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Serving Northern St. Louis County, Minnesota

Groups seek stay on PolyMet permits, pending appeal

Marshall Helmberger
Posted 11/15/18

REGIONAL— A coalition of four environmental groups has filed a petition asking the Department of Natural Resources to suspend PolyMet’s newly-issued permit to mine until the state’s appellate …

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Groups seek stay on PolyMet permits, pending appeal

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REGIONAL— A coalition of four environmental groups has filed a petition asking the Department of Natural Resources to suspend PolyMet’s newly-issued permit to mine until the state’s appellate court can hear their claim on the need for a supplemental environmental impact study on the company’s planned NorthMet copper-nickel mine near Hoyt Lakes.

On Nov. 8, the Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness, the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, Duluth for Clean Water, and WaterLegacy hand-delivered their formal request to the DNR as well as the state’s Pollution Control Agency to stay and suspend permits for the proposed mine. 

The DNR announced Nov. 1 that it had issued PolyMet all of the permits over which the agency has jurisdiction, including the permit to mine. The DNR made the announcement even though the four environmental groups had asked the Minnesota Court of Appeals to reconsider the DNR’s decision, earlier this year, to deny their request for a supplemental EIS. That case is currently being briefed by all sides, and oral arguments in front of the Court of Appeals are expected in late winter or early spring of 2019. 

Environmental groups argue that the troubled financial outlook for the mine made it unlikely that it would proceed at the size and scale of operation that is covered in the permit to mine.

“PolyMet’s permits are based on a bait-and-switch,” said Aaron Klemz of the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy. “PolyMet didn’t show their hand on its larger mine plan until March 2018, when it was too late for the public to comment on it. The DNR and MPCA must analyze the environmental harms posed by PolyMet’s larger and even riskier mega-mine plan.” 

According to financial documents released by PolyMet last March, the company’s current plan to mine and process 32,000 tons of ore per day would generate an internal rate of return of just 9.6 percent, which is considered far less than required to support the estimated $1 billion in investment necessary to advance the project. The DNR’s own financial consultant, EOR, stated that the suggested profits under the current proposal “fall below the values expected in most mining projects.”

PolyMet, in its March filing, announced that it had vetted two new and much-larger mine proposals and concluded that the larger operations would be more profitable. DNR officials have stated that the company has not yet proposed to move to a larger scale of operation, so no supplemental environmental review is required.

Such a review would be required should PolyMet formally amend its mine plan, but environmental groups say they fear that once a mine is operational, the political pressure to approve an expansion— or face potential layoffs if a mega-mine plan is rejected— would prevent state regulators from taking a hard look at the plan.

“Our future is at stake in this decision, the future of my generation and many generations to come,” stated Michael Mayou of Duluth for Clean Water. “PolyMet will inevitably be even larger and riskier than the DNR plan that 80,000 Minnesotans and Duluthians weighed in on.” 

This stay request is separate from other potential challenges to the permits issued by DNR last week, and Minnesota Pollution Control Agency permits sent to the EPA for review in late October. Environmental groups say they are currently reviewing those permits with environmental experts and attorneys.