Rich in metals and minerals, the Upper Peninsula experienced booms in copper and iron during the past two centuries. Now, uranium mining is being explored in parts of the Keweenaw Peninsula.
Mining companies Bitterroot Resources and Cameco have joined together to explore 780 square miles of the U.P. for uranium potential. Bitterroot Resources Ltd.’s Michigan subsidiary owns 106 square miles of mineral rights in the Keweenaw Peninsula and continues to lease land from the state.
Mineral rights are dominant over surface rights, so if a mine proposal is accepted, the mine has full rights to the land, said Thomas Wellman, manager of mineral and land management in the forest, mineral and fire management division of the Department of Natural Resources.
As a result, members of a Marquette grass-roots organization called Save the Wild U.P. (SWUP) are concerned that mining in the U.P. will increase.
“The surface rights and mineral rights have been divorced in this country,” said Babette Welch, co-founder of SWUP. “Watching the rapid sale of mineral rights indicates the possibility of more mines.”
And while Wellman said land owners are compensated for their property, the hazards of uranium mining leave some worried.
“Uranium mining leaves radioactive waste, which can lead to cancer,” Welch said. “It needs to be looked after for a lifetime. People don’t understand how damaging this will be to their quality of life.”
Uranium is used mostly as fuel to create electricity in nuclear reactors and is worth approximately $40 per pound.
Welch said the possibility of uranium mining is just around the corner, as mining companies like Kennecott Minerals await a decision on their proposed nickel-sulfide mine in the Yellow Dog Plains.
The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) created rules to standardize mining in the Nonferrous Metallic Mining Regulations Act, Part 632 as a result of the proposed mine. This act set rules for mining including feasibility, safety and environmental impact assessments. It incorporated all nonferrous metals, one of which is uranium.
The first metallic-mineral lease was taken out in 1997, and Bitterroot is trying to purchase more land rights, said Milt Gere, a DNR geologist. Exploration by both companies started in 2003, but there is no deposit ready to be mined yet, said Lyle Krahn, Cameco manager of external communications.
“We are at a very early stage of exploration,” Krahn said. “We’re many years away from a mine.”
Krahn said if Cameco proposes a mine in the future, it would first have to find a significant body of uranium and then conduct a feasibility study.
“We would certainly meet or exceed any requirements set by the MDEQ,” he said, adding that the U.P. is not the main focus of the company, which has mines in Saskatchewan and Australia.
Retired Northern Michigan University chemistry professor and SWUP vice president Gail Griffith attended the non-ferrous metallic mining law-making meetings in St. Ignace and wanted the act to exclude mining of uranium and radioactive minerals. She has been pursuing the issue and has written a letter to Governor Jennifer Granholm and an article for an outdoor magazine.
Griffith said the act does not account for the hazards this type of mining would create.
She said mining of low-grade uranium often is performed by in-situ leaching. This process injects sulfuric acid and ammonium carbonate into an isolated aquifer, making the uranium soluble.
“First of all, you’ve got to know if the aquifer is contained, and that it is not leaking into other aquifers,” she said. “That’s a big problem, because you really don’t know that. And secondly, once you do all this leaching, and there’s not much more uranium coming out, then you’ve got this big aquifer filled with chemicals and you can pump and pump and pump on that and you’re never going to get that clean.”
After the uranium is dissolved by the chemicals, it is then pumped into evaporation ponds where the solids can be collected. This can release radon gas into the air, she said. Radon is known to cause health complications such as cancer.
Other hazards would include transportation of the uranium and worker safety, Griffith said, adding that the mines would have to be watched from cradle to grave.
“It’s just a huge, huge undertaking,” she said.
MDEQ district geologist Joe Maki said the MDEQ did not contemplate uranium mining specifically when they drafted the legislation because it was not the right time. He said they could not make all provisions for specific mines and therefore kept the rules generic.
However, Griffith said she brought up the issue of uranium mining multiple times with the MDEQ.
Maki said if an uranium mine is proposed, the MDEQ will look at the set of rules and make amendments as needed.
“If we had started to leave out elements on the periodic table while drafting the rules, there would be no end,” Maki said. “Rather than excluding things, let’s make it positive and try to draft it to what it can include.”
Maki said he has been observing the exploration by Bitterroot and Cameco carefully.
“When Kennecott discovered the Eagle Project, they had something indicative of a body,” Maki said. “Intuitively, my experience told me something was there.”
A uranium mine would be far in the future, Maki said, adding that there is a minimum two-year data collection requirement for mines to be considered. This includes environmental impact and water quality data.
“You don’t just go out one day, explore and find a mine,” he said.
However, Griffith said the current provisions in the act are inadequate for uranium mining.
“It’s going to take another act, or at least quite a long time to get all the research done, and get legislation written, if they indeed do get a request for a permit for a uranium mine,” she said.
—Valerie West

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