PolyMet preview
Overflow crowds attend open house for nonferrous mining outfit
By CHARLES RAMSAY
Regional Editor
Published: Friday, August 21, 2009 12:38 AM CDT
HOYT LAKES — Standing room only at a jobs and training session and an overflow parking lot being used on Thursday were just two indicators of interest in PolyMet’s second annual open house.
The event at the Hoyt Lakes Arena was only an hour old, and visitors were “already using the overflow parking lot,” said PolyMet Vice President LaTisha Gietzen.
Last year’s open house, which drew 1,200 people, filled up only the regular lot. A free hourly bus tour of the grounds and plant of the old LTV Mining facility, part of which PolyMet has acquired for its use, were signed up through the afternoon. Sessions were different this year, focusing on jobs, investing, community leaders and contractors and vendors.
“I think there’s a lot of people interested in PolyMet,” Gietzen added.
At the jobs session, PolyMet officials and Sue Collins, head of the five Minnesota community colleges in the area, gave information on some of the different training and skills programs available.
Both education and area mining officials worked together on course topics to train new workers, Collins said. “This curriculum was designed by business and industry,” she told the overflow audience, part of which was lined up along the back wall of the room and out the door.
The proposed Iron Range plant would be the first nonferrous facility in Minnesota, processing copper, nickel, cobalt, palladium and platinum.
PolyMet is in the draft stage of its environmental impact statement, with a final EIS due in the second quarter of 2010. If that is approved, then permits from the state could be expected to follow, followed by 12-15 months of construction and production starting by the third quarter of 2011, Gietzen said.
A total of 400 permanent, high-quality jobs would be created, with more than 500 spin-off jobs among vendors and others. Total economic impact on St. Louis County alone is estimated at $242 million annually.
PolyMet has spent more than $20 million just on environmental review, when the scoping process began in March 2004 for final approval. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are lead agencies on the joint EIS.
While some environmental groups and legislators have raised concerns and issues, most notably during last year’s session, about the project, Gietzen believes all that has been answered in the last four years of review.
“I think agencies want to have a thorough and comprehensive document,” she said.
The closed-circuit hydrometallurgical process to be used in extracting nonferrous metals would have zero surface water discharge, and a weak sulfate solution left over would be mixed with limestone to produce gypsum and treated water.
The financial end of the project is in good hands, with the Glencore firm of Switzerland being a partner. Prices are still high enough to cover costs on metals that would be extracted, with a three-month average ending July 31 for copper being $2.25 a pound (cost, $1.05/lb.), to platinum going for $1,176 an ounce (cost, $632/oz.).
AI
