Save the Wild U.P. Executive Director to represent U.P. activism at Rio Tinto international shareholders meeting Apr. 18

MARQUETTE -- Save the Wild U.P.’s executive director, Alexandra Thebert, will be heading to London to voice community opposition to Eagle Mine at Rio Tinto’s annual shareholders meeting this Thursday, April 18, 2013. She will be the 10th person from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to attend this meeting, drawing attention to the hazards and risks of Eagle Mine to the local community.

Concerned citizens who have previously addressed Rio Tinto's shareholders at their Annual General Meeting include Rev. Jon Magnuson representing 100 leaders from faith-based communities, Cynthia Pryor of the Yellow Dog Watershed Preserve, Carla Champagne of Concerned Citizens of Big Bay, Friends of the Land of Keweenaw member Fran Whitman, law student Meg Townsend, and Keweenaw Bay Indian Community tribal members Susan LaFernier and Jessica Koski.

"I am honored to attend this shareholders meeting to bring representation to thousands of citizens concerned about the hazards and risks associated with Eagle Mine. I hope to represent supporters of our land, water, and of stable economics -- not the booms and busts of mining. We will not 'keep calm and carry on' in the face of sulfide mining," said Thebert. (Photo of Alexandra Thebert, above left, courtesy Save the Wild U.P.)

Thebert will join activists from around the world, including representatives from Oyu Tolgoi Watch (Mongolia), the Arizona Mining Reform Network, IndustriALL, a global union, and others to protest and highlight Rio Tinto's environmental and labor record. This project is made possible by a special fund created by activists in support of this trip.

Margaret Comfort, Save the Wild U.P. president, noted Rio Tinto recently has been laying off local workers at the Eagle Mine and reducing its contractors by 20 percent.

"Yoopers and the Upper Peninsula deserve better," she said.

Cynthia Pryor, who attended the shareholders meeting in 2008 and 2012, added, "On every front this mine threatens the health of our community and the environment. There will be so many issues this year to discuss -- transportation routes, blastomycosis, air and water quality, mine construction delays/layoffs, and now uranium too."*

Richard Solly, coordinator of the London Mining Network, an alliance of human rights, development and environmental groups which works to expose unacceptable mining projects, said Rio Tinto is under the scrutiny of people around the world.

"It has an appalling record of environmental destruction, violation of Indigenous rights, attacks on unions and benefiting from human rights abuses," Solly said. "That is why, every year, people come from across the world to Rio Tinto's shareholders meeting in London to challenge the company over its operations."

Save the Wild U.P. is a grassroots environmental organization dedicated to the preservation of the Upper Peninsula’s unique cultural and natural resources.

* See our May 23, 2012, article on last year's Rio Tinto AGM, "Updated: Big Bay residents report on Rio Tinto AGM in London."

Two Big Bay residents to address air quality concerns at Rio Tinto London meeting Apr. 19

BIG BAY, MICH. -- Two Upper Peninsula women are traveling to London, England, to attend the Rio Tinto Annual General Meeting taking place April 19, 2012.

Carla Champagne of the grassroots citizens group Concerned Citizens of Big Bay and Cynthia Pryor of the Yellow Dog Watershed Preserve plan on attending the Rio Tinto AGM meeting for two reasons: 1) the lack of air monitors at or near Rio Tinto / Kennecott's Eagle Mine and 2) Rio Tinto / Kennecott's intention to remove air filter controls from the Main Vent Air Raise of the Eagle Mine.

"Air Quality is of prime importance to the people and community of Big Bay," states Carla Champagne. "We are directly downwind; and no one -- including Kennecott and the DEQ (Michigan Department of Environmental Quality) -- knows what is currently in the air coming from this mine, or, even more importantly, what will be coming from the mine once they are in full operation. There are no air monitors either at the mine or anywhere near Big Bay. We will be asking the Rio Tinto Board of Directors and their shareholders for a comprehensive air quality program to be installed in the region -- a program that will be regulated by the DEQ, monitored by DEQ-approved third party scientists -- and all costs paid for by Kennecott."

Cynthia Pryor considers this meeting an opportunity to express outrage at Kennecott’s new Air Quality application to remove the air filter controls from the Main Vent Air Raise, which will be used as the only exhaust for all the underground mine workings of the Eagle Mine.

"This 65-foot high stack sits within 150 feet of the Salmon Trout River," Pryor said. "We worked hard to get the air filter included as part of Kennecott’s original Air Quality permit as they intended the mine exhaust to be vented directly to the air. Now, they are back pedaling and want this air filter to be removed. We are vehemently opposed to such a notion, and we wish to make this clear to the Rio Tinto Board."

Rio Tinto filed their new Air Quality permit March 20, 2012; and the DEQ Air Quality Division is currently evaluating it. Public hearings for this application have been requested for Big Bay and Lansing. The application is on the DEQ website at http://www.deq.state.mi.us/aps/AppsOfInterest.shtml.