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Mining in Ely Minnesota
Comp 1013
Dr. Brown
Taylor Harsha
12/17/2015
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When people think of Minnesota their minds automatically go to lakes
because after all it is the land of 10,000 lakes. However, recently there has
been instances in which the lakes in our area have been threatened.
specifically in Ely Minnesota, a town not too far from the boundary waters,
we have noticed an increase in the interest for mining ore around the
freshwater lakes. Stephanie Pearson (2015) illustrates how mining is
a.ecting the area in one of her articles when she points out the importance
of the water resources:
The region contains the nation’s most irreplaceable freshwater
resources, including Superior National Forest, which holds 20 percent
of the fresh water in the U.S. National Forest system; the Boundary
Waters, which are categorized by the State of Minnesota as
“outstanding resource value waters”; and Lake Superior, the largest
and least polluted of the Great Lakes, which holds 10 percent of the
world’s fresh surface water. (para. 10)
With the area being lake and river heavy, there are bound to be activities
that stem from that, such as canoeing and *shing. Despite the fact that the
area has such rich water sources though they are still planning on moving
forward with proposals from various mining companies to come in and
continue with their plan to mine the . The problem with this is that not only
could these mining companies cause pollution to the area but all the water
recreation that’s so popular and profitable gets put at risk as well. It has
been reported by Earthworks, an environmental organization based in
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Washington D.C., that 89% of the U.S. cooper production has experienced
pipeline spills. Realizing that “[e]cotourism is a form of tourism that o.ers
economic support to attractive tourist destinations that would otherwise be
exploited for timber, minerals, agriculture, or water resources” (O’Brien,
2015, p. 325). We see how mining could a.ect the environment that Ely
currently enjoys. We must be made aware of what is going on in our
environment so we can continue with our sustainable endeavors without fear
of losing all the wonderful recreation opportunities we have available to us
here in Minnesota.
Opening another mine in Ely can have some great economic e.ects,
but it can also cause great harm to the economy. However, we have no way
of knowing exactly what the outcome could be; we can only look at the past
