The Back Forty Mine is planned along the Wisconsin-Michigan border to extract gold and zinc sulfide and could pollute a nearby river that drains into Lake Michigan, according to the Democratic Party of Door County.
The mine has preliminary approval from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.
Gedicks will talk about the environmental and social dangers from the new open-pit mining proposal and the actions citizens can take, the release said.
The proposed mine is 150 feet from the Menominee River and overlaps sacred Native American burial grounds.
The plans by Aquila Resources, a Canadian company, show the mine would be more than 750 feet deep, 2,000 feet wide and 2,500 feet long, the release said.
The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality has given preliminary approval to the plans, the release said. The department is reviewing the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit and wetlands permit.
The land is the original homeland of the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin, the release said.
The tribe fears that sulfide wastes from the proposed mine will pollute the Menominee River and the spawning grounds for one of the largest populations of lake sturgeon in the Lake Michigan basin, the release said.
Source: US Today