Twin Metals keeps looking to re-open the door
From last week:
A subsidiary of Twin Metals Minnesota, the company seeking to build an underground mine for copper and nickel near Ely, has submitted a plan to the state to conduct additional mineral exploration in the area just outside the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.
Franconia Minerals is proposing to conduct exploratory drilling at up to 19 sites on private and state-owned land on the north and south shores of Birch Lake, about five miles east of Babbitt.
The area is separate and just south of where Twin Metals has proposed building its underground copper-nickel mine.
(MPR)
Even Gov. Tim Walz, who has hemmed and hawed (at best) about the other sulfide mining proposals in the state, has gone on record against Twin Metals. Sen. Amy Klobuchar is, as usual, trying to sit as politically safely as possible on some kind of middle ground. Sen. Tina Smith, righteous lady that she is, is firmly opposed. But she’s retiring in early 2027. The public hates the idea.
This is clearly an effort on Antofagasta’s part to try to get some momentum going. The Trump family and that company go back a while. So far, though, during the second Trump administration, they seem to have had trouble keeping that demented, senile mess focused enough on what they want. But they’re certainly not going to give up.
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