I'm all for things like more housing being built, more local industry, and yes, I would be fine with multi-unit housing units going in across the street from me, or next door. My road has trucking companies on it, car repair lots, multi-family housing, a waterproofing company, multiple commercial farms, all of that. Its fine. Great.

What am I not happy about? Having my water supply potentially poisoned forever if there is a big spill. This mine would be a drop in the bucket for global nickel production and will serve nothing more than to line the pockets of foreign mining corporations who will promptly fuck off and never come back here again. The St. George River is a wonderful natural resource that deserves to be protected. If blocking mining here causes your smartphone price to go up by 1/100th of a cent, then so be it.

If caring about the environment and local farmers and yes, my ability to live on my property and grow a garden to feed myself and my family is NIMBYism, then so be it.

or maybe, just maybe, the planned obsolescence of our electronic goods is afforded some blame. we would need far less of these materials if the components were built to last. we would need less mines if we did this.

personally, i make my devices last about a decade at least. and they work fine, while everyone i know need a new phone or computer every other year.

it sounds like the opposite of what youre told to do, but just never do any updates. i really feel like the updates, while you are told it is just endless security fixes, are really just there to bog down your device to require you get a new one.

Lol… NIMBY is now the catch all for shaming anyone for having reasonable boundaries. If we can’t create things without destroying our natural world then we need to rethink how we’re living. Also- do you even live in an area where the water could be contaminated?

>Maybe it’s possible the mining can be done in an environmentally sustainable way?

LOL. No. There is no such thing as mining in an environmentally sustainable way. There's mining and then there's clean up. What happens in between is devastating to the environment, real estate values, recreation, etc.

We can't have mines everywhere and there are mine-able materials everywhere. Just because we have a gas station in the neighborhood doesn't mean we need a refinery next to it.

I’m so sick of myopic greed-heads who are all-too-willing to destroy the lives of others just to line their own pockets.

The mining can absolutely be done in a safe way. But nobody would mine because it would cost too much. So if you see a mine that is profitable, it is because it is not safe.

“Maybe it’s possible the mining can be done in an environmentally sustainable way?”

Has there even been an example of environmentally sustainable extractive industry? Kind of goes against the whole “destroying tons of earth and using caustic chemicals to separate small amounts of minerals from large amounts of rock” process that involves mining.

Also not sure if you’ve been informed but mining companies don’t exactly have the best track record when it comes to caring about…much of anything, including environmental protection or worker safety.