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Final approval could come as soon as next summer for a proposed 83-acre open pit mine along the Menominee River, which runs along the border between Wisconsin and Michigan.

Conservationists and the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin have expressed concerns that the mine could harm the river, Menominee effigy mounds and other culturally significant features on the mine site.

The Menominee River, which embodies the tribe’s creation story, is also a bass fishing destination and the spawning grounds for one of the largest populations of lake sturgeon in the Lake Michigan basin.

Menominee tribe chairwoman Joan Delabreau said Friday the tribe is considering legal action to protect sacred sites.

“If it’s going to be a legal battle, that’s something the Menominee have never shied away from,” Delabreau said.

The Menominee ceded the land along the river to the U.S. government in 1836, but it never gave up its right to protect places that are important to tribal culture and history, Delabreau said.

Wisconsin’s Department of Natural Resources has been monitoring the applications Toronto-based Aquila Resources Inc. has filed in Michigan for permits it needs to begin digging its $260 million, 750-foot-deep pit.