For a little over a decade, multinational mining companies have been scouring the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, looking for economic deposits of precious metals, uranium, and other minerals. Rio Tinto is the first company to receive permits to mine under Michigan’s new hardrock mining law. The company has used standard “divide-and-conquer” tactics to pit the local community against itself, using the promise of hundreds of jobs, many local, as the carrot to get support for a nickel and copper mine. Now that Rio Tinto is tunneling into the Eagle Mine ore body, it is working with Michigan governor Rick Snyder’s office, as well as other state politicians, to change the manner in which mining projects are taxed.
See http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=11751.