Legislation to markedly roll back the allowable amount of sulfate in wild rice waters in Minnesota is being proposed in the Minnesota House where proponents say current standards are too strict and not based on solid science.
The drainage of pollutants from an abandoned mine near Ely coupled with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency allegedly lax oversight of the situation has environmental advocates concerned about the state’s ability to oversee the large copper-nickel mines proposed for the area.
Newly-elected Minnesota 8th-District Congressman Chip Cravaack met recently with company officials, regulatory agencies, and elected officials in an attempt to expedite PolyMet Mining’s proposed copper-nickel mine near Babbitt.
Environmental advocates want Minnesota regulators to consider the track record of one of PolyMet Mining’s financial backer when it considers permitting the company’s copper-nickel mine near Babbitt.
PolyMet Mining’s plan to mine and mill copper, nickel, and precious metals near Babbitt won’t result in production of finished copper metal on-site, the company announced in a change of plans yesterday.
PolyMet Mining, the Canadian firm that hopes to build a $600-million copper-nickel mine near Babbitt, has hired former Minnesota Pollution Control Agency Commissioner Brad Moore as an Executive Vice President.
A lawsuit brought by a coalition of environmental groups questioning the legality of a Iron Range Resources loan to PolyMet Mining could have wide-ranging implications for projects supported by Minnesota state government money, some worry.
Five environmental groups are suing the State of Minnesota over a $4-million loan that Iron Range Resources approved for PolyMet Mining as part of its plan to mine copper, nickel, and precious metals near Babbitt.
Duluth Metals, Ltd. has agreed to buy Franconia Minerals Corp. in a merger of companies hoping to mine copper and nickel in Northeastern Minnesota.
Environmental advocates are concerned with a $4-million loan granted by the state of Minnesota’s Iron Range Resources board to PolyMet mining which hopes to open a controversial copper-nickel mine near Babbitt.
PolyMet Mining is asking for a $4-million loan from the State of Minnesota to help it buy land that it will swap with the U.S. Forest Service for land at its planned mining site near Babbitt.
Atikokan, the northern gateway community to Quetico Provincial Park, is considering what steps to take to become gold mining town. Osisko Mining expects to have a gold mine in the Atikokan area, perhaps by 2015.
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources has been awarded a $1.6 million federal Environmental Protection Agency grant to study atmospheric mercury emissions from the state’s taconite processing plants.
The advocacy group Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness claims that sulfide mine pollution is occurring at a 36-year-old mine site off of Spruce Road near the South Kawishiwi River just miles from the limits of the BWCAW.
State and federal agencies will rewrite the the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for PolyMet Mining’s proposed copper-nickel and precious metals mine near Babbitt. The rewrite comes after the federal Environmental Protection Agency deemed the initial Draft EIS “Environmentally Unsatisfactory-Inadequate.”
With an estimated $1 trillion worth of copper and other precious metals buried beneath the surface along the South Kawishiwi River near the southern border of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, the tangle over mineral development and natural resource protection appears likely to continue well beyond those surrounding the PolyMet copper-nickel mine in nearby Babbitt.
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers may redo their Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the PolyMet copper-nickel mining operation proposed near Babbitt. The original Draft EIS was declared “environmentally unsatisfactory-inadequate” by the federal Environmental Protection Agency earlier this year.
Investors in PolyMet Mining Corporation are showing caution over possible delays in the development of the NorthMet copper-nickel and precious metals mining operation near Babbitt after criticisms of the project’s Draft Environmental Impact Statement by the EPA.
The Minnesota House of Representatives is considering a bill to tighten the financial assurances required by mining companies operating in the state, even though a companion bill in the state senate has been withdrawn.
A bill in the Minnesota State Senate which could have raised the financial assurance requirements for non-ferrous mining companies in the state was withdrawn by its sponsor after lengthy hearings in St. Paul.