Local Press Coveragehttps://www.duluthnewstribune.com/articles/index.cfm?id=62320%C2%A7=homepage
Thousands of construction jobs will be needed for copper, nickel and other metal mining on the Iron Range if those projects come to pass, representatives of three of the companies told a meeting of the Associated General Contractors of Minnesota in Duluth on Thursday.
Three companies — Franconia Minerals Corp., Duluth Metals and PolyMet Mining — will need more than 2,200 construction workers if they go ahead with full-scale production of copper, nickel, platinum, cobalt, silver, gold and palladium, speakers said at a lunchtime presentation at the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center.
Northeastern Minnesota includes what’s considered the largest undeveloped base and precious metal mining district in North America near Babbitt and Ely, as well as in Carlton County. At least half a dozen companies are hoping to set up mining operations in the area.
“We cannot get there without your help,” Rick Sandri, Duluth Metals president and CEO, told a room full of construction contractors.
The largest investment is expected to be made by Duluth Metals, which expects to pay $800 million to get up and running, most of it for construction, Sandri said.
His company expects to produce 100.2 million pounds of copper and 23.8 million pounds of nickel annually as well as substantial amounts of the other metals. The mine has a potential life of 74 years, he said.
Duluth Metals, which will mine underground, still is in the exploration stage.
Franconia Minerals also is exploring for many of the same minerals under Birch Lake and expected originally to realize 100 million tons of metals from development of an underground mine there, said Bill Brice, Franconia’s director of government and community relations. However, now it appears it is going to be “substantially more than that,” he said. The company also owns two other potential mining sites nearby, but probably won’t develop them in the next few years.
Capital costs for developing the first two mines and a hydrometallurgical plant, concentrator and other portions of the project are expected to be more than $600 million. Brice estimated the project will need 1,000 construction workers and 550 permanent employees.
Part of the Birch Lake property is on state School Trust Fund land, which the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources has estimated will yield $1.4 billion over the next 20 to 25 years to be invested for public schools, Brice said after the presentation. However, “It will take longer than that for all this to happen,” he added.
PolyMet is further ahead than the other two projects and, if developed, will be a two-and-a-half-mile-long open pit mine called NorthMet. It is in the midst of the permitting process and if the environmental impact statement is completed by the end of June, permits could be in place to begin construction in January 2009, said Joe Scipioni, president and CEO of PolyMet.
Because it has bought the plant and tailings basin from the former LTV Steel Mining Co., it will rebuild much of the equipment there, including locomotives, hoppers, concentrators and crushers, Scipioni said.
PolyMet’s technology will require half the energy of other processing methods, he said. The small amount of sulfur taken from the ground, which in some mining operations has created environmental disasters, will be neutralized and made into synthetic gypsum board, he said.
Even without new construction for every aspect of the operation, the company expects to spend $380 million on construction and need 250 construction workers for two years, he said. The company already has a project labor agreement and will use union labor, Scipioni said. PolyMet would employ 400 permanent workers.
At least three other companies, Encampment Resources, Kennecott Exploration and Teck Cominco, also are exploring for nonferrous metals in Northeastern Minnesota.