Wisconsin Public Radio: Documentary on Gogebic Taconite's proposed Penokee mine touring Wisconsin

View of the Penokee Hills in northern Wisconsin, where Gogebic Taconite (GTAC) plans to put a huge open pit iron mine.  (File photo © Pete Rasmussen, Moving Water Photography, and courtesy Penokee Hills Education Project. Reprinted with permission.)

NORTHERN WISCONSIN -- On Monday, July 28, John Munson of Wisconsin Public Radio (filling in for Joy Cardin) interviewed two filmmakers from Milwaukee-based 371 Productions concerning their Al Jazeera America Fault Lines documentary Wisconsin's Mining Standoff -- about Gogebic Taconite's (GTAC’s) controversial proposal to dig an open-pit iron mine in northern Wisconsin.

Brad Lichtenstein, writer and director of the film, and Devon Cupery, producer, told Munson they wanted to present the facts they researched for the film in order to inform the public -- not only local residents affected directly by the proposed project but people all over Wisconsin.

According to Cupery, they were aware of "passionate feelings on both sides of the issue" and they wanted the documentary to include both sides.

The film takes viewers to Wisconsin's Ashland and Iron Counties, where GTAC (a subsidiary of "Cline Resource and Development" of Florida) has set off a battle over the state’s natural resources by proposing to dig -- in Wisconsin's Penokee Hills -- what could be one North America’s largest open pit mines. The film explores the potential impacts of the mine and how legislation changed the state’s mining laws.

Lichtenstein said the filmmakers did research into GTAC's claims about their record and found them not to be true. In fact, the filmmakers confirmed serious violations of laws by the company's owner, Chris Cline, (in West Virginia and Illinois) and by GTAC President Bill Williams, who has been charged with environmental crimes in Spain.

Munson, noting he was from northern Wisconsin himself, said he was aware of the high unemployment rate in the area -- the need for jobs -- as well as the concerns about the potential environmental impacts and "boom and bust" economic impacts of the proposed mine.

This interview is still available on the Wisconsin Public Radio Web site.

About the film: "Fault Lines" correspondent Josh Rushing travels to Ashland and Iron Counties to report the story.

Viewers meet the players at the heart of the standoff, visiting a century-old, family-owned dairy farm that could be impacted by the mine. We hike deep in the woods in the harshest of winters to spend time with the Chippewa tribes who have set up an education and resistance camp to oppose the mine. The Bad River Chippewa tribe, who have lived in the region for generations, raise concerns that acid mine drainage would contaminate the water, fish and wild rice on which they depend. And we meet Leslie Kolesar, Chairwoman of the Iron County Mining Impact Committee, who tells "Fault Lines" the mine would bring 700 desperately needed jobs to a region with high unemployment.

"Fault Lines" talks to Wisconsin State Senator Bob Jauch, who opposes this mining project and tells the audience how GTAC ignored its critics. "Fault Lines" also interviews Bob Seitz, Director of External Affairs for GTAC, who denies allegations that the company had a hand in writing mining legislation and defends the company’s record of environmental and safety violations.

It’s an unfolding battle in a pristine wilderness where even the tiny Iron County board election attracts money from outsiders like the Koch brothers-funded Americans for Prosperity. This is a story about money and power versus environmental concerns and a way of life for thousands of local residents. It’s a story ultimately about the state of our democracy.

The 25-minute film is touring the state of Wisconsin this summer in a series of film screenings followed by community discussions and panels. The documentary premiered June 14, 2014, on Al Jazeera America’s award-winning investigative documentary program, "Fault Lines." It addresses a crucial issue for Wisconsinites heading to the polls in November for gubernatorial elections.

Screenings of the film began July 24. Several upcoming screenings in Wisconsin are planned or in the process of being planned. Others will be added as they are finalized. All are open to the public.

The following screenings are scheduled for August:

Wednesday, Aug. 13 -- Madeline Island -- Tom’s Burned Down Café, 9 p.m.

Thursday, Aug. 14 -- Mellen -- Mellen Library, 7 p.m.

Sunday, Aug. 17 -- Montello -- MORE Healthy Foods Café, 4 p.m.

Thursday, Aug. 28 -- Milwaukee -- St. John’s on the Lake, 3:30 p.m.

To obtain more details on screenings or to learn how you can arrange a screening of this film for your community click here.

UPDATE: Bad River Watershed Association recently hosted a showing of 371 Production's Wisconsin Mining Standoff run on Al Jazeera America. After the showing, there was a panel discussion with Tracy Hames, Wisconsin Wetlands Association; Pete Russo, Chair, Ashland County Board; Devon Cupery, producer; Charles Ortman, Ashland County Board; Mike Wiggins Jr, Chairman, Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, and Sen. Bob Jauch (D-25). Allie Raven, member of Bad River Watershed Association and Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, facilitated the discussion. See 8 videoclips of the discussion, posted on YouTube. Click here for Part 1.

Penokee Hills Education Project provides the truth amid a sea of mining misinformation

By Barbara With
Posted July 21, 2014, on Wisconsin Citizens Media Cooperative
Reprinted in part with permission

Penokee Hills Education Project (PHEP) helped sponsor this billboard south of Hurley, Wis., on Highway 51. (Photo © Bill Heart and courtesy Barbara With. Reprinted with permission.)

NORTHERN WISCONSIN -- On June 27, 2014, Penokee Hills Education Project (PHEP) offered information sessions at three locations around the proposed mine site in the Penokee Hills as a way to bring truth to the massive amounts of misinformation being spread by Gogebic Taconite (GTac), pro-mining elected officials, and state and local media. Frank Koehn, Pete Rasmussen and Mike Wiggins Jr. addressed a large crowd to share facts and answer questions that GTac and the Wisconsin DNR seem intent on avoiding.

One such misinformation session held on June 5, 2014, in Minoqua, Wis., was entitled, "Mining in the Penokee Range Forum." Ann Coakley, director of Mining and Materials Waste with the Wisconsin DNR, was asked about how much water the mine would use. Coakley’s answer, "A lot. A real lot," was indicative of the kinds of evasive answers concerned citizens receive when asking about substantial issues that will affect the entire region. ... Click here to read the rest of this article and see videos of the June 5 and June 27 meetings.

Editor's Note:
To learn more about the Wisconsin Citizens Media Cooperative, visit their Web site.

The Progressive: Walker's Mine Imperils Wisconsin

By Rebecca Kemble*
Posted Feb. 10, 2014, on The Progressive
Reprinted in part with permission

In the year 2000, a spiritual elder of the Ojibwe tribe in northern Wisconsin warned of massive water pollution and shortages of clean water in the years to come. "What are you going to do about it?" he asked Josephine Mandamin, an Ojibwe grandmother. Mandamin could not get the question out of her head.

Keweenaw Bay Indian Community (KBIC) member Terri Denomie, left, carrying water, joins Josephine Mandamin of Thunder Bay, Ont., carrying the ceremonial eagle staff, during the 2011 Mother Earth Water Walk, on the way to the final destination, Bad River, Wis. (Keweenaw Now file photo © 2011 and courtesy Roxanne Ornelas)**

In Ojibwe spiritual teachings, women are responsible for water. Their special relationship to water spirits is related to their ability to carry and generate life.

So, in April 2003 Mandamin decided to organize a water walk. She and other Ojibwe and non-indigenous women and men helped carry a pail and ceremonial eagle staff on a 1,000-mile journey along the shores of Lake Superior that took thirty-six days.

Every spring since then, Mandamin has organized and participated in water walks around each of the other Great Lakes and along the St. Lawrence and Mississippi rivers. In the summer of 2011, one year after the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster, four groups of water walkers set out from the Atlantic Ocean, Hudson Bay, the Pacific Ocean, and the Gulf of Mexico and converged at the mouth of the Bad River on Lake Superior, the origin of the first water walk.**

Josephine Mandamin of Thunder Bay, Ont., speaks to walkers and visitors during the reception held by Keweenaw Bay Indian Community members on June 8, 2011, at Ojibwa Community College in Baraga, Michigan. (Keweenaw Now file photo)**

But as the water walkers from the four directions arrived, a political battle that could spell doom for the area and its watershed was heating up 300 miles to the south in the state capitol building in Madison.

West Virginia coal billionaire Chris Cline had just incorporated the Gogebic Taconite (GTac) company and announced plans to build one of the largest iron mines in the world.

The twenty-two-mile long, 1,000-foot deep open pit would obliterate the Penokee Hills that form the headwaters of the Bad River watershed, leaving in their place a wasteland of 910 million tons of sulfuric acid-producing waste rock, depleted aquifers, poisoned rivers and streams, and a film of asbestos-laden dust for miles around. Cline, who made his fortune blasting off mountaintops in West Virginia for coal, now aims to bring the natural, social, and economic devastation wrought by this kind of mining to one of the most ecologically sensitive and important places in Wisconsin. ...

Click here to read the rest of this article on The Progressive.

Editor's Notes:

* Rebecca Kemble is a writer and political reporter for The Progressive. She is also a founding member, writer, and editor in the Wisconsin Citizens Media Cooperative.

** See our Aug. 5, 2011, article, "Updated: KBIC welcomes 2011 Mother Earth Water Walk participants," with more photos of the 2011 Water Walkers' visit to the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community in Baraga.

200+ Demand: Repeal of Wisconsin’s Unjust Mining Law

By Barbara With
Posted Jan. 19, 2014, on Wisconsin Citizens Media Cooperative
Reprinted in part with permission

Chris Cline, owner of Gogebic Taconite (GTac), the company hoping to develop an open-pit iron mine in the Penokee Hills of northern Wisconsin. Cline’s net worth as of 2012 was $1.5 billion. As it turns out, a member of the West Virginia legislature is vice president for business development for Natural Resource Partners (NRP), the company that Chris Cline owns a 31 percent interest in; and Russell Gordy, owner of RGGS minerals, the company that owns most of the mineral rights lease-optioned to GTAC in Iron County, is on the board of directors. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons.)

Last week, 300,000 West Virginians lost their water. Hundreds of people went to emergency rooms, which also did not have water. A state of emergency has been declared. All because of "clean" coal.

The toxin responsible was methylcyclohexanol, used for washing coal and one of the chemicals that killed the Love Canal, site of the worst chemical disaster in U.S. history. West Virginia mining companies assured residents that their operations are safe and clean. The truth is just the opposite. "It’s caused us more problems than you could ever imagine," said Danny Jones, mayor of Charleston, the state’s capital. "It’s a prison from which we would like to be released."

West Virginia’s Chris Cline, King Coal himself, owns Gogebic Taconite (GTac), the mining company that wrote Wisconsin’s new mining law and wants to set up shop in northern Wisconsin. GTac has stated over and over that the new law protects the environment. Like the lies of King Coal, the lies of iron ore mining in Northern Wisconsin have come home to roost. ...

Click here to read the rest of this article, which includes names of concerned citizens calling for the REPEAL of Act 1, Wisconsin’s unjust ferrous mining law, and Act 118, the wetlands destruction law.

Wisconsin Citizens Media Coop: Spain’s Damning Evidence on Bill Williams’ Complicity in Crimes Against Environment

By Barbara With
Posted Dec. 14, 2013 on Wisconsin Citizens Media Cooperative (WCMC)
Reprinted in part with permission

As Gogebic Taconite (GTac) President Bill Williams is being sought for alleged crimes against the environment committed while he was overseeing the Cobre Las Cruces (CLC) mine in Seville, Spain, WCMC has obtained documents that highlight the severity of those charges.

Together with other publicly available evidence, these documents reveal disturbing similarities between CLC operations in Spain and GTac’s behavior in Wisconsin, and raise serious questions about the motives of Bill Williams and his boss, the playboy coal magnate Chris Cline.
Photo inset: GTac Lobbyists, from left, Bob Seitz and Tim Myers, and President Bill Williams at Aug 13, 2013, (Wisconsin) DNR hearing on their bulk sample application. 
(Photo © and courtesy Rebecca Kemble)

CLC Investors

The CLC story begins in 1994. Leucadia National Corp., a multibillion dollar holding company, was alerted about a copper mine for sale in Spain by Frank Joklik, the former president of Kennecott Utah Copper Corporation -- owned by one of the world’s largest mining companies, Rio Tinto. Leucadia hired Joklik as president and CEO of MK Gold in 1995, despite his poor track record at Kennecott, where he concealed the dangers of a mine-waste pond in Salt Lake County, Utah. ... Click here to read the rest of this article on the WCMC Web site.

Wisconsin Citizens Media Cooperative: Ashland County Board Chair Calls for Repeal of Mining Law

By Pete Russo and Charles Ortman
Posted Dec. 8, 2013, on Wisconsin Citizens Media Cooperative
Reprinted in part with permission

[On December 7, 2013, in an editorial that ran in the Ashland Daily Press, Ashland County Board Chair Pete Russo and Board Member Charles Ortman called for a repeal of Act 1, the new (Wisconsin) ferrous mining law that was written by Gogebic Taconite and passed into law last March. - WCMC Editors]

Gogebic Taconite (GTac) President Bill Williams is wanted in Spain for his role in arsenic pollution of a river and aquifer near a mine he was involved in before coming here, despite promises that were made of "new technology" and "engineering our way out of anything." At some point engineering failed and arsenic began. Mr. Williams’ response to the Spaniards’ umbrage at arsenic in their aquifer, "It’s just opposition to the mining in that area."

Background knowledge of this area of Mr. Williams’ life would have undeniably changed the flavor of every hearing on the new ferrous mining law. Certainly his promise of new technology preventing any environmental degradation would have been met with the skepticism it deserved. ... Click here to read the rest of this article on the Wisconsin Citizens Media Cooperative Web site.

Photo (inset): Ashland County Board Chair Pete Russo, left, and Board Supervisor Charles Ortman at a press conference July 10, 2013 after GTac was caught employing
a paramilitary militia in Arizona to patrol their drill sites in the Penokee Hills. (Photo © and courtesy Rebecca Kemble)

Wisconsin Citizens Media Cooperative: Bill Williams’ Spanish Mistake Is Wisconsin’s Nightmare

By Joseph Skulan and Barbara With
Posted Nov. 30, 2013, on Wisconsin Citizens Media Cooperative

Gogebic Taconite (GTac) President Bill Williams will likely be brought to trial in Spain for his part in the environmental crimes allegedly committed by the Cobre Las Cruces (CLC) mining operation while he was a senior manager of the company, according to court documents obtained from Ecologistas en Acción (EIA).

One of the complaints filed with the Spanish courts alleges that Williams, who went to work at CLC in 2006, failed to follow official technical standards relating to the grade of mine wall slopes set forth by CEDEX (a policy, research and training agency of the Spanish Ministry of Public Works). The complaint further alleges that Williams’ decision to ignore these standards resulted in the collapse of the walls of the mine. ...

Click here to read the rest of this article on Wisconsin Citizens Media Cooperative.

Editor's Note: See also Joseph Skulan's "Letter to Spain: An introduction to GTac’s proposed Penokee Hills iron mine," posted today, Dec. 2, 2013, on Wisconsin Citizens Media Cooperative.

Editor's Update:  Also just posted today, Dec. 2, 2013, on Wisconsin Citizens Media Cooperative: "Dispatch from the Penokee Hills," by Mel Gasper. Lac Courte Oreilles tribal member and administrator fo the Harvest Educational Learning Project (HELP) near Mellen, Wis.

Woods Person: Bienvenido a Nicaragua

By Woods Person
Posted July 8 on woodsperson.blogspot.com
Reprinted in part with permission

During the holiday weekend heavily armed security personnel arrived at the GTac exploration site in Iron County (Wis.). Various people have tried to interview the masked, camouflaged troops to determine where they were from, who employs them and what their mission was. Why do they feel this level of armament is necessary? When asked who they were going to shoot, one guard was heard to answer, "nobody who isn't here to make trouble."

Security has been provided by Iron and Ashland County sheriff’s department officers since a confrontation there between mine protesters and drill crews on June 11th.  The Iron County Sheriff’s office has quickly and successfully investigated that incident and the person(s) responsible have been charged. 

Since that time no other problems have arisen. ...*

Photo: This photo was taken during the July 4th weekend on the proposed mine site in Iron County, Wisconsin, USA, not in Nicaragua or other third world country. (Photo
© Rob Ganson. Reprinted with permission)

* Click here to read the rest of this July 8 article on Woods Person's blog, which includes the perspective of Iron County Sheriff Tony Furyk and gives reasons why the Bulletproof Securities of Arizona guards, hired by Gogebic Taconite (GTac), were in Wisconsin illegally.

These armed guards have since been removed "temporarily" according to a July 10, 2013, article on wisn.com, "Mining company temporarily pulls armed guards."

Wisconsin Citizens Media Cooperative: Our Home is Under Attack

By Ros Nelson and Allie Raven*
Posted July 8, 2013, on Wisconsin Citizens Media Cooperative
Reprinted with permission

Everything that Northern Wisconsin holds dear is gravely threatened by Gogebic Taconite (GTAC) and from out-of-control legislation coming from Madison that is selling our precious natural resources, not to mention our democracy, to the highest bidder.

The Penokee Hills would be blasted and excavated into oblivion, becoming the largest open-pit taconite mine in the world, if GTAC is allowed to continue on its present destructive course. First phase: 4.5 miles long, 1 mile wide, and 800-1000 feet deep and, over time, a "war zone" nearly twice the length of Manhattan.

The Penokee Hills above and strip mined land for iron ore in Minnesota below. (Photos © Joel Austin and courtesy Wisconsin Citizens Media Cooperative)

Where are you in this fight for your water, for Lake Superior, for the health of your children? We hear many people assume that the Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa will block this mine. It is not wise to rely on a single strategy or to place the entire burden on one group of people.

As you read this, GTAC is drilling into the Hills to obtain core samples. Their next assault will be "bulk sampling." Vegetation and soil are removed and after holes are bored in the rock, explosives blow sections into six-inch stone and the material is hauled off for testing -- many thousands of tons. Already vehicles have left deep ruts in the roads used to access the drill sites; and drill sites, one by one, are being cleared.

Map of the Bad River Watershed where all the wastewater from the mine would flow. (Map © The Nature Conservancy and courtesy Wisconsin Citizens Media Cooperative)

HUMAN HEALTH

The watershed’s surface and groundwater provides drinking water for the towns of Ashland, Mellen, Highbridge, Marengo, Odanah and Upson. The vast amounts of water required to mine would cause a drawdown of the water table; and, when the rock is crushed to powder, it will release sulfuric acid, mercury, lead and arsenic into the soil and water.

The explosives required for mountain top removal create particles the size of a virus which transmit easily on the wind and are highly carcinogenic. The human system cannot block particles of this size. Miners on the Iron Range have higher rates of the rare mesothelioma, and higher rates of lung cancer and heart disease than the general Minnesota population.

Taconite mining is the second largest source of mercury emissions after coal power plants in the Lake Superior basin. Most northern Wisconsin waterways are already under fish advisories for mercury.

IRONY OF "THE PITCH"

GTAC proposes to offer us a 355-acre, man-made lake, as they turn their backs on the largest freshwater lake in the world, Superior, into which their acid drainage and other contaminants will flow.

The Tyler Forks, one of the "puddles" that could be legally filled in by mining waste. (Photo © and courtesy Rebecca Kemble)

LOCAL ECONOMY

If the Penokee Range, Copper Falls State Park and Bad River Watershed are effectively destroyed, significant tourist, farming, fishing and hunting income will also be lost. Mining does not bring lasting prosperity. Median household income in St. Louis County, with Minnesota’s largest taconite mines, was 22 percent below the state average between 2007 and 2011. Cliffs Natural Resources is laying off 625 workers at taconite mines in Michigan and Minnesota due to falling demand for taconite.

Mining creates a devastating boom/bust economic cycle, fostering an array of economic and social problems. Businesses created in mining towns typically include strip bars, pawn shops, massage parlors, and payday loan and bail bond offices.

NO MORE WILD RICE

The Kakagon and Bad River Sloughs (40 percent of the wetlands in the Lake Superior basin), at the mouth of the Bad River Watershed have been designated a Wetland of International Importance. They host a diversity of habitat, plants, and animals; are a spawning and nursery area for fish; and provide critical stopover habitat for migratory birds. The Lake Superior Chippewa have harvested wild rice in the sloughs for centuries and continue to enjoy it as a sacred food. Pyrite and other sulfide minerals, when exposed to water and air from blasting, produce sulfuric acid which would flow into the Bad River and the sloughs.

Lac Courte Oreilles and Bad River Bands of Lake Superior Chippewa sovereign flags. (Photo © and courtesy Rebecca Kemble)

A potential lease between GTAC and Iron County for toxic mine waste storage would affect over 1,000 acres of wetlands, many connected to trout streams. This mine would create an estimated 910 million tons of waste rock, likely producing sulfate pollution greater than that in the St. Louis River in Minnesota, where wild rice shows damage from sulfates up to 100 miles downstream from the Mesabi Iron Range.

Safe taconite mining is a myth. No taconite mine has ever operated, anywhere in the world, without producing enduring air and water pollution.

TAKE ACTION

Help to protect the Penokee Hills and waters by sending a tax-deductible donation to: Penokee Hills Education Project, P.O. Box 834, Ashland, WI 54806 or to: Defend the Bad River, P.O. Box 39, Odanah, WI 54861. Donate online at: www.badriver-nsn.gov.

Other important action steps include reading more about this critical issue at www.penokees.org, attending public meetings and community forums, voicing your concerns to local officials, and discussing the situation with your neighbors.

Our pristine environment and life-giving aquatic resources can never be replaced, but could easily be destroyed with disastrous long-term environmental, social, and economic consequences. Is this the legacy we want to leave to the future?

* Guest authors Ros Nelson and Allie Raven live in Northern Wisconsin.

Editor's Note: Wisconsin Citizens Media Cooperative notes that Wisconsin Voices interviewed Mike Wiggins, Jr., Chairman of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, about various aspects of the proposed mine. Click here and scroll down for the videos.