PolyMet owns 100% of the NorthMet Project, the first large-scale project to be permitted within the Duluth Complex in northeastern Minnesota, one of the world’s major, undeveloped mining regions.
NorthMet could become one of the leading producers of nickel, palladium and cobalt in the US
NorthMet has significant proven and probable reserves of copper, nickel and palladium – in addition to marketable reserves of cobalt, platinum and gold – and would become Minnesota’s first copper-nickel mine.
When operational, NorthMet will become one of the leading producers of nickel, palladium and cobalt in the US, Polymet said, providing a responsibly mined source of critical metals.
The decision ends the only federal court challenge to PolyMet’s water quality permit. However, PolyMet continues to litigate that permit in the Minnesota Court of Appeals, in part to defend a favorable Ramsey County District Court decision last fall finding that the permit was not the result of procedural irregularities.
The federal court’s decision separately allowed the Band to proceed with claims that EPA should have notified the Band about the PolyMet project’s potential to affect the Band’s reservation, which lies 70 miles downstream. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has said that the project will have no effect that far downstream.
