The owner of the White Pine North has filed all major permit applications for the proposed mine, according to a Sept. 21 news release.

"White Pine North is exactly the kind of asset the U.S. copper market needs right now: a large, high-grade deposit in one of the best-understood copper districts in North America, with a clear and capital-efficient path to production,” said Cheryl Brandon, co-founder of Kinterra, in the news release. “Domestic demand for copper is climbing at the same time domestic supply has been shrinking, and we believe White Pine North can become one of the largest new sources of American-mined copper."

The White Pine North is a brownfield project on the site of the old White Pine copper mine, about 15 miles southwest of Ontonagon, in the western Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The mine site is approximately 5 miles south, and upstream, of Lake Superior.

White Pine Copper LLC, a subsidiary of Toronto-based Kinterra Capital, has applied for mining, wetland, water discharge, dam safety and air quality permits for the mine project.

The Michigan Dept. of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) will manage the permits under delegation from the federal government. Michigan is one of only two states that have that authority. You can access the permit documents on the MiEnviro and EGLE GRMD websites.

The new mine would create an estimated 800 jobs and would generate at least $350 million in severance tax revenue, according to a corporate website.

The mining permit application indicates that the White Pine North could be as much as 4,000 feet deep at full build-out, well below the original White Pine mine, which extended about 2,700 feet below the surface.

An on-site mill would process the ore and it would be shipped out by truck as a concentrate to a transload in Champion, Mich. It would then go by rail to Canada for smelting and refining, according to current plans.

The proposed wetland permit would allow White Pine Copper to fill 16.6 acres of wetlands out of 290 acres in the assessed area. Most of the affected wetlands would be very small; the largest is 6.8 acres, according to the permit application.

White Pine Copper proposes to mitigate the loss of wetlands by creating 25 acres of new wetlands at the mine site.

“The limited wetland disturbance associated with the project is not expected to cause an unacceptable disruption to aquatic resources and should be considered acceptable," White Pine Copper said in its permit application.

The White Pine North ore-processing mill is expected to generate 147 million tons of tailings over the 26-year projected mine life. The new tailings would be placed on top of the 150 million tons of tailings that were produced by the original White Pine mine.

According to the TDF Permit Modification Report, two legacy tailings basins would be reused. North Pond 1 covers approximately 1,870 acres and has an embankment length of 7.5 miles. North Pond 2 covers approximately 2,400 acres and has a 5.5 mile embankment.

The White Pine North would produce thickened paste tailings, which would reduce the amount of free liquid in the tailings ponds. This would lower the risk of a catastrophic liquid dam breach, according to the TDF permit filing.

The thickened tailings would be pumped through a pipeline up to 4.6 miles from the ore-processing mill to the deposition sites. The high initial pumping pressure would decline with increasing distance from the mill.

Spillways would release untreated contact water into the environment during extreme storms to prevent embankment overtopping. The design includes spillways sized to pass a 1,000-year 24-hour storm for North Pond 1 and half the Probable Maximum Flood for North Pond 2.

The TDF Permit Modification Report states that the existing tailings pond embankments are adequate to handle the anticipated 147 million tons of new tailings, with the exception of the northwest embankment of North Pond 1. The report recommends considering buttressing the embankment with 16,042 cubic meters of waste rock or clay to provide “an adequate factor of safety against failure.” The existing dams are high enough to accommodate the anticipated tailings load and would not need to be raised any higher, according to the report.

Highland Copper and its parent company, Kinterra Capital, estimate that it would cost at least $906 million to build the White Pine North and bring it into full operation.

That’s well below the multi-billion dollar capital requirements of the largest proposed mega-projects in the American West and Alaska.

The project would have an estimated financial value of $821 million over its 26-year lifespan, according to corporate documents. In finance, this is known as the "After-Tax Net Present Value,” which is defined as the projected net cash flow, discounted for the time value of money and project risks.

A “go no-go” decision on the White Pine North is expected in 2027, with an anticipated 2030 start-up date.

White Pine Copper, LLC, was given the opportunity to comment on this report and provided some factual corrections, which were incorporated here.

Highland Copper Company, Inc., is looking for money to build the proposed Copperwood mine in Gogebic County, Mich.

It’s putting together what mine developers call a “funding stack” — several different forms of investment that, all together, add up to the total project cost.

Here’s the mix that Highland’s pursuing:

The state has come through with its share: $50 million from the Michigan Strategic Fund.

Highland CEO Barry O’Shea calls the state grant “a strong endorsement of the project’s potential to deliver meaningful economic benefits to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.”

However, the grant’s been challenged by mine opponents. Tom Grotewohl of Protect the Porkies, the primary opposition group, has vowed to fight the grant in court and is looking to crowd-fund $50,000 to support the effort. A donor has agreed to match that amount if Protect the Porkies makes its goal, according to Grotewohl.

The legal basis for a lawsuit against the $50 million remains to be seen. Mine opponents say the grant did not go through the normal approval process, and ignores the will of the people and state lawmakers.

Over 470,000 people have signed an online petition opposing the mine and the grant. The petition drive was launched by Protect the Porkies on the Change.org website.

Highland needs to complete a feasibility study for the Copperwood mine to secure the rest of the money it needs for the project. The study is expected to be done late this year or early in 2027, and would provide crucial information about the viability of the project for lenders and investors.

Remember the Magic Eight Ball?

“Can’t predict now,” or a similar answer, is what you’d get today if you asked it, “will the Back Forty mine ever get built?”

It’s been 22 years and counting since Aquila Resources proposed the Back Forty gold and zinc mine west of Stephenson, Mich., and just up the road from the Shakey Lakes County Park.

Goldgroup Mining Inc. owns the Back Forty now, but hasn’t decided yet whether it will pursue the project.

The mine would be located in a pristine section of the Menominee River populated by sturgeon and smallmouth bass. Both sides of the river are listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Anaem Omot cultural landscape because the Menominee Indian tribe lived there for thousands of years before settlers arrived and removed them to a reservation in Wisconsin. Much evidence of the tribe’s long tenure at the site remains, including burial mounds, ceremonial dance rings, and raised garden beds.

Aquila Resources USA, Inc., a Goldgroup subsidiary, has filed a Wetland Identification Application with the Michigan Dept. of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy. The Sept. 4 filing asks EGLE to confirm a wetlands inventory for the proposed Back Forty mine west of Stephenson, Michigan.

The inventory is a first step toward submission of a wetland permit for the proposed mine, which would be located on the east bank of the Menominee River, on the ancestral lands of the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin.

The request and related documents can be downloaded at the MiEnviro website.

The Coalition to SAVE the Menominee River, Inc., held a public meeting in Marinette, Wisc., on Sept. 24.

In a written statement, the Coalition vowed to scrutinize any regulatory filings by Goldgroup “to identify mine-related threats to the Menominee River and related resources, including municipal water supplies of Menominee, Mich., and Marinette, Wisc.”

Protect the Porkies and Native Americans joined on Oct. 4 to close out a resistance encampment near the proposed Copperwood mine. The906Report was there, and a complete report will be posted soon.

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A paid version of Google Gemini AI was used to facilitate research for this newsletter post.