Letter from Ed Rogers
Mining – June 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine
Hi Ed,
Enjoyed your article on the Mica mine [May edition] very much. Being a geologist and in minerals exploration for twenty years it hit a home run with me. Nothing galls me more then folks who drive a low gas mileage SUV, wearing gold watches and bracelets, silver buttons, sitting encased in a metal vehicle going to protest a mine. The protesters were probably alerted to the meeting via the internet looking at a computer which is loaded with metal which was mined and which gets power from a coal burning power plant. Gads let’s insure that this lifestyle is preserved, but not in their backyard!
Then some of these same people drive home to a house which is basically something constructed with products from the earth. They feel so damned proud at what they did they jump on a bicycle which probably has titanium or spun carbon fiber framing and of course metal components, again mined. (I am also an avid cyclist and want the products my bicycle is made from to continue to be available). Being starved after that hard ride on paved roads (material also mined) they cook a meal on a nice metal stove (powered by electric, gas or propane), and watch TV on a set filled with metal electronics (also mined) which gets power off the same grid that enabled them to get the alert about the mine.
People who oppose mining but reap the benefits need to spend one day underground in an operating coal mine. That is the most inherently unstable type of mining you can imagine. You have flat lying strata overhead which is usually held in place by roof anchors. Those occasionally fail and a six-foot-tall miner is suddenly reduced to mush. But do not fear, you will continue to get your power to stay comfortable and protest mining. Our consumers fail to realize what goes into that end product they use.
I sincerely believe some people have it on good faith that all of these products are mined and manufactured in the rear rooms of Wal-marts and other similar stores by folks wearing pretty vests which say: “Hi, how can I help you?” And here I thought that those were restrooms behind those doors! I’d best take a better look next time.
PEOPLE OPPOSED TO MINING are driving nail after nail into the coffin of American mining. At this point 90% of America’s strategic metals come from overseas. Those are metals used in such things as airplanes, jet engines, computers, automobiles, trains and nearly every type of military equipment we have. The jet engines on planes that these same people fly to resorts on (after opposing mining) are under tremendous stress. You want either very strong metal in those engines or a very good attorney for your litigation. Shut down two countries and we will quickly come to a grinding halt in every backyard in America. Our other option is to send our young men and women into harms way to protect our right to have mining in some other backyard in some other country whether the citizens in that country like it or not.
At the same time when you oppose mining you are driving another nail into the coffin of another miner in a third world country who works for slave wages in conditions this country outlawed 80 years ago. In Sierra Leone slave labor is used to mine diamonds which come here to become fancy jewelry. Those are called “blood diamonds” for good reason. The average life span of a miner in many South American countries is under one year, and many of those miners are children barely in their teens; only the most ruthless will live to be twenty. But that is O.K. I guess, as long as our backyard is protected.
Out of sight out of mind, but no one has the right to a privileged lifestyle that is built on the backs of other people.
Chaffee County Commissioner Joe De Luca made the statement in the Mountain Mail that this mica mine would have a lot of hurdles to jump through. Why doesn’t he just come out and say it: “Forget it Apaches, not in our backyard.” His response is typical of what I’ve heard for years from county governments across the country. Yet he will work diligently to insure “model development” in our county, regardless of whether our neighbors want it in their backyard or not.
At the April 30th meeting in Salida, Fred Henderson, a geologist with the Environmental Protection Agency, said it best: “We do not have the right to use the product but say we don’t want the mine that makes it.”
Yet, many of the people who protest mines approve of development and want those products. Our BOCC bends over backward to insure that one development after another is approved, and every one of those homes will use products produced from mining. Actually the only product not mined is the wood. Products mined include the nails, the braces, the copper plumbing, the fixtures, the sheetrock, the masonry products, the door handles, the windows and metal flashing and so on right down to the soapstone in that fancy wood stove. This stuff is not mined in the back room of a Wal-Mart!
Until the citizens in this country wake up, look at their own lifestyles and realize how much of what they take for granted everyday is derived from the earth, then I see little future for the industry which shaped this entire country. Presently we have ONE copper mine in operation in America. Once it goes, we will be totally dependent on a backyard in another country.
Our Board of County Commissioners needs to sit down, formulate a plan with guarantees, and work with the Tonto Apache to insure a safe and clean operation. To insure complete reclamation of the land, once the operation is finished, a reclamation bond can be required. They need to work with the same diligence shown to a development. Will some inconvenience be present? Yes. That is the nature of mining. Will noise be present? Yes. But, how many of the people who attended that April 30 meeting use a weapons range in the county? If you do not want noise next door then put your weapons away and never fire them again. Others may not want your noise, either. Yet, our BOCC approves one range after another, each having noise as a necessary part of the operation.
The two best mining schools in America are Colorado School of Mines and New Mexico School of Mines. They are consistently number 1 and 2. America once had at least a dozen top schools which could stand toe to toe with the Frieberg Mining Academy in Germany (the worlds oldest mining school which turned out our first giants in mining). You visit either of these two schools and two bumper stickers say it best. “If you cannot grow it, you have to mine it” and “Earth First, then we will mine the rest of the galaxy”.
Ed Rogers
Poncha Springs