Polymet Mining Corp (PLM)

[Z-Axis]

Mesabi Daily News phone interview with Mr. Cherry...

http://www.virginiamn.com/mine/polymet-slow-and-steady-progress/article_c0f4df72-f885-11e6-86c9-5fd60519e403.html

Hopefully we hear something soon from the powers that be, otherwise, see you in the .70's...

GL all,
zenner

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Jon Cherry took little time pondering the question and his response.

After all, he’s heard the same query repeatedly the last few years. And his answers have varied only when significant project updates were inserted from time to time.

“Obviously we wish it would be going faster,” Cherry said in a recent telephone interview from company Twin Cities offices, regarding final permitting work for the PolyMet copper/nickel/precious metals venture near Hoyt Lakes and Babbitt.

“But the process is being followed, and it will be very good — the best — when done,” he added.

Cherry is a well-tempered and patient man. Good thing for that.

If not, the PolyMet president and CEO would have surely been given to four-letter word tirades.

Or, put another way: If such slow and stringent approval would have been needed to extract minerals to build the country, horses would have been regularly shoed and wagon wheels fixed well beyond their commercial life expediency.

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The project holds great job and financial promise for the Iron Range — especially the east end, which has been economically devastated ever since LTV Mining shut down in 2001.

Here’s a snapshot look at the project:

• Total cost: $650 million, according to independent analysts.

• NorthMet: Part of the Duluth Complex; it contains copper, nickel, cobalt, platinum, palladium, gold and silver. It holds 275 million tons of reserves grading 0.79 percent copper equivalent. Total mineral resource: 694 million tons.

• Ownership and control: PolyMet controls 100 percent of the NorthMet ore body.

• Production: Annually: 72 million pounds of copper; 15.4 million pounds of nickel; 720,000 pounds of cobalt; 106 troy ounces of precious metals.

• Environmental commitment: Facilities designed to comply with state and federal standards.

• Mining: Open pit to a depth of approximately 700 feet below surface. Current permits sought would be for a 20-year period to process 250 million tons of ore.

• Processing: Ore will be transported about six miles west by rail to the former Erie/LTV Mining site.

• Jobs/financials: 360 permanent workers; 600 indirect positions. Will generate $515 million annually for St. Louis County; $15 million annually in state and local tax revenues; $45 million in federal payroll tax revenue. More than $280 million has already been invested.

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The PolyMet permitting process remains agonizingly slow.

But Cherry said the federal land exchange, recently approved by the U.S. Forest Service, provides good momentum and is critical to the project’s success.

Here are details of the land exchange given the green light in December 2016:

• Forest Service will acquire 6,690 acres of private land to become part of the Superior National Forest.

• PolyMet will acquire 6,650 acres of surface land over the mineral deposit the company owns.

“I believe in looking at the big picture. The land exchange was very big for the project,” Cherry said.

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PolyMet received a $30 million infusion in 2016 that should see the project through the permitting process, Cherry said.

Once final permitting is reached, a 24-month timeframe to production will be required.

That would culminate a long and controversial road for the project.

Work on PolyMet’s first environmental impact statement began in 2005. Four years later it was determined by environmental agencies to be a flop.

“It received the lowest rating possible. A step back was needed,” Cherry said.

The project was struggling to stay alive in 2012. That’s when Cherry, who holds a degree in environmental engineering, stepped into right-track the venture.

Cherry brought instant credibility to the project.

A copper/nickel underground Eagle Mine in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula has been operating for about two years. Cherry was instrumental in getting it up and producing.

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Projections for a copper shortage in 2020 continue to bode well for PolyMet.

“That will be very, very good for us,” Cherry said.

As for nickel, PolyMet will be only the second mine in the United States to produce that mineral, with Eagle the other one.

PolyMet’s stock price has fluctuated pretty much between 75 cents and 90 cents the past few months. It was at 87 cents on Feb. 10.

“We got a nice bump when the land exchange was announced, but the real value is in the ground,” Cherry said, referring to production of the minerals.

Cherry also said an immeasurable value for the project comes through community support.

“We can never say enough for all the local support. It’s been incredible,” Cherry said.