Twin Metals receives permission to proceed with exploration activities.

Twin Metals Minnesota has been given permission to proceed with its exploration for minerals by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

Construction of the project, a proposed underground copper-nickel mine near Ely, MN, was blocked by the Biden administration, but the state has approved a plan by Franconia Minerals, a subsidiary of Twin Metals, to drill several exploratory holes. Three are located on the edge of Birch Lake, which flows into the Boundary Waters.

The exploration licenses are located on private land and with this new drilling Twin Metals seeks to learn more about a deposit involving state and privately owned minerals.

Minnesota Public Radio reported that the exploration area is just a few miles from where Twin Metals had sought to build a massive $1.7 billion underground copper-nickel mine.

But those plans, which involved federal mineral leases, were blocked by the Biden administration, which first canceled Twin Metals’ leases, and later issued a 20-year moratorium on new mining activities over about 350 miles of the Superior National Forest located within the watershed of the Boundary Waters.

“The plan submitted to the DNR is solely for exploration purposes,” Dean DeBeltz, Twin Metals vice president of external relations and project operations said in a statement. “We have an ongoing commitment to gaining additional knowledge and data about our mineral resources, especially as the demand for these materials is increasing exponentially to help build the metal-intensive clean energy technologies we need to combat climate change.

Twin Metals says it’s requiring its contractors to use exhaust mufflers and other equipment to minimize noise and light pollution during the drilling. “Franconia holds valid state mineral leases for the proposed exploration locations and, in accordance with state law, has a right to conduct mineral exploration activities on properties they have leased from the state,” said DNR Lands and Minerals Director Joseph Henderson.

Read the rest in Mining Engineering online