Mining to Begin in National Monument Eliminated by Trump

By Jenny Rowland, ThinkProgress

21 June 18


Meanwhile, groups are suing over decision to open up the lands to resource extraction.

anadian mining company, Glacier Lake Resources Inc., has announced that they have acquired rights to the “Colt Mesa” copper and cobalt mine located on lands eliminated from Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

In December 2017, President Trump removed protections from nearly 1 million acres of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and 1.2 million acres of Bears Ears National Monument, both located in Utah. The move amounted to the largest elimination of protected areas in U.S. history. Within Trump’s proclamation was a provision that in February 2018, the areas excluded from the monuments would become open to private mineral companies to begin staking mining and drilling claims.

“[T]he Colt Mesa project is a welcome addition to the Company’s ever growing portfolio of projects,” Saf Dhillon, president and chief executive officer of Glacier Lake Resources, saidin a press release. “Surface exploration work will start this summer on the Colt Mesa property and drill permitting will be initiated shortly.”

In March, the company made 10 claims, totaling 200 acres, but only announced acquisition June 13. With the exception of a few reporters looking at the process, this is the first threat the area faces from a new mining claim.

Despite the evidence, Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke and other supporters of Trump’s cuts — like House Natural Resources Chairman Rep. Rob Bishop (R-UT) — have denied that the goal of the monument reductions was for mineral or oil development.

Shortly after Trump’s executive order, Native American tribes, scientists, and conservation and historic preservation organizations filed suit against the administration, arguing that only Congress — not the president — has the power to reduce the size of national monuments. Members of the lawsuit claim the excluded lands remain part of a national monument and are legally closed to mining.

If the ongoing lawsuit rules that the boundaries of the monuments remain in effect, mining claims could be overturned.

“Mining is prohibited in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and any mining claims are invalid, just like President Trump’s attempt to dismantle the monument, which we are already challenging in court,” said Nada Culver, Senior Director for Agency Policy and Counsel for The Wilderness Society. “This company’s actions, and any others that try to mine within monument boundaries, will be scrutinized.”

The proposed mine would focus on cobalt, copper, and other hard rock minerals. Those minerals are governed by the outdated 1872 mining law, which allows companies to operate royalty-free. That would mean that the Canadian company would pay exactly $0 to US taxpayers for mining on national monument-quality land and potentially interfering with wildlife and outdoor recreation.

The Administration’s efforts to sell out America’s national monuments is deeply unpopular with most Americans. During the Department of the Interior’s 60-day comment period on the topic, more than 2.8 million people submitted comments — 98 percent of which expressed support for maintaining or expanding national monuments.

https://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/50761-mining-to-begin-in-national-monument-eliminated-by-trump

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Not incredibly read-up on the topic of public lands.  I know a little and happen across various articles on it from time to time which I read with great interest.

But I will say this ... my libertarian bent is quite a bit muted when it comes to the topic of public lands.  I'm not in favor of banning all (responsible) extraction of resources from every square inch of the millions upon millions of acres of OUR public lands in the care/trust of our Federal and State governments, but I do think there should be a middle-ground on that.  And in the process of that we should be respectful of the history, interests, and views of our so-called Native-American demographic with regards to those areas their ancestors resided or frequently roamed.   And some areas just need to be 100% preserved as sacrosanct as well, I think.  

I was personally in support of Obama's expansion of Bear Ears, btw ... I think Trump's reversal of that was a damn shame.  Obama should have gotten Congressional legislative backup on that ... I suppose that was not a political possibility at the time, though.

The Bastard has opened mining in Superior National forest which makes up half of the boundary waters with Canada and America setting aside the most beautiful canoe and kayak waters in the nation. We would go out for a week portaging between lakes and sleeping on islands because of the bears. Bears can swim, but we were uptight about the drunk black bears in the fall who have fermenting berries in their gut and have little fear of Humans. It is special place, and mining in this area is a horrible decision. Every American should spend a week in the wilderness taking care of themselves, but instead we build cocoons to insulate us from life and with ambivalence can destroy natural areas to mining.

My youngest daughter and her husband are camping in western Montana right now. They have bear mace, which shoots 40', and a 44, and kayaks. Before the trip, they went to a Primus concert, which included this cover of King Crimson, with Les Claypool and Sean Lennon:





The Court of the Crimson King

King Crimson

The rusted chains of prison moons
Are shattered by the sun
I walk a road, horizons change
The tournament's begun
The purple piper plays his tune,
The choir softly sing;
Three lullabies in an ancient tongue,
For the court of the crimson king

The keeper of the city keys
Put shutters on the dreams
I wait outside the pilgrim's door
With insufficient schemes
The black queen chants
The funeral march,
The cracked brass bells will ring;
To summon back the fire witch
To the court of the crimson king

The gardener plants an evergreen
Whilst trampling on a flower
I chase the wind of a prism ship
To taste the sweet and sour
The pattern juggler lifts his hand;
The orchestra begin
As slowly turns the grinding wheel
In the court of the crimson king

On soft gray mornings widows cry
The wise men share a joke;
I run to grasp divining signs
To satisfy the hoax
The yellow jester does not play
But gentle pulls the strings
And smiles as the puppets dance
In the court of the crimson king

Songwriters: Greg Lake / Ian Mcdonald / Michael Rex Giles / Peter John Sinfield / Robert Fripp
The Court of the Crimson King lyrics Universal Music Publishing Group

2seaoat wrote:The Bastard has opened mining in Superior National forest which makes up half of the boundary waters with Canada and America setting aside the most beautiful canoe and kayak waters in the nation.   We would go out for a week portaging between lakes and sleeping on islands because of the bears.  Bears can swim, but we were uptight about the drunk black bears in the fall who have fermenting berries in their gut and have little fear of Humans.   It is special place, and mining in this area is a horrible decision.  Every American should spend a week in the wilderness taking care of themselves, but instead we build cocoons to insulate us from life and with ambivalence can destroy natural areas to mining.

http://iri.forest.mtu.edu/Historic_Mines.htm

https://www.mlive.com/expo/erry-2018/04/64a09f0d318324/isle_royale_greenstone.html

Locally a lot of people are furious because somebody's shooting alligators at a nearby wildlife refuge. Because of Trump's funding cuts, the place only has two people to take care of the whole area, so they're stretched too thin to stop poachers... who are apparently just shooting the gators for "fun."

Between stuff like this and the farmers taking a huge hit because of Trump's tariffs, it's going to be interesting to see how much of his support fades. I know it won't fade much because Mississippi Republicans are hardcore brainwashed cultists -- they vote because they somehow believe being Republican has something to do with their religion, and they don't think much, they just obey. Still, though, it's interesting to watch them try to keep defending somebody who's pissing on their heads.

Link

zsomething wrote:Locally a lot of people are furious because somebody's shooting alligators at a nearby wildlife refuge.   Because of Trump's funding cuts, the place only has two people to take care of the whole area, so they're stretched too thin to stop poachers... who are apparently just shooting the gators for "fun."  

Between stuff like this and the farmers taking a huge hit because of Trump's tariffs, it's going to be interesting to see how much of his support fades.  I know it won't fade much because Mississippi Republicans are hardcore brainwashed cultists -- they vote because they somehow believe being Republican has something to do with their religion, and they don't think much, they just obey.   Still, though, it's interesting to watch them try to keep defending somebody who's pissing on their heads.

They will never forgive the Dems for going with equal rights over dumb crackers on top.