WASHINGTON — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency messed up in reviewing permits for the PolyMet copper-nickel mine on the Iron Range, according to an internal investigation. The agency’s inspector general said that EPA’s Chicago office failed to write out its concerns about a proposed water permit and instead communicated to the state Pollution Control Agency only by phone and left its concerns unstated. As a result, the state issued water permits for the $1 billion mine in late 2018. Further, said the EPA inspector general, the agency ignored three requests from the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa for information on the impact of mine pollution on downstream water.
Who owns PolyMet?
It’s complicated. PolyMet is owned mostly by the Swiss mining giant Glencore, which holds a 72% in Toronto-based PolyMet Mining. A lesser but still major stake in PolyMet is Twin Metals, which is owned by Antofagasta, a global mining company controlled by the Luksics, one of Chile’s wealthiest families. Another stakeholder is the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board, a state economic development agency that loaned $4 million for mine construction in 2011.
By another name
PolyMet sometimes refers to the Babbit mine as the NorthMet Project.
Mine details
PolyMet would be the first commercial copper, nickel and precious metals mine in Minnesota. Its open pit would be 700 feet deep. An asset of the location is existing rail, road and utility infrastructures and an experienced local mining culture and workforce.