Loading ...A US judge in Michigan has reversed a decision by state regulators that would allow Canada’s Aquila Resources’ (TSX: AQA) proposed gold, zinc and copper mine to go ahead.
The ruling revokes the wetlands permit for the Back Forty project in Lake Township, north of Menominee. It comes after opponents of the project challenged the permit issued in 2018 by the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE).
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“The ruling raises valid concerns about the potential impacts on groundwater and surface water, including the Lower Menominee River,” department spokesman Hugh McDiarmid Jr. told local media.
Aquila’s application did not provide sufficient information on potential damage to wetlands near the river, which runs along the Michigan-Wisconsin line, Judge Daniel Pulter said in a decision released earlier this week. It also failed to show there were no feasible alternative locations for the mine, he said.
The Toronto-based miner said the judge’s decision was based mostly on what the company believes is a misunderstanding of the information concerning the potential for indirect wetlands impacts associated with the project.
The ruling, Aquila noted, establishes a permitting approach that “markedly departs” from wetland permits issued for other mining projects in the Great Lakes region.