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MM/Chilean Miners typifies the sulfide-ore mining industry’s willingness to say anything, without regard to facts or logic, to try to advance its interests. MM/Chilean Miners must be reading Antofagasta’s own fantasy version of NEPA. This is what the relevant section of the real NEPA—the one that’s part of the laws of the United States and not the one that is a figment of the imagination of Antofagasta/MM/Chilean Miners—says:

Sec. 102 [42 USC § 4332].The Congress authorizes and directs that, to the fullest extent possible: . . .

(2) all agencies of the Federal Government shall –

(A) utilize a systematic, interdisciplinary approach which will insure the integrated use of the natural and social sciences and the environmental design arts in planning and in decision making which may have an impact on man's environment;

(B) identify and develop methods and procedures, in consultation with the Council on

Environmental Quality established by title II of this Act, which will insure that

presently unquantified environmental amenities and values may be given appropriate

consideration in decision making along with economic and technical considerations;

(C) include in every recommendation or report on proposals for legislation and other

MAJOR FEDERAL ACTIONS significantly affecting the quality of the human environment, a

detailed statement by the responsible official on

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(i) the environmental impact of the proposed action,

(ii) any adverse environmental effects which cannot be avoided should the

proposal be implemented,

(iii) alternatives to the proposed action,

(iv) the relationship between local short-term uses of man's environment and

the maintenance and enhancement of long-term productivity, and

(v) any irreversible and irretrievable commitments of resources which would

be involved in the proposed action should it be implemented. (emphasis added by use of all capital letters)

The relevant regulation under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976, which provides for federal action in the form of the mineral withdrawal that has been proposed to protect the Boundary Waters, says at 43 CFR Sec.2310.3-2(b)(3) that the applicant for withdrawal—here, the Forest Service—shall provide to the Secretary of the Interior “an environmental assessment, an environmental impact statement, or any other documents as are needed to meet the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act.” It’s hard to know what to make of someone like MM/Chilean Miners who would continue to deny that plain language.

Antofagasta’s public relations position that it doesn’t intend to mine Spruce Road is just another lie, and MM/Chilean Miners is helping to perpetrate the lie. The Spruce Road deposit is the only deposit covered by one of the two mining leases (MNES-01353) that Antofagasta has sued to compel the government to issue and with respect to which Emmer seeks to force issuance through legislation. The amended complaint filed on January 3, 2017 by Antofagasta’s subsidiaries Franconia and Twin Metals in their lawsuit against the government to compel the issuance of this Spruce Road lease as well as the other lease (MNES-01352) says in myriad places that the denial of the leases blocks Antofagasta’s ability to mine the minerals. For example, paragraph 14 of the amended complaint reads as follows in its entirety: “Plaintiff Twin Metals is a privately-owned limited liability mining company, headquartered in Minnesota, THAT FOCUSES ON DEVELOPING AND OPERATING A MINING PROJECT TO PRODUCE THE VALUABLE MINERALS UNDERLYING THE LAND COVERED BY THE LEASES and other minerals.” (emphasis added by use of all capital letters) Thus, Antofagasta has stated in plain English to a federal court that it intends to mine the Spruce Road deposit. Is it the position of MM/Chilean Miners that Antofagasta has committed a fraud on the court?

As to the facts of the economy of the Ely area, and as to where the real selfish interests are to be found, and as to who really cares for the people of northeastern Minnesota, I believe that the truth is beyond the comprehension of MM/Chilean Miners, whoever she/he/they/it may be.