Protests set after Mich. mine opponent arrested

MARQUETTE, Mich. (AP) – Opponents of a proposed nickel and copper mine in a remote section of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula are planning protests after an opponent was arrested at the site.

About 70 people met Monday with environmental activist Cynthia Pryor, who was charged with trespassing last week. She spent two nights in jail after refusing to leave the area where Kennecott Eagle Minerals Co. plans to begin building the mine this year. She wants a jury trial.

Pryor, 58, a leader of a group called the Yellow Dog Watershed Preserve, and her supporters are considering filing a citizens’ lawsuit and sending petitions to Gov. Jennifer Granholm and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. They also plan rallies in Marquette.

“Everything that we do is nonviolent, peaceful, we just want to bring awareness,” Pryor said.

Since her arrest, several Keweenaw Bay Indian Community members have been camping at Eagle Rock, an outcrop beneath which Kennecott plans to drill the mine entrance. The tribe says Eagle Rock is a sacred place where members have conducted religious pilgrimages for years.

The site is within an undeveloped area of Marquette County known as the Yellow Dog Plains, prized by environmentalists and sports enthusiasts for its quiet woods and rivers near Lake Superior.

Kennecott, a subsidiary of London-based Rio Tinto PLC, is targeting a six-acre underground deposit expected to yield 250 million to 300 million pounds of nickel and about 200 million pounds of copper.

The company says it will employ about 200 full-time workers, while about 500 contractors will be hired during construction.

Michigan regulators have approved permits for the mine. The EPA has yet to rule on Kennecott’s application for an underwater discharge permit, but the company says it no longer needs one after redesigning its system. Opponents disagree.

Kennecott spokeswoman Deb Muchmore told The Mining Journal of Marquette that Pryor was arrested because she “knowingly and willfully put herself in harm’s way.” Muchmore said the company wants a good relationship with the community.

“We continue to hope that reasonable minds will come together and find solutions,” she said.

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Information from: The Mining Journal of Marquette, http://www.miningjournal.net