Twin Metals Mining Lease Reinstated Near BWCA

[MTGomer]

"Recycle Mining" I can almost picture a 100 or so years from now, geologists will be sampling the heavily used skeet and trap range locations for lead deposits. There should be a fairly significant concentrated lead deposit at these locations.

The bottom line is, if there is enough demand for a material someone is going to find a way to get it.

Recycle mining is a thing too! When I was in college I interned at a major gold producer in Northern Nevada. Gold was around $1720/oz and I was a part of a project trying to increase recovery from ultra fine solids that were remaining suspending in the tailings stream, instead of being captured.

The next component to the project was going back and dredging the slimes from the tailings impoundment to recover these metals that had been missed, amounting to approximately $10 million annually at those prices for decades.

Also, Stillwater has a recycle plant in Columbus for things like catylitic converters. You can get damn near $400 off the stock exhaust of a diesel pickup.
You could say that the tweakers that sawzalled my roommate’s and many other’s cats out from underneath their vehicles when we were in college in Butte and then took them to Pacific Recycling for hundreds of dollars were also participating in a form of recycle mining.

 

[Irrelevant]

Sooner or later all the things in the ground are going to run out. Then what?

We start mining our landfills.

 

[BWALKER77]

"Recycle Mining" I can almost picture a 100 or so years from now, geologists will be sampling the heavily used skeet and trap range locations for lead deposits. There should be a fairly significant concentrated lead deposit at these locations.

The bottom line is, if there is enough demand for a material someone is going to find a way to get it.

Thats been done for years. The gun club my dad and I belonged to when I was younger did this and get some pretty decent revenue out of it.
Btw I see your from Marquette. I lived in that area from 1995 until last summer. I rather enjoyed the mild Montana winters this year as compared to Marquette!

 

[BWALKER77]

Okay so I think we can all agree on 2 things. 1. Human population isn't going to shrink anytime soon (pending some horrific event) 2. Humans consume natural resources.
As hunters, we should know our past, that natural resources are finite and need to be managed.
Here are to of many scenarios agreeing upon those to facts stated above:

1 We stay on the path we are what are we even doing here trying to protect the land and water? Its just all going to be mined and over populated anyways. Sooner or later all the things in the ground are going to run out. Then what?

2. How about lets take the time now while we still have the resources, to focus our attention on trying to come up alternative solutions, different type of materials, things of that nature. What those are I don't know. I'm not smart enough. I saw a commercial the other day where it was either Exon or BP is making oil from algae. So I saw lets be forward thinking try and get ahead of this stuff before we have to mine everything little thing out of this earth. One way to do that is to make resource extraction less appealing. Yes that may mean it costs more for people like me and you buy those new things but we are by far the wealthiest nation in the world.

That's why I'm standing behind "wrong mine, wrong place" Lets protect some of these areas until we absolutely have to mine them until we have exhausted all other avenues. We are the greatest nation in the world. Lets demand better. Lets challenge the status quo. One doesn't achieve greatness by sitting back and just going "well it worked before lets just keep doing it". Greatness comes from doing things that has never been done before.

I drive a truck, shoot guns, burn gas, use plastic, use copper, iron, hell I use the precious metals that go into the components that are inside the computer i'm typing this from. With that said I want better, I want different choices.

As of the present there are no alternatives. Thus, at this point in time we need to responsibly mine these reources where they are found.

 

[PrairieHunter]

We start mining our landfills.

yep.

 

[BWALKER77]

One other thing to consider. Is it in the best interest of the planet to mine minerals here in the US where we have pretty stringent protections or other countries that dont?
A collegue worked at a gold mine at one time that was in, I believe, Papua New Guinea. Tailings from the mine were pumped straight out into the ocean.

 

[Irrelevant]

I'm a self-admitted, not in my backyard guy. And I view my backyard as 'Merica. So I'd take a horrible mine in Papa New Guinea over about any mine in the US. But I realize that it's clearly a selfish decision, and not in the best interests of the planet as a whole.

 

[MNH20FowlHunter]

As of the present there are no alternatives. Thus, at this point in time we need to responsibly mine these resources where they are found.

Correct there aren't any. I even said I don't know what those would even be. My point was lets make mining a little more difficult because that will put pressure on us as a race to come up with those new ideas. Lets get ahead of this curve so we don't have mine landfills once we mined everything else up. Lets get ahead of the curve and see if we can come up with some sort of new idea/method/material. Just saying its there mine it, we will worry about it when its gone is the easy way out. My challenge is lets try and come up with something new now before we run out. That way in the future we aren't caught with our pants down. Will it be hard, yup. Will it be inconvenient, yup. Will we fail, most likely. But if we don't try then what are we doing here?

Worst case scenario we never come up with that new thing and have to mine every spot we can. At least we save some of the most pristine areas until the bitter end.

Best case scenario we come up with that new thing and never have to put those pristine areas at risk.

For me the Boundary Waters is one of those pristine areas. Yes the potential mine won't be in the Boundary Waters but it will be in the same watershed.

 

[VikingsGuy]

Sooner or later all the things in the ground are going to run out. Then what?

A very old and and very tired argument that has repeatedly been disproved - for example, see, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon–Ehrlich_wager

 

[BWALKER77]

Correct there aren't any. I even said I don't know what those would even be. My point was lets make mining a little more difficult because that will put pressure on us as a race to come up with those new ideas. Lets get ahead of this curve so we don't have mine landfills once we mined everything else up. Lets get ahead of the curve and see if we can come up with some sort of new idea/method/material. Just saying its there mine it, we will worry about it when its gone is the easy way out. My challenge is lets try and come up with something new now before we run out. That way in the future we aren't caught with our pants down. Will it be hard, yup. Will it be inconvenient, yup. Will we fail, most likely. But if we don't try then what are we doing here?

Worst case scenario we never come up with that new thing and have to mine every spot we can. At least we save some of the most pristine areas until the bitter end.

Best case scenario we come up with that new thing and never have to put those pristine areas at risk.

For me the Boundary Waters is one of those pristine areas. Yes the potential mine won't be in the Boundary Waters but it will be in the same watershed.

I owned and operated a fishing lodge just north and a bit west of the BWCA in a remote and pristine area. Over the years of living there I discovered several old uranium mines and there was a operating gold mine just to the south. The area still had all the characteristics of the BWCA. The fact is the market dictates best when to transition to new technologies. Now isn't the time as we are not even remotely close to running out of mineable minerals.
Essentially what you are arguing for is NIMBY'ism and a pushing of mining activity into the thirld world where regulations are few and fare between.

 

[BWALKER77]

I'm a self-admitted, not in my backyard guy. And I view my backyard as 'Merica. So I'd take a horrible mine in Papa New Guinea over about any mine in the US. But I realize that it's clearly a selfish decision, and not in the best interests of the planet as a whole.

Thats an incredibly selfish and elitist way to conduct oneself.
I would rather have mining done reponsibly on our soil with American miners and American regulations.

 

[MTGomer]

I'm a self-admitted, not in my backyard guy. And I view my backyard as 'Merica. So I'd take a horrible mine in Papa New Guinea over about any mine in the US. But I realize that it's clearly a selfish decision, and not in the best interests of the planet as a whole.

Those brown, third world peasants really are inferior to you. It takes courage to admit that on a public forum. Proud of you.
(sarcasm)

^^^This is why other people hate Americans.


If you haven’t done much traveling, I would highly suggest you make it a priority.

 

[Irrelevant]

it has nothing to do with the color of their skin or that I think I superior. Quit, lookin' for a fight.