REGIONAL– NewRange Copper Nickel has filed a wetlands filling permit application with the Army Corps of Engineers for a mine plan that includes significant changes from the one originally proposed by PolyMet Mining.
According to the company, the new application for mining of the NorthMet deposit, includes changes intended to address concerns about downstream water quality, including changes to water management and tailings disposal. The permit includes several updates to the planned mine, including an increase in the rate of production from 32,000 tons per day to 40,000 tons per day, as well as a decrease in the mine’s lifespan from 20 to 16 years. To increase the rate of production, the new proposal includes a covered conveyor belt between the mine site and the plant site, as well as changes to the layout of the mine and plant. The new proposal also calls for disposal of tailings in nearby former iron-ore pits rather than in the existing LTV taconite tailings basin, which the 2019 proposal sought to expand.
NewRange Copper Nickel, a joint venture involving international commodities brokerage Glencore (which owns PolyMet) and Canada-based Teck Resources, filed for the new application on July 29. It would replace the permit issued by the Army Corps in March 2019, which was later revoked by the Environmental Protection Agency after it determined the mine would not meet water quality rules adopted by the Fond du Lac Band, located downstream.
While the new proposal would slightly increase wetland impact over the original plan, the company is arguing that a 2023 Supreme Court ruling in Sackett v. EPA, removes most of the wetland acreage expected to be impacted by the mine from federal jurisdiction. The original 2019 permit authorized 901 acres of direct wetland impacts and 27 acres of indirect impacts. The new application states that 950 acres of wetlands will be impacted, but the Army Corps would have jurisdiction over just 50 acres of that total. That would include 36 acres at the mine site, 11.5 acres at the plant sit, and 2.9 acres along the transportation/utility corridor.
Jurisdiction changes
At the federal level, the Corps’ decision could be drastically impacted by changes to wetland jurisdiction resulting from the Sackett decision. Under the new standard, wetlands must have a continuous surface connection to “relatively permanent” waters to be considered “U.S. waters” that are subject to federal jurisdiction.
Wetlands that fall outside federal jurisdiction may instead be regulated under state law. The DNR is separately reviewing the proposed changes to determine what level of environmental review will be needed to advance the project.