What are the core issues?
The proposed Tamarack Mine poses significant risks to the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe's people, water, fish, and Manoomin (wild rice).
The proposed Tamarack Mine site is within miles of the homes of the Band’s community members and cultural sites like Rice Lake and Sandy Lake.
The environmental impacts of the proposed mine will add yet another stress to the natural environment, Manoomin (wild rice), medicinal plants, and cultural resources that are struggling to survive and adapt to the rapidly changing climate. The medicines used in the Band’s Midewin ceremonies will be damaged, which will prevent Band members from fully practicing their culture and beliefs.
We call on Minnesota officials to prioritize clean water over nickel mining.
In addition, mining and industrial activity so close to the Band’s reservation and within the Band’s treaty-ceded territories and trust lands further exacerbates the forced colonization, oppression, and discrimination that indigenous communities have endured for centuries.
The proposed mine is located within the ceded territory of the Treaty of 1855.
Several reservations were established by our ancestors in that treaty, including the Mille Lacs Reservation and a reservation at Sandy Lake, and those reservations were so located because of their access to sacred lakes and waters that provided food and resources. Those same lakes still provide resources to our people today, and they must be protected.
Learn more about treaty-ceded territories and the rights and equities that tribes retain within these territories.
Environmental Risks
Nickel mining presents a significant threat to the environment.
The practice has a consistent track record of impairing water quality in water-rich environments, like the area surrounding the proposed Tamarack Mine site. In nickel mining, metals and material waste are taken from the ground and exposed to water. This can create sulfuric acid, which has the same chemical composition as battery acid and may result in acid mine drainage that would affect not only surface and groundwater supplies, but also aquatic life, plant life, cultural sites, and more.
Additionally, the proposed nickel mine poses a significant threat to Minnesota’s natural resources and watersheds. The watershed surrounding the proposed Tamarack Mine flows into the Mississippi River and St. Croix watersheds, which puts critical drinking water sources and habitats at risk as well.
Recent News Coverage
STAR TRIBUNE
OCT 24, 2022
CBS NEWS
OCT 27, 2022
PBS
DEC 09, 2022
MINNESOTA REFORMER
DEC 15, 2022
Alternatives to Nickel Mining
Talon Metals continues to cite the high-grade quality of nickel at the proposed Tamarack Nickel Mine site as a key reason for state regulators to approve the project.
Nickel is a core component in electric vehicle batteries. But other options exist to source the nickel needed in electric vehicle batteries, including metal recycling. Metal recycling is a viable option that has proven successful in Europe, Japan, and China.
In addition to recycling nickel, We continue to see efforts to develop better electric vehicle battery technologies, which includes manufacturers shifting away from using cobalt and nickel in battery production due to their limited supply. Manufacturers also experience significant controversy and cost associated with extracting these materials.
Advancements in the development of hydrogen and soybean powered cars indicate that nickel mining doesn't have to be the answer to meeting the growing demand for electric vehicles and green energy. We caution against industry narratives seeking to create a false sense of urgency to extract the earth’s resources, particularly when there are long-term environmental risks to consider.
Impacts of the Tamarack Mine Proposal
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• The proposed Tamarack Mine site is located just 1.3 miles from Round Lake and the homes of tribal members, and in close proximity to cultural sites, including Rice Lake and Sandy Lake.
• 97% of nickel deposits are located within 35 miles of Native American Reservations.
Source: MSCI, 2021
• Most of these mineral reserves are not actually located on reservation or trust lands, which would provide tribes with more control over mining activities, but are located within ancestral lands, where tribes once lived and still have cultural resources, but now have limited control due to current day ownership by the federal or state government or private parties.
Source: Colorado University of Boulder (pdf)
Source: USGS Mineral Resources Online Spatial Data, U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY
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• Currently, mining in the United States is controlled by the 1872 General Mining Act, which does not require mining companies to clean up their toxic messes, resulting in more than 500,000 abandoned hardrock mines across the West.
Source: United States Government Accountability Office (pdf)
• Many abandoned mines have a legacy of pollution that continues to contaminate water, cause ongoing health problems for Indigenous communities, harm wildlife and habitat, and permanently scar natural landscapes.
Source: University of Colorado Law School (pdf)
• The Environmental Protection Agency identifies metal mining as the most toxic industry in America.
Source: United States Environmental Protection Agency
• In the counties surrounding Eagle Mine in Michigan, residents are advised to reduce fish consumption due to pollutants
Source: Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (pdf)
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• 4.5% of all landfilled municipal waste wasMINNESOTA CENTER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL ADVOCACY metal in 2013. That = 130,200 tons of metal sent to the landfill in one year.
Source: Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy
• In MN, 2.5% of construction and demolition waste is metal. This is 255,000 tons of wasted metals annually.
Source: Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy
• Recycling a ton of nickel produces 90% fewer emissions than mining
Source: Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy
• Estimates indicate that effective recycling of end-of-life batteries has the potential to reduce global demand by 35% for cobalt and nickel by 2040.”
Source: Colorado University of Boulder
• Minnesota only captures about 24% of electronics available for recycling, which contain valuable metals used in clean energy technologies. Despite a push for new copper and nickel sulfide mines, recycling rates hover around just 48% for nickel, according to the USGS.
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• Nickel mining has a consistent track record of impairing water quality in water-rich environments, like the area surrounding the proposed Tamarack Mine site.
• The type of pollution that comes from sulfide mining is particularly dangerous to wild rice. Among the substances released by copper-nickel sulfide mining are: mercury air emissions, sulfate discharges, copper, nickel, manganese, iron, aluminum, and arsenic, as well as solvents and processing wastes. Two discharges in particular are detrimental to the health of wild rice beds: Sulfate and Mercury.
Source: Minnesota Environmental Partnership - Sulfide Mining Fact Sheet
• Metal contamination of soils and waters reported around the world has severe impacts on environmental and human health. Acid mine drainage is one of the most important sources of heavy metal environmental pollution.
Source: Science Direct - Heavy metal removal mechanism of acid mine drainage in wetlands: A critical review
•The Tamarack complex straddles the Minnesota/Wisconsin Upland Till Plan and the Glacial Lakes Upham and Aitkin ecoregion. Ecoregion has clay-silt to silty-sand soils with peat bogs and lowland conifer forests, sedge meadows, and marshland throughout the area. The water bodies in the Tamarack region are linked by multiple aquifers.
Source: Tamarack Water Alliance Mine Concerns (pdf)
• Peatlands are irrecoverable carbon sinks and protecting them from mining impacts is a critical way to address climate change by keeping carbon in the land, and out of the air.