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New mining boom in Great Lakes country?
By Al Gedicks
PNS
RANDOM. WIS. — The small
farm towns and lake-studded forests
and fields of the Upper Great Lakes,
dotted by ghost towns of bygone
boom times, have been reawakened
by signs that the area may bloom
once again as one of America’s
richest natural resource regions.
The excitement has been sparked
by extensive mineral explorations
now being conducted by more than
40 major corporations, including
Exxon, Kennecott and International
Nickel. They are fiercely competing
for millions of dollars worth of
mineral rights to land believed to
contain some of the world’s richest
deposits of copper, nickel, lead,
chromite, zinc, vanadium and ur
naium.
But while mineral company execu
tives, local bankers and labor offi
cials hail the developments as a
return to the good old days, many
residents of the area fear the
bonanza will spell ruin. Local
farmers and diarymen, Indians,
sportsmen and others are predicting
a new boom-and-bust Appalachia —
poisoned, barren and poor.
They fear the short term gains of
massive ore mining here will mean
the end for the area's extensive and
long term agriculture, dairy farming,
forestry, fishing and tourism.
Exxon’s recent discovery of a “sig
niicant” copper-zinc deposit near
Crandon. Wis., is believed by some
to be the largest in the world. Jack
B. Jacks, a regional geologist with
the U.S. Forest Service, speculates
the lode may exceed 125 million
tons.
Exxon official Paul Jason disputes
that figure, but says the company
now estimates there are some 75
million tons of high-sulfide zinc,
copper, silver, gold and lead — and
exploratory drilling is still in pro
gress, going deeper every day.
The estimated $6 billion in deposits
could significantly affect the U.S.
balance of payments by reducing
imports.
But despite the euphoria at Exxon
Local clubs raided
Agents of the Georgia Department
of Revenue simultaneously raided
the Covington Elks Club and the
Covington Moose Club Friday after
noon and seized several illegal
gambling devices and an undeter
mined amount of wine and liquor.
The raids were a result of under
cover work carried on by the agents
Player dies
(From front page)
local hospital. He was later tran
sferred to Grady, where he died.
At presstime there was no official
word on the cause of death.
The youth was a sophomore at the
high school and would have been a
starting member of the football
team.
Graveside services were conducted
Wednesday at 3 p.m. at Floral Hills
Memory Gardens in Tucker. Dr.
Terrell B. Tanner of Oxford of
ficiated.
Pallbearers were NCCHS Principal
Jerry Rochelle; Athletic Director
Jack Smalley; former football coach
Norm Olson; and present coaches
Fred Bowers, Jim Fisher, Steve
Brown, Al Guy, Jim Brawner, Eddie
Gilbert and Larry Mattison.
Members of the football squad
served as honorary pallbearers.
Among the survivors are his mother
and father; two brothers, Vance and
Chester; grandmothers, Mrs. H. W.
Tanner of Atlanta and Mrs. Otis
Smith of Sacramento, Calif.; several
aunts, uncles and cousins.
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and other companies — and among
state and local officials eyeing tax
dollars — opposition to the develop
ment is mounting.
“If the mining companies go ahead
it's going to ruin this part of the
country for dairy farmers," says
Louis Havluj. Jr., a longtime dairy
farmer in Rusk County, Wis., site of
a proposed Kennecott open-pit
copper mine.
‘‘They’re not going to stop at their
55-acre open-pit mine. They’ve been
surveying and getting land all
around this and surrounding
counties. They’re going to gobble up
land all over northern Wisconsin and
ruin farming completely.
“All you have after the mines close
down,” says Havluj, “is piles of
rubble and junk. Acid will drain into
the rivers, subsoils and wells. Once
that happens we’re through. Not
even rabbits will want to live here."
Havluj was one of many small
farmers who spoke out against the
mining operations last November
and persuaded the county supervis
ors to deny a zoning change that
would have allowed Kennecott to
proceed.
Some longtime residents remember
the last mining boom in northern
Wisconsin and Michigan's Upper
Peninsula. It peaked around 1920,
when there were more than 150
mines working three ranges.
At the height of the copper and ore
boom. Michigan's copper country
employed some 20,000 miners in
more than 100 mines. The town of
Calumet, Mich., boasted a popula
tion of nearly 33,000, making it one
of the major cities of the Midwest in
1910. ,
When the mining companies found
it more profitable to switch opera
tions to South America around
1950, massive unemployment and a
proliferation of ghost towns
followed. Unemployment still runs
two to three times the national
average in the area, and some 30
percent of all families earn less than
S3OOO a year, making it one of the
most depressed regions in the
country.
In addition, many former mining
at the two private clubs. The clubs
were closed when the revenue agents
arrived about 2 p.m.
Burglary
is solved
Covington police reported the
arrest Wednesday of a Newton
County man on charges stemming
from a burglary earlier Wednesday
morning at the East Newton School.
Arthur Peacock, 22, was arrested
by Covington policemen Harold
Pickett and Tim Bruce in Covington
where he was allegedly attempting to
sell cases of food taken in the
burglary. Police estimated the value
of the items taken to be about $450.
Peacock was charged with burglary.
No bail had been set as of presstime.
Police anticipated recovering most
of the food stolen, part of which was
recovered in the course of the arrest.
The rest, officers said, had been
hidden in a wooded area.
In another incident, police were
investigating the burglary last
Thursday night of Hester’s Package
Store on Washington Street, where
several hundred dollars in cash and
merchandise was taken.
Knot Now
Knot what?
Watch for Details
communities are still suffering the
environmental damage left by the
mining techniques of the period.
Iron River. Mich., is now faced with
cleaning up the acid wastes from a
local mine, which are polluting the
city's water supply and eating away
at its sewer system.
Today, modern, state-of-the-art
exploration techniques have allowed
the companies to return and locate
the minerals long believed to un
derlie the area now being developed,
and to extract them economically.
University of Wisconsin economist
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John Strasma estimates that Exxon
can expect a profit of more than $2
billion over the 30-40 year life of the
Crandon deposit. This is despite
Wisconsin's new progressive mining
tax law — vigorously opposed by the
companies — which ranges up to 20
percent on net proceeds of more than
S3O million.
The real potential of mineral ex
traction in the area remains one of
the industry's best kept secrets.
When Kennecott discovered a huge
copper deposit in Rusk County nine
years ago, industry sources claimed
it was an isolated deposit.
THE COVINGTON NEWS — THURSD AY, AUGUST 25,1977
Meanwhile, construction of the new
Superior Midwest Energy Coal
Terminal at the merged ports of
Duluth and Superior has paved the
way for import of low-sulfur coal
from the Northern Plains states to
meet the electrical generating re
quirements of massive mining
operations.
At the same time, the small citizens'
action group that banded together to
delay the Kennecott mine in Rusk
County last year is spreading to
other communities.
Says organizer Roscoe Churchill, a
60-year-old school principal and
small fi irmer, “If this mad destruc
tion of agricultural lands doe* not
end soc in, in a short time there will
not be enough land to produce food
for the । people.”
The takeover of farmland also
threatens the loss of agricultural
jobs, v vhich some critics believe will
not be equalled by new mining jobs.
And even if Exxon does employ up
to 1,0 00 workers at the Crandon
mine, as spokesman Jason estimates,
those jobs will last for only about 30
years, compared to displaced far-
(Please turn to page 6AI
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