Polymetallic open-pit site.Upstream from Hoyt Lakes, south of Ely, in the shallow bowl that cradles Lake Superior. Sought: Copper, nickel, cobalt, other minerals. Lake Superior 30 miles downstream.

Incremental mine victory in 15-year process

ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Chippewa and environmentalists’ case against PolyMet’s proposed Mesabi Range copper mine near Ely suffered a setback in the Minnesota Supreme Court. The Court said a lower court erred in denying permits for the mine, sending the case back to the appeals court for review. It was last year that the lower court found that the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency wrongly approved permits without an open-ended contested case hearing process. That decision, the Supreme Court ruled, was a mistake that must be reconsidered. Proponents of the mine are locals who say the mine would create jobs.

“Sham permitting”

The $1 billion PolyMet project has been a lightning rod for critics. Among objections has been that the Swiss company Glencore, which owns PolyMet, had submitted fraudulent information to regulators about its ultimate plans for the mine. In federal securities filings PolyMet indicated it’s lonhg-range plan was a much larger mine than indicated in its permit requests to the state Pollution Control Agency. It’s a bait-and-switch scheme called “sham permitting,” critics said.

First one mine, then a second

The PolyMet project would be the first copper mine in Minnesota. It’s a separate from another proposed copper mine near Ely –a project led by Twin Metals Minnesota, a subsidiary of Chilean mining company Antofagasta. That project was blocked by the Obama administration, then revived by the Trump administration.