March 28, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

Hopes continue to be high mining will become reality

PRESQUE ISLE — Despite the controversy the past year surrounding the writing of rules to govern mining in Maine, Aroostook County residents continue to hope that a copper mine will become a reality. However, even if rules are in place by this spring, a mine may not be evident until the mid-1990s.

In a portion of unorganized territory west of Portage lies a deposit of copper and zinc mixed with some gold and silver. Actually located on No Name Ridge, the deposit is commonly known as the Bald Mountain copper deposit. If mined, up to 130 people could find work and earn between $2.2 million and $3.3 million annually.

With the slowing economy resulting in business after business in Aroostook County announcing lay-offs and shut-downs, local leaders would welcome a new long-term industry to boost employment and tax bases.

The mineral rights to the deposit are owned by Boliden Resources Inc., an American subsidiary of a Swedish mining firm. The latest in a string of several mining and exploration companies to be interested in the Bald Mountain site, Boliden appears to be the most aggressive in encouraging the state to write mining regulations.

Two other deposits in western and southern Maine, copper and nickel, also been discovered with companies interested in extracting the raw material.

However, no mine can open unless the state produces regulations that allow the mining industry a fair return on their investment and, at the same time, protect northern Maine’s pristine waterways and wilderness areas. The road to compromise has been rough.

A task force composed of staff from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection and the state’s Land Use Regulation Commission expect to have a draft set of rules ready for public hearing by mid-March. Such a session would come about six weeks after a Feb. 1 deadline set last year by the Maine Legislature to have the regulations in place.

However, LURC’s Executive Director, David E. Boulter, said the task force is committed to keeping the “spirit of the legislation.”

When produced, the draft of the regulations will be the third such effort. After paying $90,000 for a 30-year veteran Minneapolis geologist to write regulations, the task force scrapped the draft and opted to write its own. During public hearings, the second effort was severely criticized as being inflexible, unworkable and “anti-mining.”

Design requirements regarding mining waste disposal were viewed as too prohibitive.

State officials claimed, however, that the earlier drafts were based upon environmental rules already on the books.


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