Mine Owners Cry 'No Money' as Iron County Board Faces Decision on GTAC Lease

"Why should Iron County be subsidizing billionaire Chris Cline at the expense of poor, local taxpayers?" (StellaReport)

Few objective Wisconsin citizens believed Gogebic Taconite's (GTAC) proposed massive open pit mine operation was a full-employment and pro-environmental center in disguise despite repeated statements by mining company officials assuring benign and encouraging results.

But some residents of Iron County will believe pretty much anything in their desperation for promised jobs and money from the Koch brothers. But reportedly, the Iron County Board is considering that it has been taken for a long ride.

GTAC funneled over $ Millions into GOP coffers and allies, including of course Scott Walker who asked that GTAC money defending his Recall election be funneled through Wisconsin Club for Growth. (Marley, Bice and Bergquist, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel) GTAC coughed up $700,000 for Club for Growth at Scott Walker's urging.

Now, GTAC's lease with Iron County is up for renewal.

An Iron County attorney, Anthony Stella, is blasting GTAC's cries that it has no money and needs to lease the Iron County land for free with no payments to Iron County until 2016. (StellaReport)

Writes Stella:

This whole scenario should also be a wakeup call. Chris Cline [the billionaire behind GTAC] is not serious about this project. He can't be. He has severed the umbilical cord between him and GTAC. He is not only embarrassing Iron County, he is embarrassing [GTAC president] Bill Williams and the local GTAC employees. They have come bearing promises of a $1.5 billion investment, and now can't pony up $10K to secure the rights to property which is essential to their plans? Clearly Cline has the money. He has made the deliberate decision not to spend it on this project, just as he already instructed GTAC to lay off all the workers and stop spending any more money last fall.

WAKE UP IRON COUNTY! If GTAC can't afford to come up with $10K to pay Iron County for a year, they certainly aren't in a position to spend the millions that will be required for more drilling and testing over the next year. This is also a red flag. These guys cannot even manage a budget during this early phase. Are we going to trust that they can run a profitable mining venture? When it comes time for cleaning things up and reclamation, will they say they're out of money? If they can't honor their contracts before they've even gotten started, they can't be trusted to honor them later.

We heard excuses from Bill Williams about why nothing is happening. First he said they let employees go last fall because it was late in the year and they couldn't finish environmental work before winter. Last week we heard they would not drill this winter because no snow had been removed. Days later he told Wisconsin Public Radio they were holding off over fears that an EPA decision on a mine in Alaska might lead to a similar decision against GTAC, and he added that Iron County's proposed zoning ordinance also was a concern. But now we learn the real truth. The well has gone dry. Chris Cline won't fork over any more cash, even after generously giving $700K to his buddies in Madison.

What about Cline and GTAC's abiding concern for jobs and the environment? Turns out this was BS, and even credulous Iron County residents may begin to wonder if the proposed mine's destroying and poisoning the environment was ever a bright idea to begin with.

Stella noted last night at the Citizens Concerned about the Proposed Penokee Mine site (Facebook):

"I have had very encouraging and constructive talks with several board members in Iron County. There's reason to believe a dozen or more are open to rejection of the lease extension agreement. This needs to be approached right, including making sure they have the right legal advice going forward. There's also a lot of pressure on some of these folks, so try to resist the urge to attack board members for past decisions made. If everyone is constructive going forward, we'll get the best results. As Mike Wiggins [of the Bad River band of the Lake Superior Chippewa] said the other night, 'the parties all have a lot of mutual interests, and it's time to focus on moving forward with those instead of fighting over the past or things we can't agree on.'"

Wiggins is right, one wonders if GTAC will pull the plug as the collapse in global iron ore prices leave locals holding the bag and finding it empty.

The 'Forbidden Zone,' a Psychopathic District Attorney and the Soul of Wisconsin

Edge of the Forbidden Zone
in northern Wisconsin

Update: "The Forbidden Zone is a corrupt political construct bought and paid for by people who should be behind bars.It is a special favor for the dark money donor class and should be challenged," said Jeff Silbert, a Wisconsin resident working to stop the proposed massive open pit mine.
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Pete Rasmussen of the Penokee Hill Education Project, offers viewers a compelling narrative of the Wisconsin "Forbidden Zone," created by Wisconsin Republicans and Scott Walker for the Gogebic Taconite (GTAC) mining company in the middle of "the Penokee Range of Northern Wisconsin, home to a proposed massive open pit operation that threatens the water and treaty resources of the Ojibwe ceded territory." (Indian Country News)

For a stunning and powerful video, see Paulette Moore's videos.

GTAC wants to slash open the largest open pit mine in the world in pristine northern Wisconsin, poisoning an entire ecosystem.

Dan Kaufman in the New York Times calls the proposed GTAC mine, "The Fight for Wisconsin’s Soul."

A corrupt Wisconsin District Attorney, Martin Lipske, wants to prosecute a mining protester with a felony crime for allegedly setting foot in the deserted, snow-laden Forbidden Zone in the middle of January 2015.

This writer has listened to and interviewed 1,000s, and I have never spoken with such a repulsive piece of human garbage as Martin Lipske.

The snowshoe trek, (there is a lot of snow in northern Wisconsin), began with "the Lac Coutre Oreilles band of Ojibwe Indians [which] established the Harvest Education Learning Project (HELP]: A five-acre camp in the Penokee Hills of Northern Wisconsin. The group joined local, national and international activists protesting the development of the worlds largest open-pit mine in pristine forest," said Wisconsin resident, Brad Geyer.

Scott Walker Does Not Know as Much as Jeopardy's Brad Rutter and Ken Jennings

Readers who DVR Jeopardy (Sony Corp) know last week featured Brad Rutter and Ken Jennings in the Battle of the Decades.

Rutter and Jennings are amazing minds, dominating this American gaming institution like Roberto Duran dominated the lightweight division in boxing in the 1970s and, I can't think of another example.

To hear Scott Walker, he simply does not have an immense general knowledge base rivaling Rutter and Jennings,' and doesn't know his mind as well, what with god inserting some many thoughts.

Part of what make these two millionaires so great at Jeopardy is not just that they know so much and are fast in clicking in on a question.

Rutter and Jennings also know their minds with striking clarity, often clicking in to be first and then voicing the correct answer (question) on occasions when they didn't know the answer when they clicked, but knew the answer would come to them fast.

This came to mind because Saturday the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel editorialized against dark money and asked Scott Walker if he knew about a well-publicized $700,000 contribution from Gogebic Taconite (GTac) LLC, a mining company that wrote a Republican mining bill before proposing its massive project that would devastate a pristine area in Iron and Ashland counties with North America's largest open pit mine.

Writes the Journal-Sentinel:

Gov. Scott Walker says he had nothing to do with soliciting a $700,000 donation from the mining company Gogebic Taconite for Wisconsin Club for Growth during the 2011 and 2012 recall elections. Asked whether he was aware of the donation, he responded with "not to my knowledge." (Which means exactly what?)

It means, if Scott Walker is to be believed, that Scott Walker simply does not know to his knowledge if GTac gave a $700,000 contribution to Club for Growth as Walker urged that all contributions be laundered through Club for Growth, a pro-Scott Walker group directed by Walker's campaign adviser.

If Walker loses in November, he can forget Jeopardy.

Walker is programmed by his attorneys and is attempting to be reelected without answering a question about the fact Walker was at the center of a criminal scheme placing him in criminal jeopardy, but we should give Walker a break about not being Rutter or Jennings.

Scott Walker Asked If He Knew of $700,000 Mining Co. Payoff: "Not to my knowledge"

Scott Walker, when asked if he was aware of the $700,000 donation the mining company, Gogebic Taconite gave Wisconsin Club for Growth responded with "not to my knowledge." (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, September 14, 2014) (Which means exactly what?)

This means Scott Walker is a fraud who cannot be trusted.

GTac Mine in Wisconsin Penokee Range Is Stalled, Altered or Dead

"Several of our sources indicate that the GTac mine project in the Penokee Range" is dead (Woods Person), with GTac officials instructed to spend no more money on the project, amid other reports that the proposed massive open pit mine is laying off technical specialists.

The Prairie Badger notes the report has not been verified by GTac officials.

Lee Bergquist of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel quotes a GTac official, saying, "A Gogebic Taconite spokesman said Thursday that the company is considering constructing its massive iron ore mine solely in Iron County because of opposition from officials in adjacent Ashland County."

But GTac official, Bob Seitz, told Journal-Sentinel: "(n)o staff members have been laid off, as the blog reported, he said. The company has six employees, which includes geologists and metallurgists."

A citizens group, Citizens Concerned about the proposed Penokee Mine, is celebrating online.

Iron County attorney, Anthony Stella, notes the plummeting Iron Ore market heading towards $75/ton, writing that an industry periodical, "indicates 'break even' price is $80 for some existing companies. A new company, like GTAC, would likely have much higher production costs due to a lack of current infrastructure and site-specific issues such as the depth of the ore and the use of unproven dry-stacking methods for tailings."

Industry journals support Stella's analysis.

"A deepening supply glut in the iron ore market will force out the bulk of high-cost mine tonnage in the junior mining sphere , reinforcing the majors' dominance over the coming quarters," notes he Business Monitor Online (August 5, 2014)

Many note that before the mine could ever begin operations, GTac would have to litigate in federal court land likely spend $Millions because of existing U.S. Treaty obligations with the pro-environmental Lac Courte Oreilles (LCO) band of Native Americans.

Notes Charles F. Wilkinson, arguably the leading legal expert on native American treaties: "This iron mine complex cannot go ahead without a full analysis of the treaty rights of the Lac Courte Oreilles (LCO) band. ...  Earlier this year (2013) a federal judge in Washington State ruled, under similar circumstances, that the treaties require more than just allowing tribal members to hunt and fish—the treaties also require healthy habitat so that the species can thrive. And, so, 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." (Mal Contends)

Then there's the EPA and the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers against which GTac would also likely have to litigate.

Scott Walker's motive is simply to derive as much political capital and campaign money as he can (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel), as Walker fights off Wisconsin voters and a law enforcement probe, while pretending he may run for president simultaneously avoiding questions on his plans for elected office.