Tribes will pay $16.5 million for mine site
11:42 PM 10/28/03
Ron Seely Environment reporter

In a historic turn of events, the most vocal opponents of the proposed zinc and copper mine near Crandon stood in the state Capitol Tuesday afternoon and said they now own the mine site. <

Leaders with the Sokaogon Mole Lake Chippewa and the Forest County Potawatomi tribes seemed almost reluctant to believe the news as they spoke at the press conference. <

"We have bought the Crandon mine," said Sandra Rachal, chairwoman of the Mole Lake band. "We will withdraw the permit application." <

The press conference in Madison followed intense weekend-long negotiations between the two tribes and Northern Wisconsin Resources Group, the lumber company that bought the mine site in April. As midnight approached Monday, a deal was struck; for $16.5 million, the tribes bought the 5,939-acre mine site, the mineral rights and some timber rights. <

The tribes will split the cost, said Glenn Reynolds, a lawyer for the Mole Lake band. The Potawatomi will spend $8.5 million, all gambling money, while Mole Lake will pay $8 million in borrowed money, Reynolds said. <

"Without the gaming revenue, this could not have happened," Rachal said. <

The final papers were signed early Tuesday, putting an end to a 25-year controversy. Not long afterward, Mole Lake tribal members crowded the street outside the offices of the Nicolet Mineral Co. in Crandon and slapped a huge "Sold" banner across the Nicolet sign. Tribal members pounded a drum in an impromptu drumming ceremony. Everybody, said Mole Lake vice chairwoman Tina Van Zile, was hugging and crying. <

"It is a day that will be remembered for years," Rachal said. <

The tribes have no plans to mine the 55-million ton zinc and copper deposit, said Gus Frank, Potawatomi chairman. The tribes and other mining opponents have long said the mine poses too great a threat to the Wolf River and to tribal waters and rice beds. <

"This purchase protects the Wolf River, the wetlands and the ground water of northern Wisconsin," said Frank. "It ends the threat to the tourism economy - the economy that most of us in northern Wisconsin, including the tribes, depend on." <

Rachal also said the purchase will allow protection of Spirit Hill, the resting place for more than 500 Chippewa and Sioux warriors who died in a battle over the Mole Lake rice beds 200 years ago. <

"Our ancestors lived here," said Rachal. "They fought and died to protect these lands. It is our job in the future to continue that tradition." <

Gordon Connor, co-owner of the Northern Wisconsin Resources Group and project manager for Nicolet, maintained Tuesday that the plan to build the mine was environmentally sound and that its loss is a blow to the northern Wisconsin economy. He said the decision to sell the mine site, possibly to the tribes, was made some months ago when the Connor family became convinced that getting permits to operate the mine would be too expensive. <

Connor was critical of the Department of Natural Resources and placed almost all the blame for the mine not getting built on the agency's permitting process. He said the process was so burdensome that the company could not find a partner to help build and operate the mine. <

"They all said 'We don't want to do business in the regulatory climate in Wisconsin,'