Twin Metals Minnesota (TMM) reports it “is making significant progress with the design of its underground mine project.” The project will be located within the Maturi deposit approximately 14.5 km southeast of Ely and 17.7 km northeast of Babbitt. It will be outside of the state and federal mining buffer zones and outside of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, and in an area where mining is both allowed and encouraged by state and federal law.
TMM’s goal is to submit a formal project proposal to state and federal agencies for extensive environmental review within 18 months. It plans to propose the following key aspects of the preliminary project design:
- Processing approximately 20,000 t/d of mineralized ore extracted from underground
- Locating the processing site some 1.5 km south of the underground deposit
- Accessing the mine by tunnels at the processing site
- Storing about half of the tailings as permanent cemented backfill in the underground mine. The remaining tailings would be stored on a modern, lined surface tailings storage facility near the Peter Mitchell mine southwest of Babbitt and outside of the Rainy River Watershed. Testing shows the tailings would be non-acid generating
- Opening an additional office in Babbitt
- Busing mine employees from both Ely and Babbitt, minimizing traffic and maximizing employment opportunities across the region.
The mine will produce copper, nickel, platinum, palladium, gold and silver.
