Where is the world’s second largest deposit of platinum group metals (six metals including palladium, iridium, and platinum)? Where is the world’s third largest deposit of copper and nickel? It is in the east end of the Mesabi Iron Range, called the Duluth Complex, and it could bring an economic revival to northeastern Minnesota.
PolyMet, a publicly traded mining company headquartered in British Columbia, has invested over $22 million in the last five years on research in St. Louis County in hopes of obtaining permits to extract copper, nickel, cobalt, platinum, palladium, and gold from an open pit mine in Hoyt Lakes. The operation will use facilities formerly used by LTV Steel and is expected to employ 400 people on an ongoing basis and create at least 500 “spinoff” jobs. It could create secondary industries, such as wallboard manufacturing using gypsum, a byproduct of copper processing.
PolyMet is one of a number of mining companies using new technology to revive industry in northeastern Minnesota by tapping into non-ferrous (not iron-based) metals. According to MiningMinnesota. com, the presence of copper, nickel, platinum and other non-ferrous metals has been known for decades. They could not be made into saleable products, however, because of technological limitations that made them too expensive to process.
The winter edition of Range View, a publication of Iron Range Resources, says, “…New environmentally sound technologies are allowing the region to wring our maximum value from its existing natural resource base.”
How would the PolyMet mine affect the environment? TheMiningMinnesota. com website states, “The environmental consequences from some early mining operations have left an historical legacy of negative environmental impacts that still affect the public’s perception of mining. …The mining of sulfide deposits containing copper and nickel has historically been at the heart of most of the environmental concern. …However, this legacy of environmental damage is not indicative of new mines and mining practices. ….The last 15 years have brought about remarkable changes in the industry.”
Governmental review processes that did not exist during mining’s early years in Minnesota are now heading potential environmental damage off at the pass. New methods of preventing and dealing with acids created during the mining process are being implemented, and plans include filling in open pits and restoring wetlands after the mining is done.
Not reassured by plan
Several articles on the Northeastern Minnesotans for Wilderness website raise objections to the PolyMet mine. The writers of the articles are skeptical of PolyMet’s ability to keep pollutants from the watershed that ends up in Lake Superior. They believe the technology PolyMet is depending on has not been proven.
Elanne Palcich wrote in a November 23, 2009 article on the website, “There is no way to prove whether PolyMet will or will not pollute our environment. The entire PolyMet draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) is based upon technology and a trust in technology.”
The website includes an article written by Stephanie Hemphill for Minnesota Public Radio. Referring to plans to keep waste rock on synthetic liners and capture and treat runoff from that rock, she said, “It’s hard to imagine a liner that could withstand the pressure and sharp edges of tons and tons of rock.”
Hemphill quotes retired biology teacher Leonard Anderson: “Across the world this type of mining creates a legacy of acid mine drainage and heavy metal seepages,” he is quoted as saying. “This company has no experience, and the state of Minnesota has none.”
The environmental review process for the PolyMet mine started in 2005 and is expected to result in the issuance of permits and construction startup sometime this year. Brad Moore of Barr Engineering, an environmental consultant for PolyMet, gave a presentation to the Cook County board on Tuesday, January 12, 2010 on what PolyMet will do to avoid environmental damage.
Unlike older mining methods, the PolyMet operation would process metals in enclosed systems called autoclaves, which result in “virtually no air or water emissions,” according to MiningMinnesota.com. Autoclave processing uses about half the energy of traditional smelting.
Moore said liners with drainage systems would catch any acidic water produced when rain and oxygen hit the raw materials, and that water would be reused. Acid-producing rock would eventually be returned to water-filled cavities underground where oxygen could not reach it, something that has been done successfully in other cold climate regions. Air emissions would meet standards for “Class I airsheds” such as the Boundary Waters, Isle Royale, and Voyageurs National Park.
The projected wetland impact is 854 acres. Wetland credits would replace or preserve 1,298 acres of wetland elsewhere. The financial plan includes set-asides that would pay for complete restoration of the land at any point in the life of the mine, even if the company went bankrupt.
Moore said Minnesota’s environmental review process is one of the most rigorous in the country, and according to MiningMinnesota.com, the project developer, not the taxpayer, pays the bulk of the cost. Entities such as the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, and the Army Corps of Engineers are involved in evaluating the environmental research being done.
Industry growth predicted
The PolyMet mine is one of a number of factors expected to revive the Northland. The Range View predicts a growth in job opportunities for a number of reasons: “Over the next 10 years, 20,000 to 22,000 new workers will be needed in the region due to economic development projects, retirements and natural growth, according to DEED [the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development].
“…Demand for well-educated workers in knowledge industries such as health care, social assistance, information, professional and technical services, management, educational services, finance and insurance, arts, entertainment and recreation is projected to grow by 13 percent by 2014 in northeast Minnesota and northwest Wisconsin.”
Brad Moore said negotiations are underway regarding the possibility of using Taconite Harbor to load the metals onto ships. Regulations do not allow companies to plan mining operations further out than 20 years, he said, but the area has much more than 20 years’ worth of minerals.
“Minnesota was what it was because of mining and agriculture,” Commissioner Bob Fenwick said at the January 12 county board meeting.
A letter to DNR Environmental Impact Statement Project Manager Stuart Arkley from Congressman Jim Oberstar states, “Over 100 years ago, Minnesotans began mining natural ore and then used ingenuity and determination to extend our mining and processing capabilities to include taconite. Responsible, nonferrous mining represents the next chapter in the evolution of the Iron Range; it is time to begin this new era.”
The Range View quotes Bud Stone, Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce president: “Northeastern Minnesota is on the cusp of the biggest economic development we have ever seen. We are building new capacity within existing industry clusters. I think we are going to see a tremendous amount of opportunity for people to move up into new jobs.”
According to the Range View, the development of non-ferrous mining in Minnesota “would create an economic impact larger than the century-old iron ore industry, on which the Mesabi Iron Range was built.”
Here are some of the uses of the metals PolyMet plans to mine:
»» Copper: construction, plumbing, electric wiring, and cars.
»» Nickel: stainless steel, rechargeable batteries, and aerospace.
»» Cobalt: “super alloys,” aircraft engines, cell phone batteries, hand tools, household magnets and hybrid vehicles.
»» Platinum and palladium: catalytic converters, fuel cells, electronics, medicine, and jewelry.
»» Gold: dentistry and medicine, computers, electronics, and jewelry.
»» Other products that use these types of metals are hybrid cars, wind turbines, and fuel cells.
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