Duluth News Tribune
John Myers

One day after announcing plans to raise $80 million in cash, officials of PolyMet Mining Corp. on Thursday said they are moving headlong toward permitting and, eventually, construction of Minnesota’s first copper-nickel mine.

“This is a pretty big step for our project,” Jon Cherry, PolyMet president and CEO, told reporters Thursday. “We’re getting over that hump.”

On Wednesday the company announced it would receive a $20 million loan from its largest investor, Swiss commodities giant Glencore. Glencore already owns 25.6 percent of PolyMet and has options to increase that to 34 percent.