Political dispute intensifies over potential pollution from copper-nickel mining

Courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society. A mine near Biwabik, circa 1900.

By Ron Way | Monday, Oct. 6, 2008

As the date nears for a long-anticipated release of perhaps the most important environmental document in Minnesota’s mining history, political wrangling has stepped up over concerns about the effects of copper-nickel mining on ground and surface water in a region world famous for the quality of its forested lakes and streams.

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Bill Sells Superior National Forest Land to Polymet

Duluth News Tribune – 06/06/2008

Legislation in the U.S. House would sell 6,700 acres in the Superior National Forest to the Polymet copper company without an environmental assessment or public input.

The federal land is precisely where the company hopes to mine for copper, nickel, platinum and palladium as early as next year.

It would be the first major sale of Superior Forest land to a private company.

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 This letter to the editor was published at www.startribune.com

State should say no to sulfide mining. That is the question being asked by many people across the state. At this moment the Minnesota DNR and the Army Corps of Engineers are creating an environmental impact statement on a new type of mine being proposed for northern Minnesota just 20 miles from the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, and 50 miles from Voyageurs National Park.

This is not your typical iron ore mine. This is a mine that contains, among its copper, nickel, platinum and silver, significant deposits of sulfide. The sulfur in the resultant mine tailings could leach off into the surface and ground water, creating streams and creeks that flow with unearthly colors of yellow and red.

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Here are several articles concerning neighboring Minnesota’s mining expansion.

2008-0202-New mining expansion will mean more mercury

2008-0202-LTE Bias caused by Mining Interests

2008-0201-Duluth News Tribunes’ Opinion on the expected Mining Boom

2008-0200-LTE The True Cost of Mining

2008-0200-LTE Turkeys Can’t Mitigate Eagles

Kennecott drills for nickel, copper in Carlton County

By Janna Goerdt, Duluth News Tribune

January/17/ 2008

For the past week, a lone drill has been rumbling away in a rural field in western Carlton County, drawing bedrock from deep within the earth in the search for deposits of copper and nickel.

Utah-based Kennecott Exploration Co. is planning to drill 10 to 15 of these exploratory holes in Carlton and Aitkin counties this winter, said David Simpson, exploration manager in charge of nickel exploration in North America. Simpson is based in Vancouver, Canada.

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