Tamarack nickel mine plan getting public, state review

Most of the recent attention on the potential for copper and nickel mining in Minnesota has focused on the Boundary Waters region, where the Trump administration in April ended a mining ban south of the wilderness area, breathing new life into the proposed Twin Metals mine outside Ely.

But there’s another proposed mine about 50 miles west of Duluth that’s much further along in the process to try to win state approval.

For the past three years, Talon Metals has refined its plan to open an underground nickel mine in the swampy forest just north of the tiny town of Tamarack, responding to more than 1,600 comments as part of the state Department of Natural Resource’s environmental review scoping process.

Talon’s project has flown a bit under the radar compared to more high-profile fights over the proposed Twin Metals mine and the NewRange Copper Nickel project — formerly known as PolyMet — that has been stalled by lawsuits and pulled permits.

But it faces the same question that has dogged those other proposals: Can mining for copper, nickel and other precious metals, which has never been done before in Minnesota and carries more severe pollution risks than iron ore mining, be done safely in a water-rich environment?

“That is always the concern with people,” said Tamarack Mayor John Cyrus. “If the groundwater gets contaminated, then nobody can live here.”

The next step in trying to answer that question begins Tuesday, when the Minnesota DNR is expected to release documents identifying some of the potentially significant impacts of the mine, as well as what needs additional study or analysis and what new data and studies still need to be collected and conducted.

It’s also the first time the general public will be able to file comments and concerns with the state about the proposal as part of the mine’s environmental review process.

“That’s part of what makes this really significant,” said Joy Anderson, legal director for the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy. “This has been going on in the background. Probably a lot of people have forgotten about it. But now is the time when the public can express their thoughts about this.”

Promise and risk

Exploration for valuable minerals hidden under the swamps of Aitkin County started more than a half century ago, when the Minnesota Geological Survey used a low-flying plane to conduct aeromagnetic surveys.

The Kennecott company, a subsidiary of mining giant Rio Tinto, began drilling there in 2002. Six years and 42 holes later, geologists first made the discovery of nickel that Talon now hopes to mine. Like the Duluth Complex farther north where Twin Metals and NewRange Copper Nickel hope to mine, it’s part of the Midcontinent Rift, which formed 1.1 billion years ago when North America split apart, sending lava rich with metals up into the earth’s crust.

Talon, a small Canadian firm, bought into the project over a decade ago and now owns 51 percent of it. Last year, Talon bought the Eagle Mine in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, which opened a decade ago and is the nation’s only operating nickel mine.

Between the two operations, Talon employs about 500 people, including 80 in Tamarack — more than the town’s entire population of 62. The company says it’s already invested $186 million into developing the project.

Talon officials say they have worked from the beginning to engage with the public and respond to community feedback. After hearing concerns raised at community meetings over mine waste tailings, the company decided to ship the ore from the mine site on train cars to process elsewhere.

More recently, Talon tweaked the design of the proposed mine’s footprint, shrinking it and consolidating all the operations in one building about the size of a big box store.

Trucks would descend into the 2,000-foot-deep underground mine via a winding tunnel similar to a parking ramp. But when they return to the surface, the ore would stay indoors before it’s transferred to rail cars.

“So that the ore is not exposed to the environment at surface,” explained Talon spokesperson Jessica Johnson. “It’s handled inside of a controlled environment, so you can really engineer and manage for dust. You no longer have to worry about rain or snow events contacting your operation.”

It’s an example of the company thinking outside the box, Johnson said, “by designing a mine inside the box.”

It’s also an attempt to address one of the biggest environmental concerns with mining for copper and nickel: When the ore interacts with air and water, it can create acid mine drainage, which can leach sulfate and heavy metals into surrounding waterways.

An interconnected spider web of aquifers and surface water surrounding the mine site flows toward Big Sandy Lake and the Mississippi River about eight miles away, an area that the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe considers “the crown jewel of wild rice habitat in the world,” said the Band’s Natural Resources Director Kelly Applegate.

Ojibwe people from around the upper Midwest come to the area to rice, along with non-tribal members, he added. It’s more than a food, Applegate explains. It’s a medicine. And it’s a cultural linchpin, the reason Ojibwe people settled where they did, when they found “the food that grows upon the water.”

“If there were to be a catastrophe, a leak, it can potentially kill off the manoomin [wild rice] beds, and that would not be acceptable to us as a people,” Applegate said.

Mille Lacs Band Chief Executive Virgil Wind said he appreciates the changes Talon has already made to its plan. But he said those changes don’t completely eliminate the risks. “I just don’t see how in such a water-rich environment that [mining] can be done safely,” Wind said.

Talon is collecting baseline environmental data to better understand how water flows in the area. Johnson says that will then be incorporated into an environmental impact statement and into the company’s plan to manage the pollution risks that come with underground mining.

Tamarack Mayor John Cyrus said he trusts the company.

“I believe what they’re saying when they say they can mine it without polluting. And Minnesota has a great history for rules and regulations for mining,” said Cyrus.

Supporters of the proposed mine say Talon has already provided an economic jolt to one of the poorest regions in the state. And if the mine opens, the company plans to add another roughly 150 jobs, Johnson said, in addition to the hundreds of construction jobs needed to build the mine.

“I’d like to see it happen in my lifetime,” said James Onstad, a supervisor for nearby Haugen Township who said he’s watched too many people move away from the area since he was a kid. “Because otherwise, this community’s dead.”

A larger mine?

Talon has attracted some high-profile backers in its bid to open what would be only the second nickel mine in the country. It struck a deal with Tesla four years ago to provide the electric vehicle manufacturer with nickel for its car batteries.

The federal government has also invested in the company. The Department of Energy has pledged about $115 million to Talon to build a minerals processing facility in North Dakota, although the company now says it is also considering shipping its ore to a processing facility in Michigan it acquired when the company purchased the Eagle Mine.

The Defense Department has also invested about $20 million for continued exploration, in Michigan and at Talon’s Tamarack site.

During a visit to the mine site last week, crews operated a drilling rig that bored below the main deposit where Talon is planning its initial mine. Geologists recently discovered an area of rich mineralization there with grades 10 times higher than the main deposit.

“There aren’t really many examples globally of anything like this,” said Brian Goldner, chief exploration officer for Talon.

Talon’s plan calls for mining for seven to 10 years. But the additional exploration could lead to an extended mine life. Talon has cited the potential for a “mining district” over about an 11-mile area in earlier investor reports.

“One of the bigger concerns that we have is that this is just the beginning,” said the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy’s Joy Anderson. “It’s really important to not just look at this mine that they are proposing, but to know that this is setting a blueprint for everything that they want to do in a very large area right around this mine.”

The environmental review process for large and controversial mining projects like this one can stretch for years. Johnson hopes the changes Talon is making at the front end will shorten that process. The company’s ambitious timeline aims to start construction of the mine in 2029.