Twin Metals Submits Formal Plans for Mine Near the Boundary Waters
Minnesota Public Radio
Dan Kraker
The documents, submitted to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, lay out in detail how Twin Metals plans to mine copper, nickel and precious metals deep beneath the Superior National Forest.
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The official project submission triggers the start of the environmental review process, in which state and federal regulators will analyze in detail how the company proposes to mine and how it plans to mitigate its environmental impacts.
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Twin Metals chief regulatory officer Julie Padilla estimates that environmental review and permitting could take five to seven years. The environmental review creates the source documents for the permitting process — the final stage in which state and federal officials decide whether to grant the permits the mine would need to open.
The following statement is in support of Twin Metals Minnesota’s entering the regulatory process for permits to mine copper, nickel and platinum group metals in northeast Minnesota. It has been signed by a statewide group of more than 60 business, labor and community organizations and local government leaders. These signers represent employers of hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans, over 80,000 members of the state’s leading building trade unions and the unified voice of the Iron Range, including 18 mayors of Iron Range cities.
Click here to view and download the full statement and logos from brands which have signed on.
Our View: Review Processes Prove Effective Again
Duluth News Tribune
Editorial Board
It’s reassuring when we see such processes proving effective — just as intended. That’s particularly true in this instance. Replacing an aging Line 3 oil pipeline across northern Minnesota will protect the environment, help to preserve our nation’s energy independence, and generate hundreds of millions of dollars of economic impact for all the Northland.
St. Paul, Minn. (Dec. 9, 2019) – Jobs for Minnesotans released the following statement regarding the Minnesota Department of Commerce report to the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission on spill modeling for Enbridge’s Line 3 Replacement Project:
“We welcome the release of the Minnesota Department of Commerce revisions to the proposed Enbridge Line 3 Replacement Project Environmental Impact Statement. This analysis was a ‘worst-case scenario’ requirement by the appeals court to be added to an otherwise acceptable environmental impact statement, and confirms that in the unlikely case of a breach the Line 3 replacement segment does not introduce risk to Lake Superior. This finding should finally pave the way for approving the Line 3 Replacement Project.
“This project is the most thoroughly reviewed project in Minnesota history, and the PUC has consistently agreed it deserves to move forward. We look forward to seeing this project, and the jobs and benefits it will bring to our communities, come to life for the betterment of our state.”
About Jobs for Minnesotans
Jobs for Minnesotans, a coalition representing business, labor and communities, supports statewide opportunities for prosperity and middle-class jobs from sustainable natural resource development in Minnesota. The organization is committed to the principle that our state can preserve both job opportunities and the environment for future generations. Jobs for Minnesotans was co-founded in 2012 by the Minnesota Building and Construction Trades Council representing 55,000 workers and the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce representing 2,300 companies and 500,000 employees. For more information, visit jobsforminnesotans.org, follow @JobsforMN on Twitter and find the coalition on Facebook.com/Jobs4MN.
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Media Contact: Nancy Norr, Chair
nnorr@mnpower.com
218.590.6978
Our View: Twin Metals Poised to Prove It’s Responsible
Duluth News Tribune
Editorial Board
Twin Metals has been working for 10 years and has invested $450 million-and-counting to develop a better way, a safer way, and an environmentally friendly way to extract the strategic minerals the world needs and is getting now via sometimes-dangerous and too-often-unscrupulous means.
“We have the potential to reignite industry (in the Ely area, providing) opportunities for people to stay here, to raise families here, and to fill up the schools again. So it’s really important to us,” said Dean DeBeltz, Twin Metals’ director of operations and safety. “It’s a very significant economic-development project not only for this area but for Minnesota as a whole.”