The biggest Gerrymander of all

Editor:

There is a saying, “You can’t see the forest for the trees.” The trees around you are so tall, you can’t tell you’re standing in a large forest.

America’s political parties are currently in a political gold rush to gerrymander (change congressional district electoral boundaries) in as many of the 50 states as possible. Those state efforts are the trees that occupy our attention.

However, because of these trees around us we are unable to see the larger forest, the biggest gerrymander of all.

That, folks, is Homeland Security’s yearly mass deportation out of the country of anywhere from 500,000 to a million brown-skin, Democrat-leaning Catholics from south of the border. Republicans don’t want them to ever get anywhere near the voting booth in America.

Kimball Shinkoskey

Wood Cross, Utah

White Pine North Project

Editor:

This letter is about the unique and critical importance of the White Pine North Project, primarily for copper which recently was put on the critical materials list for our country. My primary source of information comes from a book at the Ontonagon Township Public Library. The book’s title is, “Silver Bearing Copper”. Other sources of information are from various workers that worked at the original White Pine Mine which closed in 1995.

From exploratory drilling, it is currently estimated that the White Pine North Project could last forty years.  XXX  The fact that the original mine had 45 miles of underground roads, of which 15 miles were paved, is a testimony to the vastness and enormity of this mining operation. Let’s not forget that there were 27 miles of conveyor belts and two underground maintenance and repair shops. 

The uniqueness of the copper that came out of the original mine had traces of silver in the copper that gave it greater tensile strength (wire), greater heat dissipation (rocket nozzles anyone?), as well as greater conductivity and resistance to oxidation. It stays shiny, basically forever. 

On the plus side, the percentage of silver that came out of the mining process paid for the operation. Additionally, even though it is hard to verify, when running at full capacity, supposedly thirty tons of gold came out from the three (step) furnaces in the smelter, every week!!

The tank house is where copper was electroplated for greater purity. Silver remained in solution, and trace metals, some with high value ended up in the sludge at the bottom of the tank. This ‘sludge’ was shipped off to Sudbury, Ontario, Canada for processing. Getting back to White Pine North, that vein is similar, with a higher concentration of copper as well as slightly higher silver and gold. 

Where will the power come from for this enormous critical project? The mini- nukes as they are called, that are 20 to 80 megawatts and can be built elsewhere and assembled on site in a much shorter time than a large nuclear plant. With permitting and planning, the power could be on site sooner than other sources. The advantage over natural gas is that the power is on site.

Paul Olson

Ewen