Demand for U.S. Minerals on the Rise
Minerals are vital to manufacturing products and technologies that propel the U.S. economy, fostering innovation and supporting U.S. industrial competitiveness. A growing global population, and development of new technologies and products that rely on greater combinations of minerals, have increased demand for raw materials.
U of M Officials Seek Money from State for Mining Research
Duluth News Tribune
John Myers
Frank Ongaro, executive director of Mining Minnesota, the copper-nickel industry group, said he’s heard few details on the initiative.
“We’ll be watching and paying attention,” Ongaro said. “But it strikes me that if the university can fund and support research aimed at bettering the state’s mining industry, at the same time the mining industry is giving so much back to the state, that’s a good thing all around.”
Weberg said he expects the initiative to act as a problem solver for the industry as well as help allay fears of mining critics and skeptics.
“What can we do to make Minnesota mining more efficient; to reduce its footprint on the land; to reduce its energy use and carbon footprint? What can we do to reduce waste so that less raw material has to be mined?” Weberg said.
Read more: http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/content/u-m-officials-seek-money-state-mining-research
MPR News
Martin Moylan
Duluth Metals, the firm that’s been pushing to build a copper-nickel mine in northeast Minnesota, said Monday it is selling its operations to Chilean mining giant Antofagasta PLC for about $85 million.
Antofagasta and Duluth Metals have been partners in Twin Metals Minnesota, which wants to build a massive underground mine near Ely, Minnesota, just a few miles south of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.
The region may hold what could be the world’s largest untapped source of copper and other precious metals valued at perhaps $100 billion.
Read more: http://www.mprnews.org/story/2014/11/03/duluth-metals-sale-to-antofagasta
‘We Have a Wealth of Resources … We’re All Pretty Blessed’
Mesabi Daily News
Bill Hanna
Mining is in Kelly Osborne’s DNA — and that now includes his new adventure as CEO of Twin Metals Minnesota.
“I’m personally very excited to be part of the Twin Metals team and to be involved in a project like this,” he said during an interview last July after he was named to his new position.
The Twin Metals project, within the vast mineral-rich Duluth Complex on the Iron Range, would develop an underground mine to extract copper/nickel/precious (strategic) metals.
It has the potential create thousands of direct jobs, many more indirect spin-off positions and more than 2 million hours of construction.
Prefeasibility Study Confirms Project Holds Major Job Creation
Mesabi Daily News
Opinion: Kelly Osborne (Twin Metals Minnesota CEO)
Over the past two years, Twin Metals Minnesota (TMM) has been conducting a Prefeasibility Study (PFS) for our proposed underground copper-nickel mining project in northeast Minnesota. In late August, Duluth Metals Limited, the majority partner in the TMM joint venture, released highlights from the PFS Technical Report, which confirms that the TMM Project offers an extraordinary job creation and economic development opportunity for the region and the entire state.
The TMM Project is among the world’s most promising copper-nickel mining developments due to the magnitude of Minnesota’s mineral resource and the project’s location in a region that has a strong mining history, world-class labor force, and extensive mining infrastructure, including existing roads, rail lines, ports, power and water supplies.
The competitive advantages Minnesota offers are key to the TMM Project’s projected long-term economic success.