The public has a chance to learn more about some proposed changes to the Back Forty Mine at a meeting being held by the Michigan DEQ next month. The agency has received an amended permit application from Aquila Resources for their open-pit zinc and gold mine to be located in Lake Township and the DEQ now plans to discuss those changes at a January 9th meeting at Stephenson High School beginning at 6:00 PM Central. Aquila says since the original mine permit was issued in 2016, they’ve refined the mine’s design and identified other measures to reduce the project’s overall impact.

Any member of the public that would like to speak during next month’s meeting will be asked to fill out an attendance card and comments will be limited to three minutes per person. MDEQ is also accepting written comments regarding the amended application through February 6th. Those comments can be emailed to DEQ-Mining-Comments@michigan.gov (subject line should be “Back Forty Mining Permit Application”) or mailed to:

Back Forty Mining Permit Amendment
MDEQ-OGMD
1504 West Washington Street
Marquette, MI 49855

The Mining Permit Application Amendment documents can be found here:
https://www.michigan.gov/documents/deq/DEQ_FTP_372266_7.pdf

Once in the site, select the “Mining” directory, then select the “Back Forty project.”

The amendment documents are:
R-MP Amendment Volume II EIA_Nov. 2018.pdf
R-MP Amendment Volume I_Nov. 2018.pdf