulators might be aiding and abetting mining companies who cannibalize Minnesota's social and natural environment, leads me to believe that, if we want to progress, it's past time for a new and more rigorous framework for permitting mines and mining in this state. We offer the following outline not because we expect it to be fully adopted, but because we've seen so little recognition that others have already mined the vein of making mining sustainable. (Sorry, couldn't resist.)

Let's start with four principles identified as a basis for The Natural Step approach to sustainability:

In a sustainable society, nature is not subject to systematically increasing …

1. … concentrations of substances from the earth’s crust (such as fossil CO2 and heavy metals),
2. … concentrations of substances produced by society (such as antibiotics and endocrine disruptors),
3. … degradation by physical means (such as deforestation and draining of groundwater tables),

…and in that society …

4. … there are no structural obstacles to people’s health, influence, competence, impartiality and meaning.

These factors are explored in some detail at Is there Mining in a Sustainable Society.

Another basic approach is described by Donella Meadows in Indicators and Information Systems for Sustainable Development, in which she wrote:

The three most basic aggregate measures of sustainable development are the sufficiency with which ultimate ends are realized for all people, the efficiency with which ultimate means are translated into ultimate ends, and the sustainability of use of ultimate means.

Those aggregate measures translate into the following basic hierarchy (see page 42 in the linked report for a more complete description):

• Well-being (ultimate ends)
• Social capital (intermediate ends)
• Human capital (intermediate means/ends)
• Built capital (intermediate means)
• Natural capital (ultimate means) 

To put it in simple terms related to mining, the natural capital of ore is extracted and processed using built and human capital that creates jobs in healthy communities (social capital) inhabited by fulfilled, healthy families living in a healthy environment (well-being).

iron mine "spoils" Minnesota's Iron Range

Photo by J. Harrington

Not many / any mining operations function sustainably today and, in historical terms, the situation has been even worse. That's why there are so many abandoned mines continuing to pollute the environment with toxic substances. We'll touch on some of those details in coming days. For now, be aware that there's a significant gap between any mining operation and a sustainable community, but, it may not have to be that way. To get near sustainable mining in Minnesota will require more than more stringent regulations. Would that it were that simple.

We're going to share the usual poem we put here a stanza at a time. It's a long poem but, we believe, fits really well with the theme.

Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings

By Joy Harjo

I am the holy being of my mother's prayer and my father's song
                                                      —Norman Patrick Brown, Dineh Poet and Speaker

1. SET CONFLICT RESOLUTION GROUND RULES:

Recognize whose lands these are on which we stand.
Ask the deer, turtle, and the crane.
Make sure the spirits of these lands are respected and treated with goodwill.
The land is a being who remembers everything.
You will have to answer to your children, and their children, and theirs—
The red shimmer of remembering will compel you up the night to walk the perimeter of truth for understanding.
As I brushed my hair over the hotel sink to get ready I heard:
By listening we will understand who we are in this holy realm of words.
Do not parade, pleased with yourself.
You must speak in the language of justice.

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