in the Superior National Forest
last updated June 15, 2008
Polymet
Mining is planning a open pit mine covering over 6,000 acres in the
Superior Natinal Forest to extract approximately 400 million tones of
copper & nickel ore. 
The proposed project is what's called a sulfide mineral deposit, that is the minerals are bound up with sulfur.
Recently there has been an effort to open sulfide based copper, zinc, and nickel mines in the Lake Superior basin. More than half the exploration for sulfide ores has been on public lands. These ores generate acid mine drainage. Many of the exploration sites are in our National Forest in Michigan and Minnesota.
The biggest of these projects so far is a open pit strip mine proposed for northeast Minnesota that would extract approximately 400 million tons of ore over 20 to 30 years.
To access the ore, approximately 1000 acres of wetlands of the Minnesota's "100 Mile Swamp" would be stripped out or filled by waste piles and approximately 6000 acres of public land would be used for the strip mine and for storing the acid runoff generating waste rock.
This proposed mine project is within one of our great National Forests and near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area.
Since the mining company does not own the land they want to strip-mine, they have arranged for a bill to be introduced into congress that would force the Forest Service to sell the land to Polymet Mining Co. within 180 days.
The bill in the House would force the Forest Service to sell them 6,700 acres of national forest land so that they can create their strip mine. A recent AP article describes the bill introduced in the House:
http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/articles/index.cfm?id=67963§ion=News
http://www.twincities.com/minnesota/ci_9506870
For more information about the project visit:
the Minn. DNR web site (althought much of this is older info.):
http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/input/environmentalreview/polymet/index.html
Polymet Mining's web site:
http://www.polymetmining.com/s/Home.asp
or several sites set up to track this project throught the permitting process:
http://www.friends-bwca.org/programs/mining.html
http://www.sosbluewaters.org
http://northstar.sierraclub.org/campaigns/mining/polymet.html
For information about the bill introduced into the House of Representatives see:
http://www.friends-bwca.org/mining/HR_4292_fact_sheet.pdf
http://www.sosbluewaters.org/oberstar.htm
For the text of an alert and press release giving brief background and contact information see:
http://www.friends-bwca.org/blog/2008/06/help-protect-minnesotas-public-lands/
Land Sale Alert
IEN Press Release
the text of the bill to force the Forest Service to sell 6,700 acres of land to Polymet can be found at any of these sites:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h110-4292
http://thomas.loc.gov/home/gpoxmlc110/h4292_ih.xml
http://www.opencongress.org/bill/110-h4292/show
The proposed project is what's called a sulfide mineral deposit, that is the minerals are bound up with sulfur.Recently there has been an effort to open sulfide based copper, zinc, and nickel mines in the Lake Superior basin. More than half the exploration for sulfide ores has been on public lands. These ores generate acid mine drainage. Many of the exploration sites are in our National Forest in Michigan and Minnesota.
The biggest of these projects so far is a open pit strip mine proposed for northeast Minnesota that would extract approximately 400 million tons of ore over 20 to 30 years.
To access the ore, approximately 1000 acres of wetlands of the Minnesota's "100 Mile Swamp" would be stripped out or filled by waste piles and approximately 6000 acres of public land would be used for the strip mine and for storing the acid runoff generating waste rock.
This proposed mine project is within one of our great National Forests and near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area.
Since the mining company does not own the land they want to strip-mine, they have arranged for a bill to be introduced into congress that would force the Forest Service to sell the land to Polymet Mining Co. within 180 days.
The bill in the House would force the Forest Service to sell them 6,700 acres of national forest land so that they can create their strip mine. A recent AP article describes the bill introduced in the House:
http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/articles/index.cfm?id=67963§ion=News
http://www.twincities.com/minnesota/ci_9506870
For more information about the project visit:
the Minn. DNR web site (althought much of this is older info.):
http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/input/environmentalreview/polymet/index.html
Polymet Mining's web site:
http://www.polymetmining.com/s/Home.asp
or several sites set up to track this project throught the permitting process:
http://www.friends-bwca.org/programs/mining.html
http://www.sosbluewaters.org
http://northstar.sierraclub.org/campaigns/mining/polymet.html
For information about the bill introduced into the House of Representatives see:
http://www.friends-bwca.org/mining/HR_4292_fact_sheet.pdf
http://www.sosbluewaters.org/oberstar.htm
For the text of an alert and press release giving brief background and contact information see:
http://www.friends-bwca.org/blog/2008/06/help-protect-minnesotas-public-lands/
Land Sale Alert
IEN Press Release
the text of the bill to force the Forest Service to sell 6,700 acres of land to Polymet can be found at any of these sites:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h110-4292
http://thomas.loc.gov/home/gpoxmlc110/h4292_ih.xml
http://www.opencongress.org/bill/110-h4292/show