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

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.

Read more: http://www.virginiamn.com/mine/we-have-a-wealth-of-resources-we-re-all-pretty/article_3d00aa34-5edb-11e4-a7fa-3bbf12d92e69.html

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.

Read more: http://www.virginiamn.com/mine/prefeasibility-study-confirms-project-holds-major-job-creation/article_b1dbf916-5edc-11e4-8e26-ab7ff7ab318d.html

Mesabi Daily News
Opinion: Lory Fedo (Board Member, Jobs for Minnesotans)

Your conversations are important and all of us, together, need to unite and fight hard for the economic future of ourselves and our children. Whether we are mining iron ore, copper, palladium or nickel, mining is and will be a huge part of OUR future — that is worth fighting for.

As you are talking to others here are more FACTS to share:

• According to the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, today the average mining wage job is $83,359. Compare this number to the average annual wage for all industries in the US, which is $50,475.
• Every American depends on more than 100 pounds of minerals per day.
• Metals, both ferrous and non-ferrous, are essential for our modern way of life.
• Mining will happen — the questions are by who, where, how and meeting what standards?

The lengthy permitting process for new mines in Minnesota stonewalls investment and simply takes too long. It has cost more than $70 million and taken more than nine years to date for PolyMet’s environmental review. And it’s still not done. We can and need to do better.

Read more: http://www.virginiamn.com/mine/mining-jobs-are-great-jobs/article_8b283580-5ed4-11e4-9518-5faee87a3c62.html?_dc=948111022589.7283

Duluth News Tribune
John Myers