UPX Minerals Inc, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Highland Copper, a Canadian mining company, already owns half a million acres of mineral properties in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan: in 2017 they acquired all of the mineral properties previously held by Kennecott and Rio Tinto.
Now they want more –approximately 4,000 acres of minerals owned by the State of Michigan. Many of these minerals lie under private lands, where mineral ownership is severed from surface ownership:
UPX Minerals Inc., of Wakefield, Michigan, has requested direct metallic mineral leases from the State of Michigan covering Department of Natural Resources (DNR) metallic mineral rights located within T46N-R31W, Iron County; and T48N-R26W, T48N-R27W, T48N-R29W, T48N-R30W, T49N-R26W, and T49N-R28W, Marquette County; containing a total of 3,964.78 acres, more or less.
Private landowners in Iron and Marquette Counties have received letters from the Michigan DNR notifying them that UPX Minerals wants to lease state-owned minerals located underneath their homes, camps, rivers, wetlands – even nature preserves, and the DNR’s own ecological reference areas! Read this Letter to the Editor from a local landowner: http://www.miningjournal.net/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/2018/04/letters-to-the-editor-90/
After meeting with concerned citizens, the UPEC Mining Action Group requested an extension of the public comment period (originally set to expire on May 11th):
“On behalf of numerous concerned citizens, impacted landowners and stakeholder groups, I am requesting that the State of Michigan extend by at least 30 days the public comment period for this lease request, in order to allow impacted landowners and members of the public to further investigate this significant request, providing valuable resource information regarding the proposed leases, and ensuring informed comment.”
UPDATE: The DNR has granted the request for an extension. According to the DNR’s Office of Minerals Management:
“This is to notify you that we are extending the public comment period for this lease request to June 11, 2018 to allow members of the public additional time to review the request.”
Our next meeting with impacted landowners to discuss the UPX mineral lease requests will take place in Marquette on Thursday April 26th, 5-7 pm. Contact the miningactiongroupUPEC@gmail.com for location and additional information.