Forgrave, R.(2017, October 17). “In Northern Minnesota, Two Economies Square Off: Mining vs. Wilderness.” The New York Times,  Retrieved October 26, 2017 from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/12/magazine/in-northern-minnesota-two-economies-square-off-mining-vs-wilderness.html

 

This article focuses on the debate between mining and conservation in a town filled with rocks as old as 3.5 billion years old. The town of Ely has a very rich history – literally! 2.7 billion years ago, under what’s now known as Minnesota’s state border with Canada, there was basalt lava flowing, hardening, and eventually becoming a bedrock of granite and greenstone. About a billion years later, a layer of sedimentary rock that is immensely rich in iron formed and layered on top of the granite. Not long after that, a 50-mile wide crack or fissure of the Earth’s crust stretched from Lake Superior to Kansas, resulting in the formation of mineral deposits rising up to the surface. Settlers founded and populated the town of Ely because they knew that they can easily make a living off of the minerals inside the rocks. The rocks are an integral part of Ely; however, so is the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, a conservation area that is home to wilderness and thousands of lakes. The Twin Metals Minnesota mining company wants to extract valuable metals a few miles from the Boundary Waters area. This would provide an immense supply of copper, nickel, platinum, palladium, gold, silver, and jobs to the state of Minnesota.

President Obama rejected a renewal of the mining company’s project and decided to suspend the project while an investigation is carried out to figure out if it is indeed safe to mine near the Boundary Waters. Forgrave said, “Mining advocates stress the hundreds of tangible construction and mining jobs this copper-nickel operation could create in the coming decades. Boundary Waters activists argue that the very presence of mining — its disruption of this area’s natural character, not to mention the specter of pollution — could hamper the region’s “amenity-based” development in a multitude of tangible and intangible ways, from destroying property values to stripping away jobs that feed off this area’s natural beauty.” There are definitely pros and cons to both views. Mining opens up more job opportunities, greater resources, and a continuous source to sustain a growing town. On the other hand, mining in that location would ultimately destroy a very important conservation and wilderness site and there is always a risk of water contamination. In the town of Ely, people move there for two sole reasons: to live off the mines or to appreciate the nature.

Dan Forsman, a miner, was born in Ely and understands both aspects of the debate. He believes that copper mining, clean water, and the preservation of nature can all coexist if done the right way. However, that is not always the case because many things can go wrong while mining. On the other side, Ely’s population has declined by 30% and due to that, many people are out of jobs. There are not enough students in the town to hire more teachers and employers continue to cut down on workers to support themselves and the lower population number. The mining project of the Twin Metals Minnesota company would bring many new jobs to the town of Ely, sparking a better economy. The other problem with this debate is that people automatically associate the word “mining” with “damage.” Many people are uneducated and do not know where certain materials come from. They do not understand that we need these minerals to make everyday materials. While rowing a canoe, Becky Rom, an anti-mining activist, pointed at some white pines and said, “This would be all mines. The noise, the lights, the dust, it would be everywhere.” Ely was rated as one of the world’s greatest outdoor towns by National Geographic, which proves the immense worth of the Boundary Waters.

There was a survey done to see what the residents of Ely think and it was found that they oppose copper mining near the Boundary Waters by more than two to one. There are numerous instances in which a mining job went wrong and ultimately left a huge terrible impact on a city or town. One example being the 2014 Mount Polley Disaster. Peter Moskowitz said, “The dam collapse occurred at the Imperial Metals Mount Polley gold and copper mine near the town of Likely, in the Cariboo region of British Columbia. The dam’s failure was catastrophic, allowing nearly the entire contents of the mine’s tailings pond – an area the size of New York’s Central Park holding years’ worth of mining waste – to flow out into Hazeltine Creek, Polley Lake and Quesnel lake.” This kind of catastrophe can happen anywhere and many people believe that more jobs and resources are not worth such a high cost.

This debate also affects many people’s political perspectives. The miners and pro-mining residents of Ely were pro-Trump simply because Hillary Clinton said, “We’re going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business.” This caused even more argument in the town of Ely; however, the majority of Minnesota did agree with Clinton. Many people believe that air pollution and water contamination is not worth the minerals and jobs produced by mining. I am in the middle on this issue and believe that mining definitely has a big impact on the town of Ely and it is a part of what keeps it going. However, I do not think mining should be done anywhere where it will pose such a huge risk as it does with the mining project near Boundary Waters.

Works Cited:

Forgrave, R.(2017, October 17). “In Northern Minnesota, Two Economies Square Off: Mining vs. Wilderness.” The New York Times,  Retrieved October 26, 2017 from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/12/magazine/in-northern-minnesota-two-economies-square-off-mining-vs-wilderness.html

Moskowitz, P.(2014, August 13). “Mount Polley Mine Spill: a hazard of Canada’s industry-friendly attitude.” The Guardian, Retrieved October 26, 20017 from https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/aug/13/mount-polley-mine-spill-british-columbia-canada