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Eight years ago on the Pasty Cam: 11/25/99 ^{Printed on Recycled Internet}

Mining history is everywhere in this region, and the Pasty Cam has sought to preserve a bit of it in cyberspace these past 10 years. This particular scene appeared on this day in November of '99.

Good morning!!

Good morning everyone! I love the glow of the sun on the buildings in this picture. Have a great Sunday - finish off those leftovers.

Good morning everybody!

Morning! Christmas day is only one month away!

Good morning!

Good Morning, Everyone from mid-Michigan. It was pretty windy here yesterday afternoon. My son is safely back in Houghton. He said that it was not good driving weather yesterday afternoon when they were driving through the eastern UP on the way back, though.

Sunrise and sunset are the best photo times. Can hardly go wrong. Hope everyone has a lovely day today.

Good Morning everyone! 32 degrees and some clear sky here in Houghton

There are some additional great pictures and news about the Quincy Smelter to be viewed at:

http://savequincysmelter.org/index.html

With the rich mining history of Copper Country, what is the possibility of re-opening some of the existing mines? Are any of them maintained that they could be re-opened quickly for the right market? I was reading this article in the Houston Chronicle this morning, about the copper mining boom in Arizona, and wondering why not in the UP? What is the mine ownership status, etc? Capt Paul? Thanks.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/nation/5325338.html

Marianne,

Thanks for the news site.

While waiting for Capt. Paul's response, consider the operative word cited therein more than once,i.e. "open pit". Deep shaft underground mines like ours just cannot compete with the cost of open pit mining.

The other day I posted that our navy son's ship (USS Essex) was in the area of Bangladesh, awaiting a request from the government there to come in and help with the rescue and cleanup of the devestation from the cyclone. That request never came, although the USS Kearsage (any association with the UP?) did fly water supplys in. Last night as I was reading a newspaper report telling about the two ships in the area to help out, we got a e-mail from the son, saying that no request came from the Bangladesh government for help. Now the Essex is going on to Cambodia on a PR mission. The ships doctor and dentists will go a shore and work with the public. The marines on board will do maintenance and painting in the schools there. His ship will be back in port by Xmas.

Marsha how is your daughter?

Sounds like a good subject for the "geology" thread, but unlike Christmas, I won't make anyone wait to open their presents... ;-)

It is very true that open pit mining is much more cost effective than underground. I was just reading the Chronicle article and the mine they use is the Morenci Pit near Clifton, AZ where my profile pic is taken. Open pit and UG are two very different kinds of mining in their operations and targets. Usually, UG goes after a small, rich deposit such as a vein or lode deposits like the Keweenaw. Open pit mining is much lower grade material but is a very large (mountain sized) deposit. Also, the Keweenaw mines removed native copper while all the open pits remove copper oxides and carbonates, mostly. This is one of the reasons open pit mining won't work in the Keweenaw; in order to get to the copper, you'd have to remove a mile of solid rock overburden which would bankrupt any mining company foolish enough to try.

As far as ownership, most of the Keweenaw mines are either state, county, or privately owned. The state does hold the mineral rights however, but copper would have to reach historic highs before a company would seriously look at the Keweenaw for copper, not because there's none left (it is said that only 40% of the copper has been mined out), but because it's just too expensive to go after.

CAPT. PAUL; About 10 yrs. ago a company called Great Lakes Minerals was going to start a new mine near Gratiot Lake. After all of the necessary permits were in place a wrench was thrown in the gears, the EPA closed down the smelter at White Pine and the project was abandoned. Great Lakes Minerals was going to truck the ore from Gratiot Lake to White Pine. The price of copper is probably high enough right now to make copper mining in the copper country profitable if there was someplace to do the smelting process. The price tag on a new smelter is astronomical. PS: Keweenaw County did benefit from the project though because the Gratiot Lake road was rebuilt into a class "A" road.

Marsha--I'm just back from the UP where I spent the
Thanksgiving holiday. I was very sorry to read about what
happened to your daughter on Thanksgiving Day and will be
praying for her.

We had a memorable weekend in the UP helping our daughter
and future son-in-law plan for their wedding next year. Today
we left bright (actually it was dark save for a gorgeous nearly
full moon) and early from the cottage. We left the camp at 5:00
AM and crossed the bridge in VERY windy conditions at 8:45.
We made good time, got my dad back to Northville and were in
Toronto by 6:30. The moon, not entirely full, was copper
colored as we approached Canada's Big Apple--Toronto.

A month til Christmas when we'll be back UP.

I remember when GLM was looking at those prospects near Gratiot Lake in the early 90's. If it hadn't been for the White Pine smelter closing there would have been a mining operation up there. Ironically enough, most of my graduate research at Tech was done on those deposits to see what their paragenetic sequence of emplacement was and how they related to the native copper that is found on most of the peninsula.