Wisconsin Gets Win Against Proposed Gtac Mine

Wisconsin needed a win, and Friday we got a big one.

The proposed massive open-pit Gogebic Taconite (Gtac) Iron ore mine that would destroy pristine habitats and waters and fill in wetlands looks dead in the wake of a statement issued Friday by Gtac President Bill Williams announcing the firm will close its Hurley office in Iron County effective Sunday. (Rick Olivo, Ashland Daily Press)

Amid Scott Walker's assaults against the Wisconsin environment and University of Wisconsin System, the news spread quickly across social media.

The closing of the mine was predicted two years ago by an attorney in Iron County, Tony Stella.

The proposed mine attracted national attention with New York Times writer, Dan Kaufman, calling the fight against the mine, The Fight for Wisconsin's Soul.

Professor Charles Wilkerson, Distinguished Moses Lasky Professor of Law at the University of Colorado Law School, also said Native American Treaty Law would doom the mine. (Mal Contends)

At the site of the citizens group, Citizens Concerned about the proposed Penokee Mine (Facebook), people expressed joy and determination to fight again should Gtac decide to move on another front in this massive con game.

Writes Wisconsin environmentalist, Jim Rowen:

GTac says it is shelving its plan to blow up, dig up and mill the Penokee Hills in the Bad River watershed for low-grade iron ore already in surplus supply - - because, it says it found too much water in the wetlands in the watershed at the edge of Lake Superior.

Sure, it took the mining company four years to make this discovery.

The uproar the plan caused in state politics helped force the moderate GOP mining opponent Dale Schultz from the State Senate and it seems as if the company wasted $700,000 in thank you money in routed to a Scott Walker advocacy group for his getting a sweetheart enabling bill that is still on the books through the Legislature.

A mining protestor, Katie Krow Kloth, is still facing a criminal charge from a corrupt Iron County District Attorney, Martin Lipske, who fronts for the Gtac mine and the Iron County sex industry, including sex trafficking of minors.

Maybe the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin or the FBI will look into this one day. I would not hold my breath.

In the mean time, those on the front lines in Iron and Ashland counties should be feeling good about themselves this weekend.

Said Wisconsin environmentalist, Barbara With: "I am glad that people are being realistic about GTac closing their offices, having intelligent discussions, etc etc but for this moment, can we please just be happy they are leaving? No it doesn't mean the stand is over, no, it doesn't mean they aren't coming back. But for now, thousands and thousands of people stood long and strong to protect our water, and GTAC is closing their offices and leaving. For now. So for now, we celebrate. It doesn't mean we are naive or stupid or don't understand the bigger picture. But for god's sake if we cannot savor a moment we have long dreamt of, what's the point? This effort has been exhausting. I don't know about anyone else, but I personally gave up my life for several years to take this action. So for now, please, just let me be happy. that is all."

The Man Behind the Proposed GTac Mine in Wisconsin

America's leading asshole - Christopher Cline

Christopher Cline is a billionaire living variously in Palm Beach, mega-yachts, hiding behind his extraction conglomerates with a long history of poisoning huge tracts of land and water, leaving area residents and governments to clean up his toxification.

Known as the new New King of Coal, Cline doesn't bother much with his public image, beyond avoiding as much as possible the public eye, as he looks at the Illinois Basin for more coal extraction and fracking and northern Wisconsin for the largest open pit mine on the planet in a pristine area that for now draws tourists from out-of-state.

The coverage of Cline in the American press has been relegated to celebrity pieces on whom Cline is dating with an occasional piece on Cline buying up stock in the extraction industry. Cline manages somehow to keep an extremely low profile.

Bios of Cline are typically written by environmental activists noting how destructive and oblivious cline is to the health of the people his extraction operations destroy:

Although Cline’s lifestyle appears to be all about champagne and caviar, the basis of his wealth presents a far darker story than the golden-hued online tour of his 33,413 square foot mansion in North Palm Beach, Florida.

According to an extensive 2010 profile of Cline in Bloomberg Markets Magazine, he became "a billionaire by betting on a dirty fuel the world can’t get enough of." (Pember, Indian Country Today)

I'll poison your land and water, buy the politicians and there's nothing you can do about it, is the position of this gaping asshole of a man, pictured above-right, next to his Mine Games Yacht (unless he's already sold the $ 28-million, 161-foot toy for a more expensive yacht). (Fabrikant, New York Times)

The new problem is that Cline is trying to begin operations in pristine northern Wisconsin in Iron and Ashland counties by ripping open the largest open pit mine in the planet looking to make some more $ millions from iron ore extraction (eventually), expressing no concerns that his proposed open pit mine would release into the pristine environment various toxic amounts of mercury, arsenic, and other heavy metals, sulfates, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides, and simply ignoring what looks bad such as the release of sulfuric acid into area rivers, streams and lakes.

Penokee Hills range in northern Wisconsin - Perfect for a
massive open pit iron ore mine, claims Christopher Cline

For now, most legal experts see high hurdles before Cline could begin operations no matter how many Wisconsin Republicans are trying to help Cline destroy the Penokee Hills range in northern Wisconsin, pictured at right. (Kaufman, New York Times)

Political opposition has galvanized against the very idea of disturbing a pristine wilderness, as Cline is now allied now with the Koch brothers. (Verburg, Wisconsin State Journal)

Supported by Scott Walker (and opposed by Walker presumptive Democratic Party opponent, Mary Burke), the proposed Gogebic Taconite mine would toxify the pristine "headwaters of the Bad River, which flows into Lake Superior, the largest freshwater lake in the world and by far the cleanest of the Great Lakes. Six miles downstream from the site is the reservation of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, whose livelihood is threatened by the mine." (Kaufman, New York Times)

Iron County Wisconsin is a corrupt political jurisdiction, where the rule of law has long been supplanted by political and personal alliances.

Yet, even Iron County touts the grandeur of its natural resources and habitats as a "place of incredible natural beauty. With 300 pristine lakes encompassing 34,000 acres of pure water, the only thing that could make it better is Lake Superior coastline. Good thing Iron County has that, too. Come and enjoy an amazing waterfall, or take a long walk on the beautiful sandy beaches of Saxon Harbor."

Why despoil such an amazing environment: Corruption and convenience, and the sociopathic drive for extraction of natural resources for profit, whatever the consequences of poisoning the surrounding environment and residents.

The CIA has a term for the type of human being who would inflict mass casualties intentionally by injecting toxic agents into populations: Terrorist.

"Terrorists have considered a wide range of toxic chemicals for attacks. Typical plots focus on poisoning foods or spreading the agent on surfaces to poison via skin contact, but some also include broader dissemination techniques," reads a public CIA site dealing with the delivery devices of toxins and other "typical agents ... available to al-Qa'ida and other terrorist groups."

Unfortunately, for Americans the extraction industry is not listed as a terrorist organization.

Fortunately for Americans, we still do have the Environmental Protection Agency, the Army Corps of Engineers and a federal court system protecting the habitat and environment of protected species under federal law that Cline would need to navigate before he begins his plan of destruction.

Citizen groups insist their voices are heard before Cline executes his project of terror by extraction.

Wisconsin environmental activist, Frank Koehn, remains optimistic of stopping the would-be terrorist, Cline: "With the mercenaries he hired, Chris Cline shows that he’s just another rich guy who’ll try to take our resources and pollute our water. It’s not the first time this happened, and they’ve all failed. He will, too." (Pember, Indian Country Today)

Don't Ingest Arsenic, No Matter What GTac Mining Co Tells You

While the proprietors of the proposed Gogebic Taconite (GTac) open-pit mine in Wisconsin may tell you that ingesting arsenic is a harmless act, don't believe them.

Arsenic is a toxin, a cancer-causing agent that can be found in the Earth's crust, a fact some will tell you disconfirms arsenic's danger.

Take Bill Williams, president of GTac.

Don't believe Williams. He and GTac are in northern Wisconsin, and in a premeditated act they will poison the residents and toxify the waters, if the have their way in ripping open the largest open pit mine on the planet in Iron and Ashland counties.

The Center for Public Integrity has a piece today by David Heath entitled What to do if your drinking water contains arsenic? The short answer is stop immediately.

But politicians like Wisconsin State Rep. Tom Tiffany (Hazelhurst, Wisconsin) and Scott Walker have other ideas: Front for the GTac mining companies and the families up north can move, if they don't like it.

Meanwhile, the fight goes on:

"With contaminants such as mercury, arsenic, and other heavy metals, sulfates, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides being released from mining tailings' waste dust, waste rock, ore transportation and ore processing, the air and water quality in northern Wisconsin could have been seriously polluted," notes the Wisconsin Sierra Club, accessing the Proposed Taconite Mine in the Penokee Range in Northern Wisconsin. "While we were seriously concerned about (Christopher Cline's) mining ventures destroying our beautiful lands, endangering the lives of our workers and surrounding community members, and pollution from mining dirtying our clean air and water, we found that Chris Cline was living in a 33,000 square-foot house (pictured right) and enjoyed taking his investors on his 164-foot-long yacht named, 'Mine Games'. Wisconsin simply couldn't risk being a pawn in this sort of 'game.'"

Implausible Deniability by Mining Company in Wisconsin

Microscopic image of asbestiform grunerite, one of the most dangerous
forms of asbestos, from the site of GTac’s proposed iron mine.
Image is from a scanning electron microscope (SEM) made at
UW-Madison by the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey.

There came to northern Wisconsin a mining company that did not know

Mike Simonson of Wisconsin Public Radio reports the confirmed presence of dangerous asbestiform grunerite at the site of the proposed open pit mine in the Penokee Hills range in northern Wisconsin has resulted in a new company strategy: "Gogebic Taconite (GTac), the company behind the proposed iron ore mine in the Penokee Hills, says it won’t take rock samples from an area where asbestos-like fibers were found."

Out of sight, out of mind.

So, asbestiform grunerite is present, but GTac simply will go somewhere else and pretend this dangerous toxin does not exist.

Writes Simonson: "The fibers are in grunerite deposits, but in a letter last week to the DNR [Department of Natural Resources], GTAC continues to deny its existence, saying: 'Our position remains that asbestosform material is unlikely to be present in the reserve.'"

This position is a lie, a bald-faced lie, already disconfirmed multiple times.

The United States Geological Survey warns about the danger of naturally-occurring asbestiform:

According to the U.S. EPA and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry potential health effects of exposure to asbestos can include asbestosis, mesothelioma, and lung cancers. In the past, most medical research and regulatory focus has been on the health effects of asbestos used industrially or commercially. However, there have been increasing concerns recently regarding the potential health effects of naturally-occurring asbestos (NOA), which occurs as an accessory mineral in some rocks ... .

A Wintery Hike Along the Tyler Fork River in the Penokee Mountains
- Photo by Greggory Jennings at
Citizens Concerned about the proposed Penokee Mine

You never wish mesothelioma onto anyone, not for the worst of humanity, not even for the sick, dangerous sociopaths who would inflict this horrible disease onto others.

In light of the fact of the confirmed presence of asbestiform grunerite at the GTac mining sight, here's a phone conversation that will never take place between Bill Williams, president of the Gogebic Taconite LLC (GTac) and Christopher Cline, billionaire CEO of Cline Resource and Development company, the father conglomerate of GTac.

Bill Williams: 'Hey Chris, we gotta shut down our proposed open pit mine up there in Wisconsin. Multiple independent analyses have confirmed the presence of dangerous asbestiform grunerite, and we know this will adversely affect the habitat of Native-American treaty-protected species, for starters. We close, or I resign and go to Spain to face justice for our arsenic leak.'

Christopher Cline:—'Geez, Bill, no way did I know the GTac mine would adversely affect the habitat. You are so right. We are pulling up stakes and leaving—today. You put out the word, and issue an apology to the folks up in Iron County and Ashland County in Wisconsin. All we care about are the environment and jobs; and I don't care how much money leaving today costs us, we are out, if I have to come up from Palm Beach and do this myself.'

Gogebic Taconite ore samples contain: "a highly concentrated form of asbestos fibers...it is the most dangerous." From Wisconsin Public Television Here and Now's reporter Mike Simonson:

Drinking Downstream from the Penokee Mountain Is Lake Superior

Nature's Intent. The Penokee Mountain and Copper Falls rock and stone beds are at work right now. They deliver water quickly, like a lightning flash, downstream. The same rocks that currently deliver mystery, speed, rapids and magnificent Falls are also the same ones that will deliver the wrath and guts of a Mountain mine downstream. Like a lightning flash......Drinking downstream are Lake Superior, humans, frogs and wild rice. Smooth rocks don't keep water around and soak up poison. We do. Alter the land you alter the people but alter the land you also alter the rocks. Right now the water runs the way nature intended and those rocks are in good spirits and in the rocks are good spirits delivering water.
- Mike Wiggins Jr.

Beautiful stuff, Chief Wiggins. 

Under federal law, "the question is: 'Will this mining complex adversely affect the habitat of treaty-protected species?' If so, the proposed mining project will have to be revised or abandoned," said Charles Wilkinson, Moses Lasky Professor of Law at the University of Colorado Law School. 

Have never met you, but it feels good to fight at your side for the Earth.

Too Beautiful to Bomb‏

We need the feds to come in and stop the calculated use of unlawful violence to intimidate the Wisconsin community.

View from Penokee Hills, Iron County Wisconsin
Proposed site of huge Iron Ore Open Pit Mine

Bad River Estuary

Bad River wetlands or sloughs flows into Lake Superior

Christopher Cline, a Billionaire Who Could Not Care Less about Wisconsin

Penokee Hills

Mary Annette Pember has nice bio on billionaire and mega-yacht enthusiast, Christopher Cline, the man behind the proposed Gogebic Taconite Mine.

So, Cline's proposed 20-mile open pit mine going is going to cause terrible problems in the waters and land of northern Wisconsin.

Tell it to somebody who cares; Cline's busy at his 33,413 square foot mansion in North Palm Beach, Florida, and having his cronies funnel money to Scott Walker and other favored politicians.

Writes Geraldine Fabrikant in the Times:

The 161-foot Mine Games, a boat built by Trinity Yachts of Gulfport, Miss., was put on the market for $27 million (in 2011) ... because its owner, Chris Cline, who heads Cline Resource and Development, a mine development company, had a larger boat on order.

If you think Cline is in this for anything but getting his money and leaving behind a waste, you're kidding yourself.

So, when Cline's water carriers tell you all Cline cares about is full employment, jobs (just ask 'em) and the environment, if you have an IQ exceeding 80, don't believe it.

Cline knows he's not wanted; but that is not his concern.