White Pine Solution Mining Papers

Collection — Box: 1-5

Identifier: MS-021

Staff Only

Collection Scope and Content Summary

Papers, 1995-1997, for the proposed acid solution mining project by the Copper Range Company in White Pine, Michigan. Includes environmental aspect and impact studies, permit applications, work plans for the remedial investigation, stockholder review drafts, lawsuit records, reports, and closure plans and reports.

Dates

1995-1999

Creator

Copper Range Company (Organization)

Access

Available for use in the Michigan Technological University Archives and Copper Country Historical Collections.

Biography

The proposal to introduce solution mining at White Pine generated great controversy in [Michigan's Upper Peninsula] in the mid-1990s. Heated public meetings pitted insiders against outsiders, and environmentalists and protectors of Lake Superior against protectors of jobs and the local economy. The controversy also pitted Governor John Engler and Michigan's Department of Environmental Quality against President Clinton and the Environmental Protection Agency (from "Hollowed ground: copper mining and community building on Lake Superior" by Larry Lankton). __In 1997, plans to use solution mining processes at White Pine were abandoned due to environmental concerns.