Non-ferrous Mining Moving Ahead

Non-ferrous mining will change Minnesota forever, and not for the better. Polymet will be the first and there is pressure for more to follow close on its heels. Click here for a detailed article on the subect courtesy of the Mesabi Daily News.

In addition, the State of Minnesota is mobilizing the University of Minnesota, Duluth through the Precambrian Research Center to provide a stream of geologists specifically trained to exploit non-ferrous mineral resources in the state in the service of the international mining industry. Our tax dollars being used to destroy our watersheds and the future of Minnesota, especailly the Arrowhead, and that will include the BWCAW according to the UMD's own proposals.

Here are links to information on this venture , the PRC mission, the PRC business plan.

Here is what our friends at the U have to say about the prospects for mining non-ferrous metals, i. e. mostly sulfide mining:

"A second state need is looming as Minnesota is poised to develop a wholly new mining district focused on Cu-Ni-PGE deposits of the basal Duluth Complex. PolyMet Mining Corporation is in the final stages of permitting to mine the NorthMet deposit located near Hoyt Lakes. Other related deposits have also seen increased activity in recent years, Teck-Cominco’s Babbitt deposit, Franconia Mineral’s Birch Lake and Maturi deposits, and Wallbridge America’s Maturi Extension deposit. The potential exists that if PolyMet is successful in permitting and developing a base and precious metal mine, these other deposits are sure to follow. This will generate an incredible local demand for field-trained geologist with B.S. and M.S. degrees. Besides the Cu-Ni-PGE deposits of the Duluth Complex, other companies are spending money in the state in their search for gold, nickel, titanium, and diamonds."

It is particularly worrisome that the PRC plans to set up summer mining field camps in the BWCAW. And we thought the BWCAW was a wilderness!

"The PRC intends to develop a new summer field camp course based in the Precambrian terrains of northern Minnesota (Fig. 7) through the auspices of the Department of Geological Sciences at UMD. This camp will be designed to meet undergraduate requirements of most university and college geology programs, and will be an open enrollment course to students from the U.S., Canada, and abroad. The course will be based in a number of locations throughout northern Minnesota, including Duluth, Hibbing, Ely, campsites within the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW), and other remote sites. The educational goals of the camp will parallel those of traditional summer field geology camps in terms of developing basic field-geology skills. However, PRC-run field courses will provide students with the added opportunity to conduct independent and group geological mapping in canoe-access wilderness areas (BWCAW) where our current knowledge of the geology is based on reconnaissance mapping in the 1930s. A long-term goal of PRC-led field courses is to compile student geologic mapping for eventual publication, thereby contributing to the scientific record in the region."

Is this a precursor to pressure to open the BWCAW to mining? Well, the main funders of this intellectual excercise in the BWCAW are to be the mining companies themselves. That should answer the question.

True