“Minnesota contains the world’s largest undeveloped copper-nickel deposit, and these resources hold tremendous promise in realizing many of our nation’s goals on energy security, American job creation, national security and bringing more manufacturing home,” Julie Lucas, the executive director of industry group Mining Minnesota, said Wednesday.
Twin Metals Minnesota spokeswoman Kathy Graul wrote in an email that the company is “committed to advancing our project in a bipartisan manner to ensure Americans can benefit from the much-needed copper, nickel and cobalt resources that are abundant in northeast Minnesota.”
For two other copper-nickel mine proposals, neither of which have disputes with the federal government about mineral rights, the effects of a Trump Administration are less clear.
The NorthMet project was originally proposed by the company PolyMet, and is now helmed by a partnership of two companies dubbed NewRange Copper Nickel. The open-pit mine would be dug near Babbitt, and material processed at the former LTV Steel site near Hoyt Lakes.
It has faced several setbacks in court in recent years, and this summer the company said it planned to study major changes to its mine plan. “We will continue to work respectfully with regulators, stakeholders, and rightsholders of all political affiliations,” NewRange spokesman Bruce Richardson wrote in an email.
Aaron Klemz, chief strategy officer at the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, said state court cases related to the NorthMet project have already set important precedents to protect groundwater in Minnesota and limit the duration of mining permits, and that mines will still have to comply with those standards.
