Proposed nickel mine causes furor

UNION — A proposal to mine nickel from land adjacent to Crawford Lake will undergo a rigorous environmental evaluation before any permits are granted, a state official said this week.

Garry M. Hughes, president of Blackhawk Mines of Toronto, told members of the Crawford Lake Association last Thursday that his firm plans to mine a nickel ore deposit located beneath a 26-acre site near the lake. Hughes said a 1,000-square-foot shaft, 300-feet deep, will be needed to extract nickel and other minerals. Test borings of the site completed last December indicate the presence of a large quantity of ore, he told the association.

Norman Marcotte of the Department of Environmental Protection’s Water Quality Bureau said Tuesday that although Blackhawk had alerted the DEP about the proposed venture, it has not submitted a formal application. Marcotte said DEP regulations require a lengthy and public review of all major mining activities.

“It would be a very big, high-profile environmental issue with many permits needed,” Marcotte said Tuesday. “With a very high-profile activity like this there would be plenty of opportunity for public input.”

Lake Association members were stunned when they learned of Blackhawk’s plans last week. Speaking for the 86-member group, association president Neil Novicka of Rockland said of the membership, “They don’t want it, nobody wants it.”

Novicka said it was inconceivable for the state to even consider the application because water from the lake would be used in the mining operation and because of the intrusion of industrial activity in a serene natural setting.

“We can’t believe it,” he said. “They want to use water from the lake and we’re very concerned about that. We’re also concerned about what quality of water would be going back into the lake from the mine, the noise, damage to the land. It’s unbelievable.”

The mine site straddles the Union-Warren town line off Route 131. The property is owned by James and Jenness Robbins of Robbins Bros. Lumber Co. of Searsmont. The Robbinses have leased the property to Blackhawk.

According to reports from the meeting, Blackhawk intends to extract 10 truck loads of nickel ore a day from the mine site. The mine could remain in operation for as long as 10 years, yielding hundreds of millions of dollars worth of ore. Current nickel prices are $4 a pound.

Marcotte said the Union ore deposit is one of three mineral deposits in Maine believed to be economically feasible for mining. The other two are in undeveloped areas near Portage in Aroostook County and Flagstaff Lake in rural Franklin County.

Crawford Lake, by contrast, is nestled in a basin surrounded by farms and woodlands, less than 20 miles from the Rockland-Camden area. Part of the St. George River system, the lake is rimmed with camps and year-round homes.

Marcotte said that although the state has established stringent regulations for large mining operations, the Legislature supports large-scale mining operations, provided they conform to state regulations.

“Legislative public policy allows for mining as an element of the state’s economic development policy if it can be environmentally done as promoted,” Marcotte said. “The structure of the policy is to accommodate mining.”

Marcotte added, however, that “there certainly will be a lot of environmental concerns from our staff, as I’m sure there will be from a wide range of public environmental groups.”

Novicka said his association was prepared to fight the proposal. A second meeting between the association and Blackhawk will be held Aug. 16. “It’s going to be quite a humdinger,” Novicka predicted.