PolyMet: Progress, But It’s Slow
‘It’s taking longer to go through the schedule’
By CHARLES RAMSAY - (Mesabi Daily News) 02/02/12
HOYT LAKES — Progress in the long environmental review process for PolyMet Mining Corp. continues to be made, but it is taking
longer to reach milestones in the review.
That’s the assessment of LaTisha Gietzen, PolyMet vice president of public, governmental and environmental affairs.
“THERE ARE NO PROJECT IMPEDIMENTS,” she said Wednesday. “It’s taking longer to go through the schedule.” Environmental modeling is currently the most important ongoing part of the reviews, Gietzen added. “Quality assurance reviews have taken a little
longer.”
A preliminary review and comment period is expected this summer, with the supplemental draft environmental impact statement out by fall. The final EIS is expected out in the first half of 2013, and permits shortly after that, she said.
Four draft chapters of the nine chapters of the EIS, more than 400
pages, have been completed and are under review now by lead state and federal agencies, including the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Forest Service and as a cooperating agency, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Generation, verification, review and documentation of data are part of the environmental modeling.
Other recent milestones and approvals that have been ACHIEVED:
air emission estimates, visibility, fiber impact and acid deposition evaluations; geotechnical stability modeling wetlands
impacts and mitigation plans; hazardous materials assessments and
updated project description, mine plan, reclamation and waste disposal plans.
A draft EIS completed in November 2009 was broadened to a draft
supplemental EIS after the U.S. Forest Service joined the review and the U.S. EPA became involved.
All comments on the draft EIS have been evaluated, a land exchange
between PolyMet and the U.S. Forest Service has been accomplished, and changes to reduce environmental impacts and enhance economics have been incorporated, a PolyMet news release said.
“It’s a combination of a lot of different things,” Gietzen explained. If permits are granted, PolyMet would proceed with the first non-ferrous mining operation in Minnesota, processing copper, nickel and precious metals such as platinum and palladium.
The company completely owns the development-stage NorthMet ore-body and nearby Erie Plant, located near Hoyt Lakes on the Mesabi Iron Range.
