PolyMet Mining, the Canadian company hoping to develop a copper-nickel mine near Hoyt Lakes, annouced in a media release this week that the draft Environmental Impact Statement for the project will not be released until the third quarter of this year.
The draft EIS was originally expected earlier this year.
“As part of this final review PolyMet will undertake some additional confirmatory analysis,” the company said in the release. “This review will lead to final determinations on mitigation measures to be proposed in the draft EIS.”
PolyMet’s project is one of a handful of non-ferrous mining entereprises in the works in Northeastern Minnesota. Critics of the projects worry that acidic drainage from the mines will pollute surface water and could leave the state with a hefty clean-up bill. Wilderness News took a look at the issues surrounding copper-nickel mining in-depth, HERE, back in 2005.
PolyMet also noted in its media release, HERE, that legislation introduced at the state capitol to assure that taxpayers would not bear the costs of an enviromental clean-up in the event PolyMet went bankrupt has not advanced.
Additionally, the release also highlighted a study by the University of Minnesota – Duluth which projects that non-ferrous mining could have a $4 billion econmic impact on the area by 2013.