. . . The plan is for a $1 billion open-pit mine near Babbitt and a processing plant near Hoyt Lakes that would be Minnesota’s first copper-nickel mine and produce minerals necessary for the clean energy economy. It is a 50-50 joint venture between Swiss commodities giant Glencore and Canada-based Teck Resources. The project was renamed NewRange Copper Nickel last year, but it is still widely known by its old name, PolyMet. The project has been stalled for several years by court and regulatory setbacks, but company officials say they are still moving ahead with preparations at the site. . . .
. . .environmental groups that have been fighting the project said the announcement is tantamount to an admission that the current mine plan is fundamentally flawed. They say mining the large untapped reserves of copper, nickel and platinum-group metals under northeastern Minnesota would pose unacceptable environmental risks because of the potential for acid mine drainage from the sulfide-bearing ore.
“PolyMet is rethinking every aspect of their mine plan after the courts have told them they have to do it,” Kathryn Hoffman, CEO of the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, said in an interview. . . .
Polymet's rebranding isn't good enough? Time for some greenwashing.
Executive director of the Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness Chris Knopf sounds off.
The announcement from NewRange Copper Nickel that it would study new ways to make its proposed copper-sulfide mine into a more environmentally friendly operation needs to be seen for what it is: A publicity campaign to make this dangerous project appear more palatable and, more than anything, an admission by NewRange that this mine cannot meet the legal standards to operate.
Minnesotans and clean water organizations have known this for years. With growing frustration we watched as the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) and Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) worked with the mining industry to issue permits that failed to meet environmental standards. The EPA already determined that there are “no conditions” under which the mine could comply with the Fond du Lac Band’s water quality standards. Friends of the Boundary Waters and other organizations have successfully blocked other key permits in court.
The studies NewRange says it is about to embark on is a dressed-up way of saying, “We need to go back to the drawing board.” NewRange’s seeming admission that its project is hopelessly flawed comes cloaked in a press release that is a run-of-the-mill example of greenwashing. Words and phrases like sustainable, enhanceenvironmental safeguards, carbon reduction, clean energy transition pepper the document. NewRange even goes so far as to spin the tailings facility — where the toxic waste rock from the mine would be stored – into an environmentally friendly “clean-up” of an old iron mining site.
Greenwashing a copper-sulfide mine is no small task. Afterall, this type of mining has a track record of polluting surrounding waterways. There is no proof that this kind of mining, which the EPA has listed as the most polluting industry in the United States, can be done without polluting.
Behind the veneer of greenwashing, NewRange’s Canadian and Swiss owners are conceding that its mine plan is flawed and cannot meet environmental or regulatory standards. This is not so embarrassing for NewRange as it is for MPCA and DNR. These agencies have greenlit and defended a mine so flawed that its owners are now looking into ways to change it. They have been defending a mine that we believe should never have been permitted in the first place. And they have done this by using millions of dollars from Minnesota taxpayers. Two years ago, we learned that the MPCA and DNR paid $6.4 million in taxpayer dollars to outside law firms to handle the legal challenges to permits that simply did not meet environmental standards. But rather than try to correct these errors and meet the basic legal requirements to protect our air and water, the agencies doubled down and used tax dollars to defend the interests of a foreign-owned mining company.
And for what?
Now NewRange might completely change this project, requiring the agencies to redo these permits anyways. What a waste.
Chris Knopf
Whatever NewRange’s ultimate strategy, the question that hangs over all of this is: After being duped before, how much more government resources and tax dollars will MPCA and DNR need in order to defend a project that, time and time again, has proven to be fundamentally flawed?
It's time to move on from this dangerous, undeniably flawed mining proposal. Let's use our common sense and not spend more years and millions of more dollars trying to force through a project that is simply located in the wrong place. The risk to Minnesota' clean-water heritage is too great.
NewRange should not go back to the drawing board. Instead, the project should be thrown on the scrap heap and never resurrected.
Chris Knopf is the executive director of the Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness, a nonprofit organization committed to protecting the Boundary Waters Wilderness area from the threat of sulfide mining.
This article first appeared on MinnPost and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Photo: Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness Credit: MinnPost photo by Walker Orenstein
If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post.
Comments