Sulfide Mining: PolyMet

PolyMet’s NorthMet project is the furthest along of any proposal in Minnesota. The company would operate a strip mine near Hoyt Lakes, in the Partridge River watershed, which drains into the St. Louis River and then Lake Superior.

The project would destroy approximately 1,200 acres of wetlands and 1,000 acres of forest. All of the land is currently on Superior National Forest land and the company would have to somehow acquire the land from the public before it could begin mining.

There are many worrying details about the project:

• Piles of waste rock (rock leftover at the mine site after mining) the size of 500 football fields, 20 stories high. Much of this rock would be capable of producing Acid Mine Drainage.
• The piles would be stored on manmade liners, which would have to never leak in order to contain pollution.
• The ore that would be mined is very low in carbonate minerals that would naturally neutralize sulfuric acid.
• The mine would be located in an area literally called the “100 Mile Swamp.” For a type of mining that’s pollution risk is directly connected to the presence of water, this is a dangerous proposition.
• The land that would be destroyed by the mine was identified by Forest Service and DNR scientists in the late 1990s as an “under-represented habitat.” The land’s destruction would permanently erase an already dwindling resource. (See the Friends report on this subject.)
• The type of wetland that would be destroyed serves as a significant carbon sequestration area. (See Friends report.)

Many of these concerns are based directly on analysis and research into the project’s Complete Preliminary Draft Environmental Impact Statement (CPDEIS), which was released Dec. 20, 2008. While not available for public comment, it is an important precursor of what the project will entail. At almost 650 pages, it’s not light reading, but you can see for yourself here: PolyMet CPDEIS (PDF, 3.1 MB).