After its preliminary try didn’t succeed, a Canadian firm has filed a brand new rezoning utility in hopes of acquiring state approval to mine valuable metals in northern Maine.
Wolfden Sources Corp.’s first utility to mine copper, zinc, silver, lead and gold, was withdrawn in 2021 after state regulators stated it lacked sufficient data for officers to decide.
Wolfden officers downplayed their withdrawal of the plan, which the employees of the Land Use Planning Fee had advisable that it reject. Firm officers referred to as the withdrawal “a velocity bump” for his or her challenge and stated they’d submit a brand new utility.
“Keep tuned,” Ron Little, the chief govt officer of the Ontario-based firm stated on the time. “We don’t suppose mining is useless in Maine.”
Wolfden needs to rezone 374 wooded acres north of Patten, in Penobscot County, for mining operations. If the LUPC approves, they’d nonetheless want approval from the Maine Division of Environmental Safety earlier than work may start.
The corporate purchased the property in 2017 and stated its work there – at Pickett Mountain, often known as Mount Chase – can be a “showcase” of environmentally benign metallic extraction. The acquisition got here simply after the Maine Legislature adopted a brand new regulation that imposes strict environmental rules on mining within the state.
Traditionally, some metallic mines have been criticized for his or her manufacturing of “tailings,” the slurry residue left from pulverizing ore, and which regularly incorporates poisonous chemical substances.
In an announcement Friday, Wolfden pledged to fulfill the brand new Maine necessities and stated its mining requirements “are key to our future.” Wolfden has stated the Maine regulation “offers readability” on the allowing course of for mining operations.
However the LUPC employees stated the corporate’s first proposal lacked adequate data in practically 5 dozen areas that the fee wants to think about in deciding whether or not to grant the allow.
The proposal for a mining operation has drawn robust criticism from the Pure Sources Council of Maine, which stated Friday that the proposed mining web site is just too near Baxter State Park and the Katahdin Woods and Waters Nationwide Monument.
The location additionally incorporates the headwaters of the Mattawamkeag River, which is sacred to the Penobscot Nation. The NRCM stated the river offers vital habitat for the endangered Atlantic salmon, and that the mine would even be subsequent to 3 State Heritage Brook Trout waters.
“Wolfden has confirmed repeatedly that it may’t be trusted,” Nick Bennett, an NRCM employees scientist, stated in an announcement Friday.
He stated a mine at Wolfden’s web site “would ceaselessly injury the clear water and wealthy pure assets that assist the area’s vibrant out of doors recreation financial system.”
The Penobscot Nation, Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians and residents of the area have additionally spoken in opposition to the 2021 proposal.
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