CONTESTED LANDSCAPE(S) Staking Claims in Michigan’s Copper Country Elizabeth Yarina | Masters of Architecture + Masters of City Planning 2016 Abstract Massachusetts Institute of Technology Competing claims to rural landscapes broaden definitions of nature and resource in the context of Michigan’s Copper Country. In the Upper Peninsula’s new copper sulfide mining region, various actor groups stake claims on the same physical spaces. Different landscape objects (copper composites, aquifers, mineral lodes) are ascribed importance by these groups based on unique valuation regimes (i.e. hydrological, cultural, historical, or economic). These competing claims are further problemetized by complex ownership structures where surface and mineral rights are owned and operated by different stakeholders, and where biological and hydrological systems operate irrelevant of property boundaries. Thus, territorial claims manifest themselves across permeable horizontal and vertical spatial layers.
Introduction: Conflict in the Copper Country In 2002, transnational mining company Kennecott Minerals discovered a rich body of copper sulfide ore below the forests of Marquette County near the shores of Lake Superior. Although copper mining was 01 Signage protesting the historically the primary industry in the Western proposed Eagle copper Upper Peninsula, new and proposed mines near sulfide mine in 2007. Source: Carlos Osorio Marquette harvest toxic copper sulfide instead Traverse City Record-Eagle of the native (pure) copper of the Keweenaw range. While native copper requires minimal processing, copper sulfide mining produces toxic sulfuric acid when it comes into contact with air and water. Water is introduced both through rainwater or leaks in the mine shaft, and through refining, where water is introduced to crushed rock to produce slurry. The area in
2 Yarina | 3 which Eagle Mine and the nearby processing economic one, where copper sulfide in the plant Humboldt Mill were proposed and ground is potential capital to be harvested. eventually built spans territories and objects For the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, of interest to a diverse array groups leading to the narrative is one of heritage, where cultural resounding opposition to the project. values are closely tied to the elements of earth, water, plants, and animals. While their interests The copper mining industry largely left span landscape preservation across the Lake ADD CITATIONS FOR LOCAL Michigan’s Upper Peninsula in the mid- Superior watershed, their interest is heightened twentieth century, when a combination of by the mines adjacency to Eagle Rock, and the economics, labor supply, and extraction methods NEWS SOURCES. lack of access to this site instigated by the mine. made copper mining much cheaper elsewhere in Eagle Mine lies at the perimeter of the Yellow the world, particularly Chile’s Atacama region. Dog Watershed, and the Yellow Dog Watershed In spite of the fact that the Keweenaw Peninsula Preserve (YDWP) claims landscape value has the world’s largest deposit of native copper, through narratives of biodiversity, hydrology, deep fissures and incredibly large veins make SIDE IMAGES? and ecology, particularly in relationship to its extraction a laborious process. However, the rare Jack Pine habitats and the endangered discovery of an accessible copper sulfide lode Kirtland Warbler. For the exclusive members in Marquette county in 2002, combined with of the Huron Mountain Club, their high-end rising copper prices, has led to a return of copper rural retreats in 20 square miles of perimeter mining interests to the region. When Kennecott patrolled land share watersheds, air, and fish and Minerals company requested to lease mineral game stocks with the Eagle Mine just 3 miles rights for the construction of Eagle Mine from from their boundary. For these elite, ownership Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources of “untouched wilderness” serves as an exclusive in 2007, a number of groups stepped forward mark of status and as a luxury commodity. to contest this landscape claim. One of the strongest voices opposing the mine has been The introduction of copper sulfide mining in 02 Swyngedouw, Erik. the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community (KBIC), Marquette County has brought contestation “Depoliticized Environments: The end of Nature, Climate who claim Eagle Rock (located on top of the over rights to the landscape by these diverse Change, and the Post-Political sulfide lode) as a sacred site. In 2008 the KBIC groups, each claiming different values of Condition.” Royal Institute of launched three state and local cases against landscape or nature relating to overlapping Philosophy Supplement, 69, Kennecott questioning the legality of their surface and subsurface materials. While anti- pp 253-274. mining permits alongside the National Wildlife mining groups may operationalize, value, or Federation, Yellow Dog Watershed Preserve narrate different aspects of the landscape in (a local conservancy organization), and Huron different ways, opposition to the Eagle Mine Mountain Club (a nearby private hunting and aligns groups who otherwise make contentious fishing club). These strange bedfellows brought landscape claims. However, an explication of the case all the way to a federal appeals court their diverse claims effectively “repoliticizes” before ultimately failing to stop the construction nature in the context of the copper country by of the mine. Eagle Mine began production in broadening the way it is conceptualized [02]. September 2014, and in the same month Lundin Erik Swyngedouw argues that in the era of Mining (who took over Eagle Mine in 2013) the Anthropocene, Nature has become de- made a Mineral Lease Request to the DNR for politicized, “outside the field of public dispute, another proposed mine in Marquette County. contestation, and disagreement,” and he calls Each group involved in promoting or opposing instead for a re-politicization of nature that Eagle Mine makes an argument relative to their allows for complex and contested conversations own particular narratives of nature or natural surrounding contemporary indeterminate resources. For mining interests (Kennecott/ ecological threats. In the case of Eagle Mine, Rio Tinto/Lundin) the narrative is clearly an nature isn’t fetishized into a single-dimensional
4 2015 Copyright, Elizabeth Yarina Yarina | 5 03 Bruno Latour, “From Real- object for consumption or preservation, but resource extraction. From the pure copper 07 National Park Service. politik to Dingpolitik,” Making “Timeline of Michigan Copper Things Public: Atmospheres of instead through this diverse collection of voices lode running along the spine of the Keweenaw Mining Prehistory to 1850“ Democracy (Cambridge: MIT becomes a richly conceived “object of concern” Peninsula to the Menominee and Gogebic iron Keweenaw National Historic Press, 2005). [03]. ranges as well as smaller deposits of gold and Park. < http://www.nps.gov/ silver, the region has been actively mined since kewe/historyculture/cop- Research Methods: Copper As A Matter before European explorers arrived in the late per-mining-timeline.htm> Of Concern 18th century [06]. Thus, despite it’s appearance As a method of analysis, the contesting of untouched wilderness, the lush landscape landscape claims around Eagle Mine and the of the Upper Peninsula has been modified for surrounding copper sulfide district in Marquette centuries through mining processes. County are visualized in order to explicate the claims brought to the table by each party. Before the arrival of European settlers, Native This graphic and textual ‘forensic’ analysis Americans in the Keweenaw region practiced 08 “Partial serpent artifact spatializes the argument over mining rights by surface mining of copper, alongside logging made of Lake Superior copper tracing areas of interest of each group in both and hunting in order to curate the landscape found at Effigy Mounds Na- 04 Paulo Tavares, “Murky tional Monument, Iowa.” Evidence: Environmental the horizontal and vertical dimensions. In order according to their needs. The Keweenaw copper Source: National Park Service forensics in the Age of the to do so, we must take to hand the “murky lode was mined as early as 5,000 BC, and was Anthropocene,” Cabinet 43: evidence” [04] brought to the table by each found across the continent as a trade good in Forensics (2011): 101-105. group: blog posts, water samples, newspaper the form of jewelry, tools, and decorative objects 09 Cleland, Charles E. (1992) Rites of Conquest: The History articles, protest songs, or aerial photographs. [7,8]. While the Ojibwa (also called Chippewa and Culture of Michigan's The arguments produced by these biased or Anishinaabeg) who inhabited the Keweenaw Native Americans, p. 18. Uni- and indeterminate objects of evidence are not when explorers arrived were not miners, it was versity of Michigan Press. taken as “matters of fact” (Latour), but rather through Native American legends that word the collection of claims are used to illustrate a of Michigan copper reached the first explorers broader spatial discourse. and missionaries to the region. The sites of broad and shallow Native American pit mines As in Eyal Weizman’s practice of “Forensic 05 Weizman, Eyal. Forensic later became the first successful mines by Architecture : Notes From Architecture” the explication of these claims entrepreneurial settlers [9]. Fields And Forums = Forensis- in drawing and space are intended to survey che Architektur : Notizen Von Feldern Und Foren. n.p.: Os- landscape beyond the singular conception These early settlers saw the landscape as one to tfildern : Hatje Cantz, c2012., to larger analytical frames and forces as a be tamed and consumed. Henry Schoolcraft, 2012. MIT Barton Catalog. “multilayered political practice” [05]. As such, who saw the Upper Peninsula as the “ends of Web. 4 Nov. 2014. this exploratory analysis can be not only critical, the earth” was in 1921 the first to recommend but also operative, demonstrating overlaps large-scale exploration of copper deposits [10], in spatial claims which correspond to areas of leading to the division of the land by the US contestation. The examination of these claims in government into 9 square mile (eventually 1 three dimensions reveals that landscape claims square mile) parcel units for mining activities. are not only layered, but are interconnected with The land was ceded in 1842 to the United fluid systems that are not bound by property States as part of the Treat of La Pointe with the perimeters. As the following explication of this Ojibwe Native American tribe, as part of a land case will demonstrate, this calls for new and deal including much of Northern Wisconsin revised methods of ownership and regulation and the Western Upper Peninsula. Now bound as we examine claims to earth, air, water, and and divided, early miners began clearing biology surrounding the Eagle Mine case. forests and blasting surface deposits, leading in 1844 to the Copper Boom, first US mining 06 “Upper Michigan Metallic Historical Context: Early Landscape 10 World’s largest piece of Mineral Ranges.” Source: boom. Early manipulations of the landscape in float copper, discovered in the Michigan Technological Modifications the name of mining included the dredging of Keweenaw and currently sited The communities of the Upper Peninsula University Mining Engineering Portage Canal, laying of railroad and highways, in Marquette County. Source: Department of Michigan were founded on economies of Lucy Hough logging for building and fuel, company built
6 2015 Copyright, Elizabeth Yarina Yarina | 7 11 Gates, William Bryam. housing and schools, and the construction of wilderness,” understanding the role of the “Michigan Copper And Bos- 16 Cronon, William. “The ton Dollars.” (1951): HathiTrust. mines and smelters [11]. While the Keweenaw landscape as part of broader human history, Trouble with Wilderness; or, Web. 6 Nov. 2014. copper lode is native copper, requiring minimal culture and economics allows us to reintroduce Getting Back to the Wrong processing relative to composites such as copper ourselves into discourse on the landscape of the Nature.” Uncommon Ground. sulfide, it still must be separated from attached Copper Country [16]. New York : WW Norton and hard or molten rock, producing stamp sands Company, 1996, 1995 and slag. Stamp sands remain highly visible in Whose Land and Whose Copper?: Actors the landscape of the Keweenaw today as large and Their Claims In the case of the Eagle Mine controversy, this gravel sandbars dumped into lakes and canals. reconsideration of nature as a social construction Stamp sands resist vegetation [12] and may also allows us to demonstrate how each of diverse contain heavy metals dangerous to human and actors in this dispute manufacture their own animal health. The built relics of the mining narratives of nature and resource values. Each boom, which lasted until the mid-twentieth make distinct claims to overlapping layers of century, also define the region’s landscape [13], landscape, revealed by spatialization in plan their status as cultural landmarks or dangerous 12 Stamp sands near Gay, and section in the following drawings. While Michigan. Source: Keweenaw ruins has also come into contestation in recent their claims may be to different layers, access Geoheritage Web site and years [14]. Bill Rose to one layer (i.e. copper sulfide) results in While the copper mining industry large left disruptions to others (i.e. forests, sacred sites, upper Michigan until recently, the Upper watersheds). Although dozens of nonprofits, Peninsula, while 80% forested, remains a community groups, business interests, and curated landscape. Logging remains a major government organization have been involved in industry in the region and outdoor sports major the opposition or approval of Eagle mine, this recreational activities and tourist attractions. section focuses on five key players that each Everything from forest compostion to deer have a distinct take on the value of the Upper populations are regulated by economics and Peninsula landscape. 13 Quincy Smelter, Hought- policy. on MI. Source: Wikimedia “Landscape as Commodity” In light of these changing methods of landscape Commons As the Eagle Mine has changed hands three maniplation, what we refer to as ‘nature’ in the times since the process began, I term the Upper Peninsula has not been a single univeral 14 Hauglie, Kurt. "Many corporations of Kennecott, Rio Tinto, and concept but rather a construct used differently involved in future of smelter" Lundin as ‘mining interests.’ Kennecott is The Daily Mining Gazette. De- by different groups over time. It is not simply 17 http://www.bloomberg. a subsidiary of Rio Tinto, and all three are cember 13, 2008. http://www. “Pure Michigan” [15] or “5-Star Wilderness” com/news/2013-06-12/lundin- multinational mining companies operating to-buy-michigan-mine-from- mininggazette.com/page/ as the state’s tourism board casts, but rather a content.detail/id/503001. resource extraction sites across the globe. The rio-tinto-for-325-million.html “product of civilization” [16]. These branded html?nav=5006 current owner, Lundin Mining Corporation, is conceptions of an ‘uninhabited wilderness’ also Swiss-owned and operates in Europe, Africa, required the dismissal of millenia of Native South America, and with the purchase of Eagle American heritage and centuries of landscape Mine in June 2013 for $325 million, now North modification by European settlers and eventually America as well [17] . Lundin Mining is just Americans. These ideas demonstrate the one branch of the Lundin Group, a $14 billion inherent contradictions in the ideas of nature dollar conglomeration of publicly-traded oil and and wilderness; “our very presence in nature mineral extraction and exploration companies. represents its fall.” The categorization of the The title of their 2013 operations map sums 18 ”Continuous Worldwide U.P. as natural or wild fails to acknowledge up well the company’s ethos for a “continuous Quest for Overlooked Oppor- humanity’s continuos modifications of our tunities.” Map of Lundin Group worldwide quest for overlooked opportunities” physical environments since the beginning of Operations. Source: Lundin 15 Pure Michigan Calendar [18]. Group 2013 Report cover. Source: www.michigan. history. Through this lens, instead of viewing gov the Upper Peninsula as a fetishized “uninhabited Lundin’s representations of the Eagle Mine
8 2015 Copyright, Elizabeth Yarina Yarina | 9 19 Lundin Mining. “Aquisition project make clear where the value lies for them: While the Eagle Mine site is not on the of Eagle Mine.” Corporate Re- port. June 13, 2013. < http:// in the “high quality and low cost copper” with reservation itself (the mine is 15 miles East www.lundinmining.com/i/ “straightforward mining and processing” that of the reservation), the KBIC makes other pdf/2013-06-13_AEMP.pdf> will be “accretive to Lundin Mining shareholders claims to Eagle Mine territory. Most broadly, [19]. Promotional images highlight the Eagle Mine is a small part of what used to be conversion of forested landscape into productive expansive Ojibwa Indian territory, spanning extraction landscapes [20] and subterreanean Western Upper Michigan and Nothern representations of geological deposits appear Wisconsin. This territory was ceded, following as though this high-value commodity is simply a long series of treaties, in the Treaty of La floating in empty space, waiting to be harvested Pointe, Oct. 4, 1842 [24]. This treaty included [21]. special access to fish and wildlife, and the KBIC 20 Eagle Mine. Source: Lun- tribal council remains attentive to ecological In 2008, the Michigan Department issued din Mining issues within the ceded territory through Lundin’s predecessor Kennecott leases for 24 Indian Treaties in Michigan. their Natural Resources Department. The “Metallic Mineral Mining” and “Mining Source: Great Lakes Indian council cites concern for ecosystem damage Fish and Wildlife Commission Operations Surface Use” [22] for the Eagle and toxic drainage into ground- and surface Site, thus releasing temporal control to the water systems. They have “identified mining mining interests of both surface facilities 25 Keweenaw Bay Indian as a priority concern due to its potential to Community. “Natural Resourc- and subsurface materials. While the deposit significantly impact treaty rights, treaty es Department.”
10 2015 Copyright, Elizabeth Yarina Yarina | 11 27 Pryor, Cynthia. “A Sacred have attempted to deny access through the The priority of preserving shared watersheds 31 Pepin, John. “Huron Moun- Fire Is Burning at Eagle Rock” tain Club loses legal bid to Posted: 07/07/2010. < http:// terms of their Mineral Lease. This contention and ecosystems which pass through HMC land stop Eagle Mine project.” The www.huffingtonpost.com/ came to a head when tribe member Cynthia came to a head with the Eagle Mine case. The Mining Journal. 31 October cynthia-pryor/a-sacred-fire-is- Pryor was arrested for “trespassing” while boundaries of the HMC are only 3 miles from 2013. burning_b_567652.html> walking her dog on leased land still under the Eagle Mine site, and share the watershed contestation through the appeals case mentioned of the Salmon Trout River. While in their above [27]. Through the leveraging of local contestsed case against Kennecott/Rio Tinto the police (some news reports side bribes via trays HMC cites the ecological damage to the rare of sandwiches) Pryor’s, as well as protesting brook trout spawning habitats in this river, they campers’ claim to the land as recreational or also cite “irreperable damage to the value of club sacred site is seemingly superseded by the lands” [31]. For the HMC, landscape value is mining interests’ ability to manipulate power. inherently bound to wealth and status concerns [32]. “Landscape as Status” 32 No Tresspassing sign at “Landscape as Ecosystem” the Huron Mountain Club 28 Orthober, Andrew. “Public Joining The KBIC in the 2007 filing of a perimeter. Source: The Mining Participation in Michigan contested case over the permitting of the Eagle The Yellow Dog Watershed Preserve (YDWP) Journal Mining Policty: the Kennecott mine was the National Wildlife Federation, The is an environmental organization and another Eagle Project Case.” Masters Yellow Dog Watershed Preserve (discussed in plaintiff in the contested cases opposing the Thesis, Michigan Technologi- cal Univeristy. 2012. the following section) and the Huron Mountain Eagle Mine. Eagle Mine is sited at the Northern Club (HMC) [28]. While all of these groups Boundary of the Yellow Dog Watershed in the share concerns over pollution and degredation, Yellow Dog Plains, a unique jack pine habitat the HMC is unique in being a closed, members- home to the endangered Kirtland Warbler [33]. only organization with elite connotations. The Yellow Dog River “runs free and clean through wild country until it eventually reaches The Huron Mountain Club is a 26,000 acre Lake Superior” [34]. Protection of these water private hunting and fishing retreat founded in supplies and habitats are key to the YDWP’s 1889 by wealthy residents of the Marquette mission. area. It has about 150 members, 50 of whom own cabins on the site, although most are Anti-sulfide mining advocacy has arisen as one wealthy families who reside many hours away of the YDWP’s main focus areas, and besides in Chicago or metro Detroit. High-profile their political action against the mines through members of HMC included actress Julie Harris the court cases, they also have been monitoring 33 Kirtland Warbler. Source: and Henry Ford, who waited 13 years before the river’s quality since 2010. One of their Houghton Mifflin Books receiving membership to the club [29]. Access (and others) major criticisms of copper sulfide to club land is restricted to members and their mining is the danger of leaching toxic sulfuric 29 Former University of guests, and its perimeters are actively patrolled. acid and heavy metals into groundwater, thus Michigan President Alexander The HMC and its members are cloaked in contaminating drinking water, ecosystems, Ruthven with Bryant walker at secrecy and information about its operations can and ultimately Lake Superior (the cleanest the exclusive Huron Mountain Club. Source: University of be difficult to ascertain [30]. and largest of the Great Lakes). Through thier discussion of water supply, the YDPW’s Michigan Bentley Archives However, the HMC does allow pre-approved ecology-centric values are clear: “The most scientific and educational to visit their land for important thing in an ecosystem is the purity 30 Pace, Emily. “Behind the academic purposes. While this could be deemed Yellow Dog Watershed of its lifeblood, the water” [34]. In their terms, 34 Gates.” Upper Michigan as demonstrating priorities of education and Preserve. 2014.
12 2015 Copyright, Elizabeth Yarina Yarina | 13 35 Michigan Department “Landscape as Natural Resource” or “Landscape deposits, subsurface water, soils) but them in a of Natural Resources. 2014.
14 2015 Copyright, Elizabeth Yarina Yarina | 15 decision-making guide for a region. In Intago, to the instrumental productivity of capital- 40 Proctor, James. “Whose Nature? The Contested Moral a history of ‘colono’ farming gave way to an producing activity (such as logging or mining). Terrain of Ancient Forests.” Un- identity as a potential copper mining resource While compromise or mediation between these common Ground. New York after a World Bank geologic mapping process interests seems unlikely, introducing values into : WW Norton and Company, in 1990. Conflicts between transnational the conversation on environmental issues opens 1996, 1995 mining companies and local farmers led to up the conversation to recognize implicit ethics the re-branding of the area as biodiverse and of different stances [40]. I suggest that these categorization of conservation land, establishing values also need to be tied to discussions of the first “ecological county” in South America. power dynamics and scales of influence, be they 39 Davidov, Veronica. “Land, Farmers re-aligned agricultural interests with local or transnational. As the following drawings Copper, Flora: Dominant this biodiversity identity by converting to demonstrate, while all of these groups struggle Materialities and the mak- sustainable farming practices. Now the region for claims to the same landscape, the leverage 41 Latour, Bruno ; translated ing of Ecuadorian Resource faces new contestation as state-owned mining behind them is very different. by Catherine Porter. Politics Enviornments. Anthropologi- of nature : how to bring the companies seek to re-open exploration sites cal Quarterly, Vol. 87 No.1, p. By acknowledging the ethics by which they sciences into democracy. 31-58. 2014. introduced by the transnational companies [39]. Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard operate, the different groups in the Eagle Mine University Press, 2004. Davidov’s piece serves as a comparative case for case can align their scientific claims (water the Upper Peninsula, where resource identities quality, emissions rates, resource quantities) with have both transformed over time and compete their political actions (anti-mining advocacy, in present-day. Similarly, land-based ecologies air quality regulations, mining operations). and activities compete with the potential capital As Latour suggests in Politics of Nature [41], resource below grade (copper), and local and letting go of “nature” as a single, fetishized international groups are at odds. However, the construct allows us to view objects (in horizontal issue is further complicated in the U.P. where and vertical territories) and their connection to mining has a long history and new mines have values and politics as part of a more complex recently opened, and a more diverse set of collective. Thus, what each of these groups stakeholders are embedded in the conflict—each view as “nature” or “natural resources” become with varying (and often competing) landscape part of a larger conversation about values and claims. However, in line with the re-branding priorities through the lens of interconnected of the Intago as an ‘ecological county,’ this systems. This new understanding suggests for comparison begs whether a third metonymic revised methods of ownership and regulation materiality for the Upper Peninsula, beyond that take into account fluid and value-laden ‘copper’ and ‘wilderness,’ could be productive landscape claims. in reframing the battles surrounding new and proposed mines. This exploration of landscape claims in the Upper Peninsula attempts to reveal how different value structures relative to the landscape and it’s resources are the source of contestation. Thes claims reveal the values embedded in the natural landscape by each group. As James Proctor discusses, the two (or more) sides of a contested natural resource case each correspond to different ethics of right and wrong. He argues that environmentalists need to recognize the inherent value judgements in their claims for preservation of inherent (and sometimes instrumental) good, as opposed
16 2015 Copyright, Elizabeth Yarina Yarina | 17 Native Copper vs. Copper Sulfide Mining While the extraction and refining of both native copper and copper sulfide ores produce waste, copper sulfide creates sulfuric acid when exposed to air and water. Since water is used in the floatation process and rainwater can easily enter SLAG STAMP SAND mine shafts, this poses risks for groundwater and waterways. NATIVE NATIVE PURE COPPER WASTE ROCK COPPER ORE COPPER ORE SMELTER MILL
NATIVE COPPER DEPOSITS
FILTRATION
CONTAMINATED TAILINGS RAIN WATER WATER WASTE PURE SLURRY SULFIDE ROCK COPPER ORE FLOAT CRUSH + PURE GRIND NICKEL
COPPER SULFIDE SULFURIC ACID DEPOSITS CONTAMINATED WATER
18 2015 Copyright, Elizabeth Yarina Yarina | 19 Vertical Territory Collage showing some of the key ob- jects of value in the sectional landscape: groundwater, wildlife, copper lodes, forest, sacred sites, and recreation spaces.
20 2015 Copyright, Elizabeth Yarina Yarina | 21 Actor-Network The five key actors explored form complex relationships with landscape objects, economies, and mining sites
ANTI-MINING ADVOCATES
National Superior Save the Wildlife Watershed Federation TOURISTS Wild U.P. Partnership
Stand for THE ECONOMY the Land Keweenaw Bay Indian Community Huron GLOBAL ECONOMY LOCAL ECONOMY Yellow Dog Mountain Club Watershed Unemployed contested case hearings Preserve contested case hearings
KIRTLANDS WARBLER
JACK PINES RECREATION treaty of 1842 BROOK FORESTS TROUT BIODIVERSITY HUNTING + FISHING
THE ‘NATURAL’ LANDSCAPE
TRANSATIONAL Lundin Rio Tinto MINING INTERESTS EAGLE ROCK Kenecott HERITAGE Eagle Mine [KBIC Sacred Site]
WATER
Orvana WILDLIFE
Copperwood Mine BYPRODUCTS active
proposed MINING SITES COPPER SULFIDE
historic
mineral leases Michigan Department of Environmental Quality THE MINERAL LODE MTU Mining Department
MINING RELICS
Kewenaw Historical Society 22 2015 Copyright, Elizabeth Yarina Yarina | 23 Timeline 2000-2007 The first half of the Eagle Mine saga moved relatively slowly follow- ing the discovery of the Eagle Mine lode. However, action and counter-action exploded when the DNR approved the Mineral Lease for the mine.
MINING CORPS at Eagle drilled Hole 2002: Discovery [Kennecott, Lundin Rio Tinto]
HMC [Huron Mountain Club]
YDPW [Yellow Dog Watershed Preserve]
KBIC [Keweenaw Bay Indian Community] 02/06: State receives permit apps from Kenecott for Eagle Mine Eagle for Kenecott permit apps from receives 02/06: State DNR Sulfide Mining copper regulate Mining Law to Nonferrous 2004: Michigan passes [Michigan Department of Natural Resources] 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
24 2015 Copyright, Elizabeth Yarina Yarina | 25 Timeline 2007-2015 04/12: YPDW attends Rio Tinto General MEeting in London General Rio Tinto attends 04/12: YPDW 2013: Acquisition of Eagle Mine by Lundin 2013: Acquisition of Eagle 04/13: Traces of uranium discovered at Eagle Mine at Eagle discovered of uranium 04/13: Traces Rio Tinto Mine from Eagle 06/13: Lundin acquires full production Mine reaches 2015: Eagle 2010: Surface construction begins at Eagle Mine begins at Eagle construction 2010: Surface Mine begins at Eagle construction 2011: Underground begins at Humboldt Mill 2012: Refurbishment nad Construction 04/10: KBIC hosts one-month occupation of Eagle Rock of Eagle one-month occupation 04/10: KBIC hosts 10/13: Federal court rules against HMC’s appeal to stop the Egle Mine the Egle stop appeal to HMC’s against rules court 10/13: Federal 05/12: HMC files Federal lawsuit against Eagle Mine Eagle lawsuit against Federal 05/12: HMC files 09/11: KBIC, HMC, and YDWP make final appeal to stop Kennecott’s Eagle Mine Eagle Kennecott’s stop final appeal to make 09/11: KBIC, HMC, and YDWP 11/14: YDPW launches petition against new Lundin lease Lundin lease new 11/14: YDPW launches petition against 05/10: Camping protesters arrested at Eagle Rock on leased public land Rock on leased at Eagle arrested 05/10: Camping protesters with KBIC at Michigan Capital protest organizes 06/10: YDWP 2008: KBIC, HMC, and YDWP go to court to contest Rio Tinto’s Minin Permits Rio Tinto’s contest to court go to 2008: KBIC, HMC, and YDWP 01/09: KBIC submints comments in oppositionto Eagle Mine Eagle in oppositionto 01/09: KBIC submints comments 03/12: KBIC Petitions UN for violation of 1842 Treaty UN for 03/12: KBIC Petitions 2008: Humboldt Mill is purchased Mine begins production 09/14: Eagle Dog River County near Yellow mine in Marquette proposed new Lundin for from Lease Request Mineral 09/14: DNR receives 02/08: DNR issues Kenecott a “Mietallic Mineral Mining Operations Survace Use Lease Survace Mining Operations Mineral a “Mietallic Kenecott 02/08: DNR issues 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
26 2015 Copyright, Elizabeth Yarina Yarina | 27 Huron Mountain Club Yellow Dog Watershed Preserve ofDepartment Resources Natural Marquette/Baraga Counties Keweenaw Bay Indian Community Mining Interests $ $ $ $
EAGLE MINE
HUMBOLDT MILL the impetus for contestation the Eagle mine,site of forming All five are tied together at the zontal and vertical territories. particular values in both hori - the landscape relative to their group makes distinct claims to Landscape Claims RIVERS / STREAMS LAKES JACK WARBLER PINE/ KIRTLAND HABITAT YELLOW DOG WATERSHED DNR OWNS+ MINDERALS LAND DNR OWNS MINERALS DNR OWNS LAND MAJOR RIVERS MAJOR SUPERIOR WATERSHEDLAKE HURON MOUNTAIN CLUB TERRITORY ACTIVE MINE SITES MINERAL EXPLORATION BOREHOLES CLAIMS MINERAL LEASES/MINING KBIC HERITAGE SITES IMPORTANT HABITAT SITES [KBIC DESIGNATION] HARVEST LAKES IMPORTANT HABITAT [KBIC DESIGNATION] AREAS OJIBWA CEDED TERRITORY: 1842 TREATY Each actor
28 2015 Copyright, Elizabeth Yarina Yarina | 29 Scales of Influence While the landscapes of Marque- MINING CORPS HMC YDPW KBIC DNR tte county these groups [Yellow Dog Watershed [Keweenaw Bay [Michigan Department of [Kennecott, Lundin [Huron Mountain Club] make claims to is the same, Rio Tinto] Preserve] Indian Community] Natural Resources] the scales of power behind them is far from equal. These visualizations of monetary control and spatial breadth— while not the only metrics for power—demonstrate some of the potential leverage behind the groups studied. Lundin Membership fees: $50,000/yr (per member) Mining operates on a seperate order of magnitude of money 2012 income: 2010 gaming income: and space altogether, relative Asset income in 2013 tax return: $98,314 $30.6 million to local and regional organi- $4.9 million zations.
Annual budget: 307.4 million Purchase price of Eagle Mine by Lundin in June 2013: $325 million
Lundin Group 2013 market cap: $14 billion
Lundin Mining operations Lundin Group operations HMC land Yellow Dog Watershed KBIC Reservation KBIC ceded territory State of Michigan
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