Biden Maladministration Now Cancelling Mining Leases

As if the unlawful cancellation of oil & gas lease sales wasn’t bad enough, Brandon et al., 2021-2022 are now cancelling mining leases that would have led to increased domestic production of the “copper, nickel, cobalt and platinum group metals” required for wind turbines, EV batteries and all of the other Unicorns they believe can replace fossil fuels. As an example, here are the mineral resources required to manufacture smartphones:

The cancelled mining leases were part of a project to tap the vast mineral resources of Maturi deposit in the Duluth complex.

The Duluth complex is a world-class copper-nickel resource, rich in cobalt and platinum group metals.

Twin Metals Minnesota’s Mine Plan of Operations (MPO) was “the culmination of a decade of engineering, environmental study and community engagement work.”

Our plan to do this right.

We at Twin Metals Minnesota are proud to have formally proposed our world-class, 21st century underground copper, nickel, cobalt and platinum group metals mining project for environmental review. This is the first step in ensuring that mining will be done safely in northeast Minnesota.

It’s been a long time coming.

The submission of our Mine Plan of Operations (MPO) to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and the Scoping Environmental Assessment Worksheet (SEAW) data submittal to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (MDNR), is the culmination of a decade of engineering, environmental study and community engagement work.

Where is just as important as why.

The proposed project site is located between the cities of Ely and Babbitt – an area long-sustained by mining. It’s in an area that has been designated for mining, logging and other commercial activities within the U.S. Forest Service Superior National Forest Plan. The project is outside the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, as well as the federal and state mining exclusion zones surrounding the BWCAW.

We’ll be targeting the minerals within the Maturi deposit, part of the Duluth Complex geologic formation. It’s one of the largest undeveloped deposits of these minerals in the world, with more than 4.4 billion tons of ore containing copper, nickel and other strategic minerals.

Submission of the MPO and SEAW data submittal started a multi-year environmental review process that will thoroughly evaluate our proposal. The review process will include additional baseline data collection, impact analyses and multiple opportunities for public input.

We look forward to this process and the continued conversations with regulators, tribal governments and the public, because at the end of the day, we all want what’s best for Minnesota.

We know this land.
We’ve studied it for years.

Over the course of a decade, we’ve studied the Maturi deposit in great detail. To date, our core storage facility houses approximately 1.5 million feet of core samples from the deposit – about a half million additional feet of core samples have been sent to state storage facilities.

Following mineral resource characterization, several years of process flowsheet engineering work led to conceptual and initial prefeasibility studies. The project design we have today minimizes potential impacts in the areas of water, wetlands, noise, dust, light and visual pollution.

Specific examples include:

*The overall project footprint is only 15-20% of what a traditional open pit mine would be.

*The mine will process 20,000 tons of ore per day.

*Mining operations will occur between 400 and 4,500 feet below the surface.

*Ore processing will remove most of the sulfide minerals. Therefore, tailings will not produce acid rock drainage (ARD).

*Up to 50% of tailings will be diverted from surface storage, and will instead be utilized as backfill in the underground mine.

*Tailings stored on the surface will be dewatered and compressed, otherwise known as dry stacking.

*Adopting dry stacking as the tailings management method will reduce the surface impact by approximately 35% and the wetlands impact by approximately 65%, compared to conventional slurry tailings storage.

*The dry stack facility will be lined and progressively reclaimed with native soil and vegetation.

*The project will not discharge process water, and is designed to not require discharge of contact water. Water used in the mineral concentration process will be reused on site.

*No waste rock will be stored on the surface, eliminating a potential source of ARD.

*Ore crushing will be conducted underground, limiting surface impact, dust and noise.

*No mining will occur under the Birch Lake reservoir.

*After the mine’s closure, most of its infrastructure will be removed, and the surface area will be revegetated.

Our plans are yours to read.

Whenever possible, we strive to maintain an open dialogue with community members, stakeholders and agencies.

We look forward to this process and the continued conversations with regulators, tribal governments and the public, because at the end of the day, we all want what’s best for Minnesota.

Twin Metals Minnesota

A world-class mineral resource, rich in the metals needed for the “energy transition.”
A meticulously crafted, utterly transparent plan of operations.
Located within the continental United States, securing access to strategic minerals.

What’s not to like about this? Apparently the fact that it’s located in these United States and would actually put America first, is what the Harris-Biden Dominion don’t like about it…

Biden administration cancels Twin Metals’ leases to mine near BWCA
Dan Kraker Duluth January 27, 2022

The Biden administration has canceled two federal mineral leases held by Twin Metals Minnesota, dealing a potentially fatal blow to the company’s bid to build an underground mine for copper, nickel and precious metals on the doorstep of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

Those leases, located along Birch Lake in the Superior National Forest, about 7 miles east of Ely and just south of the BWCA, are critical to Twin Metals’ plans. They’re required for the company to access the valuable minerals underground.

The Department of the Interior took the action after determining that the leases were improperly renewed by the Trump administration in 2019.

[…]

In a statement, Twin Metals called the announcement “disappointing, but not surprising given the series of actions the administration has taken to try and shut the door on copper-nickel mining in northeast Minnesota.”

“We will challenge this attempt to stop our project and defend our valid existing mineral rights. We expect to prevail,” the company added.

[…]

In a separate effort, the Biden administration has also proposed a 20-year moratorium on new copper-nickel mining proposals within the watershed of the Boundary Waters, in the same area Twin Metals wants to dig. The government says it’s taking that step because of the pollution risks mining poses to the Boundary Waters.

Mining supporters say that effort, combined with the Twin Metals lease cancelation, block projects that could provide important metals needed for wind turbines and electric car batteries.

“The Biden administration is talking out of both sides of its mouth,” said Frank Ongaro, executive director of Mining Minnesota.

“On one hand, it wants domestic critical minerals for a supply chain to address climate change. And on the other hand, it’s locking us out of the vast majority of the U.S. supply of these metals. That’s extremely hypocritical.”

[…]

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