Bristol Bay Mine Development Case Study

Northeastern MN that has stirred up a healthy amount of controversy for multiple reasons. I am for the proposed PolyMet mine for the sheer reason that we need the materials. A very noticeable percentage of our earth relies on materials from mines to thrive and grow economically. It would be nearly impossible to substitute all the metals from mines that we use every day.

The owners of the mines preyed on immigrants from outside of the United States with promises of bringing them to the United States, bringing them to Colorado, setting them up with a job and housing and

To what extent does the Athabasca Oil Sands take responsibility in promoting environmental stewardship? The Oil Sands are a mixture of sand, water, clay and bitumen. Bitumen is oil that is too heavy or thick to flow or be pumped without being diluted or heated. Throughout many decades, the environment has become a critical concern, and the responsibility the Oil Sands has taken is preposterous. The GHG (greenhouse gas emissions) emissions that are released into the environment undermines its practices. The only way environmental stewardship can be encouraged, is if the Oil Sands discontinues its oil development. Other alternatives such as stricter rules and regulations should be placed by the government of Alberta to ameliorate the environment.

What some people may be worried about is the fact that this mine could destroy the wonderful peace of the Boundary Waters, for at least 20 years while PolyMet does their mining. The Boundary Waters are located in one of the 12 places on Earth where you can go 15 minutes without hearing human noise. You can ask pretty much anyone who has been to the Boundary Waters, and they will tell you just how peaceful and serene it is. I honestly think 20 years worth of jobs in that area cannot match up to the amazing environment that is already there.

The first reason is the pollution. Any major mining excavation creates a huge amount of waste. This waste is toxic to the environment, and the method for containing it is not 100% guaranteed. They store this waste in large man made holes called tailing dams. There have been many reports of these storage structures breaking and spilling the waste all over the land. This waste would pollute the land and make it uninhabitable. The most affected would be the salmon. Salmon fishing is huge part of the Alaskan life and if the salmon were affected by the mining, a lot of people would lose their jobs.

In Virginia alone about 28,000 jobs will be created such as engineers and oil supply developers. The drilling will affect each state in some way weather it be transportation, stocking, manufacturing or a vast number of jobs. What better way to help American citizens than making national jobs instead of creating foreign jobs.

The combination of exciting and aggressive vocals, repeated and slick melodies of the lead guitar; composed to encourage the motion of the air guitar and an enthusiastic 2-4 drum beat giving the songs a steady beat to tap along with, makes rock an unique and awesome genre. Rock combines characteristics of blues, country, folk, jazz, funk and classical music into one of the most thriving forms of Australian music. However, rock truly started during 1980’s, where composers experimented with their songs, creating a unique sound to the rest of the world. Furthermore, no one does this well than the band midnight oil and their song Blue Sky Mine.

One of the many reasons why I believe that the mine should be relocated is because of the toxins that the mine would create. The toxins will penetrate through the ground and into the ground water, which will flow into the rivers and into Bristol Bay where the salmon

The dependency on mining during the 19th and 20th centuries crippled the Upper Peninsula’s economy, causing a diaspora of migrants looking for work to head to lower Michigan, or other states. Mines began to close as ore prices heavily decreased, where Northern Michigan’s economy crumbled, towns became deserted, and the wealth the peninsula had once seen dwindled. Despite this, the Upper Peninsula’s economy has been on the rebound, as “Over the last forty years, average income per resident… has risen 71 percent, almost as fast as the national growth rate and much faster than the growth rate across Michigan. In addition the total income received by all residents together grew 65 percent in inflation adjusted terms. Jobs expanded by a third” (1). The economic sustenance from mining would only incur further economic degradation by pushing the reliance of mining onto a community still struggling from when it was taken away. Mining is still profitable for the region, and would conclude with a starting point for the Northern Michigan economies to gain income to plan greater economic outputs, where “The Eagle Mine… will pump $4 billion into Marquette County over its eight-year lifespan and employ about 300 while generating economic activity that will create 1,200 additional jobs” (2). The lifespan of a mine gives the region a timeframe of when they will expect to be forced to search for different fiscal opportunities, or give them a window of how long they have to find new generators of income to subsidize their current economic fallings. Mining reserves would be able to prolong the life of the mine, furthering the amount of time the region has to structure their economies on other sustainable means, as “unlike most goods and services, copper is an exhaustible resource” concluding that there “are therefore limits to cumulative copper production”

In Appalachia laws had to be passed to keep coal companies from buying mineral rights and forcing people off of their land. If a company had the rights to the minerals under the property, they could mine without consent. It is hard to bear the thought of someone being that ruthless, but greed can drive man to do horrible things. Thankfully, laws were passed that helped the owners of the land, surface owners, to be compensated. The owner of the natural resources, mineral owners, must pay the land owner a royalty for extracting the natural resource from the property. Also, all damages done to the property were covered by the company ("Kentucky Division of Oil and Gas"). A small price to pay for multi-millionaires to increase their vast

In addition to concern about changes, was if drilling were to happen the negatives it would create to the tundra. Drilling on any form of earth is harmful in general. But because of how beloved the terrain is to the native, it only creates more conflicts.

The Gold King Mine is also known as the as one of the biggest disaster, that has occurred within the waters of the United States, and is located in Silverton Colorado. This mountain wasn’t even being an ideal site for mining. It was just noticed by a miner, named Olaf Nelson, and he wasn’t even sure that this would even be the ideal site. This was around 1887, and wasn’t until 1894 a mine manager known as Will Z. Kenney discovered a location that contained minerals and decided to go for it. Eventually they ran out of minerals to find, and was discontinued around the 1900’s due to underground mine workings, waste rock dumps, piles of mine tailing, and open mine pit mining operations were discontinued including the fact that it was untreated. Thus eventually the Gold King Mine turned into one of the largest source of water pollution in the United States, once something or someone would mess with it. Ultimately a

During the late 1800s iron mining was at its peak and was most profitable. Minnesota had some of the biggest mines in the U.S.A. In all in the late 1800s the U.S. had mined over 42.5 BILLION metric tons of iron. This was mostly due to the fact that new equipment came out that made iron ore mining easier and faster.

Abbey felt that such a money driven institution does not care about preserving the environment, and that if given the opportunity, would destroy the environment to gain an extra couple of bucks. ////insert bad fact about strip mining operations /// As a result of these horrendous mining operations; whole mountains and valleys are removed from existence. What’s even worse these areas are often polluted with harsh chemicals that prevent growth even decades after. Abbey fought these operations by lashing out against these such operations, in his book The Journey Home////insert quote about strip mining operations///. Although not totally banned, strip mining operations still go on in the US today, but they are now much more regulated and limited in size. Even if Abbey was not completely successful on that front; he still educated people in the horrible effects of strip mining. People now look at strip mining operations as a negative impact on the environment, and thanks to the ever improving nuclear energy field as well as the much environmentally improved hydro dams. Coal Consumption is at an all-time low, and only very few collectable steam engines still use it.

The founding and orientation of this town is towards mining iron ore. The coastline near the area of Port Hedland had been explored in the 1700's by Captain Peter Hedland, of which the town was named after. He was one of the first Europeans to explore the region to develop an export port due to its natural harbor. "Peter Hedland arrived in the area in April 1863 onboard his boat, Mystery that he had built himself at Point Walter on the banks of the Swan River. He named the harbour Mangrove Harbour and reported that it would make a good landing site with a well protected harbour and that there was also fresh water available." (Hardie 1981) Near the harbor of Port Hedland was built a beach front immigration detention facility that housed immigrants first made in 1991. People labled as "Boat People" thought of Port Hedland as a good place to seek asylum and were soon deported after the immigration facility was put into effect. Presently due to the demand for housing and an increase in iron ore production, it closed down the facility in 2004 and used it to house iron ore workers.