No Back Forty Mine Water is Life

Image is for the movement against the proposed Back Forty Mine on the MI/WI border. (Guy Reiter from the Menominee Tribe guided us on the image ideas and the text.)

Updated info from June 2017 / http://www.noback40.org/
“The Back Forty Mine project is a proposed open pit metallic sulfide mine located on the banks of the Menominee River in Lake Township, Michigan. Aquila Resources Inc. (TSX: AQA) (“Aquila”), a Canadian development stage company, is actively seeking the necessary approvals to mine and process gold, zinc, copper, silver and other minerals at the site.

To date the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) has approved three of the four required permits for the project. The Nonferrous Metallic Mineral Mining Permit and the Michigan Air Use Permit to Install for the project were approved by the MDEQ on December 28, 2016. The National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit was approved on April 5th, 2017. The permit for wetland impacts is currently under consideration before the MDEQ.

The Menominee Nation and many allies including local citizens, local governments, environmental organizations, and grassroots organizations are opposed to the mine, committed to stopping the project and are organized in efforts to bring about public awareness about the harmful impacts the mining operation would have if approved.”

Image painted as a parachute banner for the People’s Climate March in Washington DC (April 29, 2017), screenprinted as t-shirts, and printed as patches during the MREA Energy Fair, June 2017

A circular logo featuring a scene of a backhoe tractor digging in a landscape encircled by a stylized drawing of a sturgeon, connected by lines to a prickly-looking bear. A black plume of smoke exudes from the excavator. Text inside states: “NO MINES NEAR SACRED RIVERS.” Text that curves around the circle states: “RESPECT OUR EXISTENCE, NO BACK FORTY MINE.”