ST. PAUL, Minn. – Acting on instructions from the state Supreme Court, the state Appeals Court has revisited the permitting process for the proposed PolyMet copper-nickel open-pit mine in northern Minnesota and this time wants state regulators to double-cheek whether PolyMet lied. At issue is a critical air emissions permit. The Supreme Court ruled that the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency hadn’t sufficiently justified granting the permit after opponents raised allegations that PolyMet had understated its mining plants grossly. Environmental tribal groups have argued all along that PolyMet envisioned four times larger than the air permit would allow. The groups pointed to a PolyMet document filed with Canadian regulators. In returning the case to the lower court, the Supreme Court had said more attention is needed on whether PolyMet would comply with all terms of Pollution Control Board permit. Now, on review, the Appeals Court said the Pollution Control Agency must better reconsider its thoroughness, or lack thereof, in granting the permit. Meanwhile, several other legal challenges to the PolyMet project also are wending their way through the courts.
At stake. PolyMet’s proposed mine near Babbit and Hoyt Lakes would be Minnesota’s first copper-nickel mine. Environmentalists have fought the project because of the potential for acid mine drainage upstream from Lake Superior. The opponents are a coalition of groups led by the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy and the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. PolyMet is part of a global extraction-industry conglomerate. For the Minnesota project its offices are in Toronto sand Minneapolis. The company claims a commitment to ‘responsible mining,” but the claim has a hollow ring to critics who point to in an industry known historically as exploitive and environmentally insensitive. On the Iron Range, the issue is divisive. The $1 billion mine would create jobs but at what cost to the environment and wildlife and human habitat?