REGIONAL- NewRange Copper Nickel held an open house this week in hopes of building momentum for its plans to develop two copper-nickel deposits near Hoyt Lakes.
The open house came 20 years after PolyMet Mining launched its own effort to open its NorthMet deposit, one of the two now eyed by NewRange. PolyMet’s effort came close to completion before a series of successful lawsuits reversed most of the project’s key permits. PolyMet is now part of Glencore, the international commodities conglomerate, which has formed the joint venture with Teck Resources and the two entities now operate under the banner of NewRange.
NewRange officials were on hand in Hoyt Lakes Monday, to talk with open house attendees and provide bus shuttles to the former LTV taconite processing facility, where the company hopes to eventually process copper-nickel ore.
The tour took visitors to the concentrator building, built in the 1950s, which is the focus of an ongoing salvage and recycling project. The work includes electric restoration, roof repair, and refurbishing the former mill’s 200 ton overhead.
General Manager Tannice McCoy narrated the tour both on the bus and inside the concentrator building. She pointed out the firm’s efforts to recycle scrap removed from the former mill.
“We’ve recycled over 70,000 tons of concrete and over 25,000 tons of steel scrap,” McCoy told the tour attendees. “We crush the concrete and are using it as road base at the site.” She was proud of the fact that the project so far has had no lost time accidents.
McCoy also commented that the company hopes to reapply for a Clean Water Act Section 404 permit in 2025 and to use a federal program to fast track other permits needed to operate the proposed copper nickel mine.
Simon Charter, the community and social performance manager for NewRange, said the mine would employ 350. Pre-operation construction would employee 750 to 1,000 on a temporary basis.
Bringing NewRange’s two ore bodies into production will be a challenge due to environmental opposition. Though the company successfully defended against a court action targeting its air pollution permit last year, NewRange’s 404 permit was revoked by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in June 2023 and the company’s permit to mine was also reversed in state court. Even if the company wins all its permitting fights, McCoy anticipated that mining operations would not begin prior to 2030.
NewRange is a 50-50 joint venture between Swiss multinational Glencore and Canadian mining firm Teck Resources. The project was renamed NewRange Copper Nickel last year. Many in the Arrowhead region still refer to it as PolyMet, the name of the American-based entity owned by Glencore that operated the property prior to the formation of the joint venture in February 2023.