"BIG HILL" MAINE MINING TIMELINE
1700 Journal by tribal council elders documents use of land by Passamaquoddy tribes
1900 Big Hill mined for lead, start of Pembroke Iron Works
1970, 2000 Geological surveys started by Golden Hope Mine and another company include extractions of cores
2020 Wolfden Resources petitions to rezone Maine land for mining
2021 Wolfden Resources attempts to access cores: higher metal content of the rocks means greater stock return
2022: Pembroke residents ban industrial mining with town ordinance (May 5, 2022)
“Touted as potentially the deepest open pit mine in the world, Big Hill, like Bald Mountain, would be a large-scale, low-grade mine, meaning that the amount of waste would be truly enormous and extremely acidic. Located near feeder streams for Cobscook Bay and within the watershed of Boyden Lake (Eastport’s water supply) as well as within five miles of Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge, the state-protected Dennys River Corridor, a salmon habitat, and other important conservation properties, a mine at Big Hill could end up destroying one of Maine’s most productive ecosystems and commercial fisheries.”
- Alan Brooks, Executive Director, Quoddy Regional Land Trust, and Stewardship Director, Downeast Coastal Conservancy (retired)
1700 Journal by tribal council elders documents use of land by Passamaquoddy tribes
1900 Big Hill mined for lead, start of Pembroke Iron Works
1970, 2000 Geological surveys started by Golden Hope Mine and another company include extractions of cores
2020 Wolfden Resources petitions to rezone Maine land for mining
2021 Wolfden Resources attempts to access cores: higher metal content of the rocks means greater stock return
2022: Pembroke residents ban industrial mining with town ordinance (May 5, 2022)
“Touted as potentially the deepest open pit mine in the world, Big Hill, like Bald Mountain, would be a large-scale, low-grade mine, meaning that the amount of waste would be truly enormous and extremely acidic. Located near feeder streams for Cobscook Bay and within the watershed of Boyden Lake (Eastport’s water supply) as well as within five miles of Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge, the state-protected Dennys River Corridor, a salmon habitat, and other important conservation properties, a mine at Big Hill could end up destroying one of Maine’s most productive ecosystems and commercial fisheries.”
- Alan Brooks, Executive Director, Quoddy Regional Land Trust, and Stewardship Director, Downeast Coastal Conservancy (retired)