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Sulfide Mining Regulations Draw Mixed Reactions

AP writer John Flesher reports that the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality has completed a set of nonferrous mining regulations, drawing praise from an industry spokesman but complaints from environmentalists who say the rules are too weak. Jon Cherry, environment and governmental affairs manager for Kennecott Minerals (a company planning a mine near the headwaters of the Salmon Trout River), said the rules were among the toughest in the nation for the mining industry. "I look forward to designing a project that would be able to meet or exceed those standards that are in the rules," Cherry said, adding that Kennecott can do the mining safely and plans to submit a permit application by the end of April.

Save the Wild U.P., a Marquette-based environmentalist group, said the regulations were too industry-friendly. Save the Wild UP spokesman Dick Huey said: "Albert Einstein famously said, 'God does not play dice with the universe ... DEQ appears willing to play dice with Michigan's most precious resources."

Read Michigan mining rules drawing mixed reviews in the LSJ
Read Sulfide rules set: DEQ reveals details of mining law / Regulations draw praise and criticism in the Mining Journal
Kennecott Minerals web site
Save the Wild UP site

Posted/updated Jan 16, 2006
by Andrew McFarlane (Absolute Michigan)