PICKETT MOUNTAIN
MAINE
AT RISK!
Predatory prospectors are circling as they prepare to dig in to Maine's wild lands and natural resources.
It's clear from their own words: Canadian mining company, Wolfden Resources is selling Maine as the new Wild West of mining.
Wolfden is pulling out all the stops to open Maine up to foreign owned resource extraction. On November 16, 2017 Wolfden Resources (a Canadian mining company) purchased 6,871 acres of forests, wetlands, ponds, and lakes on Pickett Mountain for $8.5 million. Located north of Patten along the border of Penobscot and Aroostook counties, just 5 miles east of Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument, exploratory drilling at Pickett Mountain has indicated a deposit of Volcanogenic Massive Sulfide (VMS) containing lead, copper, zinc, silver, and gold.
On November 16, 2017 Wolfden Resources (a Canadian mining company) purchased 6,871 acres of forests, wetlands, ponds, and lakes on Pickett Mountain for $8.5 million. Located north of Patten along the border of Penobscot and Aroostook counties, just 5 miles east of Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument, exploratory drilling at Pickett Mountain has indicated a deposit of Volcanogenic Massive Sulfide (VMS) containing lead, copper, zinc, silver, and gold.
FROM THE WOLF'S OWN MOUTH:
First mover advantage and under-explored highly prospective areas
“A new mining law, recently enacted in the Maine legislature in November 2017, provides clarity on the process to permit the mining of metallic minerals in certain situations and with higher commodity prices, interest in high-grade VMS projects like Pickett Mountain has been revived. Due to the lack of more modern exploration, and clarity in the new regulations, Wolfden believes there is significant exploration upside in this jurisdiction for its stakeholders.”
screenshot of Wolfden’s homepage
According to Wolfden, the Pickett Mountain VMS deposit is one of the "highest grade undeveloped polymetallic massive sulfide deposits in North America"
Metallic sulfide mining (aka hard rock mining) is the practice of extracting metals such as nickel, gold and copper from a sulfide-rich ore body.
Digging up this polymetallic deposit would come at a huge cost to local waters–and to the flora, fauna and human communities downstream.
The metals Wolfden seeks to extract are contained within sulfide ore. When left buried deep in the ground this ore is harmless, but when crushed and exposed to air and water it becomes sulfuric acid and in the process releases toxins including mercury, arsenic, and lead. Usually measured on a scale from 1 to 14 with 1 being the most acidic and 14 being the most basic, Iron Mountain VMS mine in California has recorded pH levels of run-off as low as NEGATIVE 3.6 ! The acidification of ground and surface water could render unique Maine habitat critical to significant aquatic plant and animal communities uninhabitable. These risks are magnified in areas with wet weather–spring rain and winter snow melt increases the threat of acidification.
In the Rockabema Lake Watershed– which ultimately flows into the Penobscot River–the entire Pickett Mountain property is deemed “critical habitat” for the endangered Atlantic Salmon. The land also contains the Wild Eastern Brook Trout “Heritage Fish Waters” of Grass Pond, Mud and Pleasant Lakes, and it encompasses several wetlands of “high value Inland Waterfowl and Wading Bird Habitat.” Learn more at the Maine Stream Habitat Viewer.
The inevitable damage caused by any VMS mining project would significantly impact the human communities living in the region as well. Gold towns become ghost towns, and the man camps associated with mining projects often tarnish local communities with huge increases in domestic assault, sexual violence and drug abuse. Tribal Lands and fisheries of both the Maliseet and Penobscot Nations are at immediate risk, as are Millinocket, Houlton, and all downstream towns on the Penobscot River–towns already hard hit by the boom and bust cycles of extractive industries. And the site itself, once a working timberland, could never be allowed to return to tree growth because of the danger that the roots would puncture the liner encapsulating the toxic mine tailings.
Risk of acidification aside, Pickett Mountain is surrounded by several small bodies of freshwater, none of these surrounding water bodies is large enough to accommodate the (tailings) wastewater from a mine. Because Maines strict mining laws would prohibit use of the surrounding water sources for its tailings, Wolfden’s only option for the disposal if its waste will be to pipe the tailings from it’s mine directly into the aquifer.
Regulations around this practice state that wastewater would have to be of the same or better quality than the water from the aquifer itself. This standard has never been achieved by any mining operation no matter how state of the art: there literally is not the technology to accomplish this.
Despite this, Wolfden has made claims that they are somehow capable of achieving this level of wastewater treatment while they have provided no proof of this capability and no plan for its stewardship in posterity.
Digging up this polymetallic deposit would come at a huge cost to local waters–and to the flora, fauna and human communities downstream.
The metals Wolfden seeks to extract are contained within sulfide ore. When left buried deep in the ground this ore is harmless, but when crushed and exposed to air and water it becomes sulfuric acid and in the process releases toxins including mercury, arsenic, and lead. Usually measured on a scale from 1 to 14 with 1 being the most acidic and 14 being the most basic, Iron Mountain VMS mine in California has recorded pH levels of run-off as low as NEGATIVE 3.6 ! The acidification of ground and surface water could render unique Maine habitat critical to significant aquatic plant and animal communities uninhabitable. These risks are magnified in areas with wet weather–spring rain and winter snow melt increases the threat of acidification.
In the Rockabema Lake Watershed– which ultimately flows into the Penobscot River–the entire Pickett Mountain property is deemed “critical habitat” for the endangered Atlantic Salmon. The land also contains the Wild Eastern Brook Trout “Heritage Fish Waters” of Grass Pond, Mud and Pleasant Lakes, and it encompasses several wetlands of “high value Inland Waterfowl and Wading Bird Habitat.” Learn more at the Maine Stream Habitat Viewer.
The inevitable damage caused by any VMS mining project would significantly impact the human communities living in the region as well. Gold towns become ghost towns, and the man camps associated with mining projects often tarnish local communities with huge increases in domestic assault, sexual violence and drug abuse. Tribal Lands and fisheries of both the Maliseet and Penobscot Nations are at immediate risk, as are Millinocket, Houlton, and all downstream towns on the Penobscot River–towns already hard hit by the boom and bust cycles of extractive industries. And the site itself, once a working timberland, could never be allowed to return to tree growth because of the danger that the roots would puncture the liner encapsulating the toxic mine tailings.
Risk of acidification aside, Pickett Mountain is surrounded by several small bodies of freshwater, none of these surrounding water bodies is large enough to accommodate the (tailings) wastewater from a mine. Because Maines strict mining laws would prohibit use of the surrounding water sources for its tailings, Wolfden’s only option for the disposal if its waste will be to pipe the tailings from it’s mine directly into the aquifer.
Regulations around this practice state that wastewater would have to be of the same or better quality than the water from the aquifer itself. This standard has never been achieved by any mining operation no matter how state of the art: there literally is not the technology to accomplish this.
Despite this, Wolfden has made claims that they are somehow capable of achieving this level of wastewater treatment while they have provided no proof of this capability and no plan for its stewardship in posterity.
Wolfden & Water...
...don't mix!
According to their petition, Wolfden’s water management plan is to collect all of the rain water that falls on the site and all of the ground water that seeps into the underground tunnels–some more than a quarter mile deep. This water would then be used in the extraction of the target metals becoming highly toxic in the process. Wolfden intends to “treat” this water that they knowingly poisoned, using a variety of unproven techniques and then return it to the aquifer! “Any excess treated water will be returned to the environment as recharge via system of underground diffusers” (Source, see pg.198)
This particular process would be overseen by the recently gutted Department of Environmental Protection according to LD 820. This Orwellian bill, passed in 2017 at the behest of Canadian mining corporations, is named “An Act To Protect Maine’s Clean Water and Taxpayers from Pollution” and is touted as “one of the strictest mining rules in the country,” but in fact, the law defined the permitting process for mining thereby opening the door to it, and it entirely removed the requirements for permits to do “exploratory drilling”.
Wolfden & Water...
...don't mix!
According to their petition, Wolfden’s water management plan is to collect all of the rain water that falls on the site and all of the ground water that seeps into the underground tunnels–some more than a quarter mile deep. This water would then be used in the extraction of the target metals becoming highly toxic in the process. Wolfden intends to “treat” this water that they knowingly poisoned, using a variety of unproven techniques and then return it to the aquifer! “Any excess treated water will be returned to the environment as recharge via system of underground diffusers” (Source, see pg.198)
This particular process would be overseen by the recently gutted Department of Environmental Protection according to LD 820. This Orwellian bill, passed in 2017 at the behest of Canadian mining corporations, is named “An Act To Protect Maine’s Clean Water and Taxpayers from Pollution” and is touted as “one of the strictest mining rules in the country,” but in fact, the law defined the permitting process for mining thereby opening the door to it, and it entirely removed the requirements for permits to do “exploratory drilling”.
Although the proposed Pickett Mountain mine is the site currently in the crosshairs, if we don’t stop them now many other communities are at risk.
Wolfden Resources (Canada) purchased Pickett Mountain, large parcel of land in Patten, near Baxter State Park and Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument. They recently petitioned the Maine Land Use Planning Commission (LUPC) to rezone 528 acres from a general management area to a planned development area for the future purpose of creating a large scale, deep mining project.
Currently LUPC is accepting comments from the public regarding Wolfden’s petition to rezone. Express your opposition by writing to [email protected] and visit LUPC for more details via the button below.