Our water is our strength. The sulfide mine proposed by PolyMet/NewRange upstream of Lake Superior poses one of the biggest threats to freshwater in our state. If built, Polymet/NewRange would create centuries of water pollution to the Lake Superior watershed and place thousands of people who live in downstream communities at risk, including the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, Duluth, and Cloquet.
Through advocacy, litigation, and community engagement, MCEA and people all over Minnesota have kept this reckless and unlawful proposal at bay for more than twenty years.
Permits issued to PolyMet in 2018 and 2019 have been rescinded, overturned or remanded by the courts for failing to protect our natural resources and meet our state and federal environmental laws. Still, NewRange/PolyMet and the multi-national mining conglomerates who own it (Glencore and Teck) have signaled an intent to continue to push this reckless proposal on Minnesota, often using overblown and disingenuous economic and clean energy promises to try to convince Minnesotans the risks are worth the potential rewards.
But after two decades of working on this, we are clear: Twenty years of mining for 500 years of toxic pollution to Lake Superior is a bad deal for Minnesota.
Please join us. Click here to learn how you can join the movement to protect Minnesota’s water and people.
MCEA is the leading nonprofit environmental law firm in the state. For two decades we have led on lawsuits against PolyMet/NewRange’s flawed proposal and the legal strategy to prevent it from harming our people and natural resources. MCEA is also fighting the proposal at the Legislature and in the court of public opinion.
There has never been a clean sulfide mine. These operations create acid mine drainage that threaten aquatic life, groundwater, and tribal resources. The science is clear: sulfide-mining poses the risk of lasting damage to Lake Superior and the surrounding communities. Unless that reality changes, Minnesota must continue to say 'NO' to PolyMet/NewRange.
Kathryn Hoffman, MCEA Chief Executive Officer
What's At Stake?
Communities at risk
The Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, Duluth, Cloquet, and Lake Superior are all located downstream of the proposed mine, placing those communities at risk. Northern communities in the Boundary Waters watershed are at risk as well.
Climate damage
Constructing PolyMet/NewRange’s mine would trigger the largest permitted destruction of wetlands in Minnesota’s history (900 acres destroyed and another 7,000 potentially drained). Wetlands are nature’s best carbon sink and a critical force against climate change. It would also emit significant greenhouse gas emissions at a time when our state has a mandate to reduce our carbon footprint.
Unstable dam
PolyMet’s previous dam design is cheap and unstable. It’s the same "upstream" construction method that collapsed in Canada in 2014 and Brazil in 2019. Upstream dams are increasingly banned around the world. Minnesota hasn't yet addressed this failure in its laws.
Corrupt owner
Glencore, a co-owner of PolyMet/NewRange, is a Swiss-Anglo mining conglomerate convicted of bribery and marketplace manipulation in multiple jurisdictions around the world, including the US. Among its criminal acts, Glencore paid more than $100 million in bribes to officials in Nigeria, Brazil, Venezuela, and the Democratic Republic of Congo to win contracts and avoid audits.
500 years of pollution
PolyMet/NewRange claims it would actively capture and treat polluted water and maintain equipment in Minnesota for 500 years. This is not a realistic time frame for any current mining company.
Precedent setting
There are at least two other companies attempting to mine our state’s copper, nickel and sulfide ores, one in the Boundary Waters watershed, and another in the Mississippi River watershed. Whatever happens with PolyMet/NewsRange will impact the standards used to evaluate how (and whether) future sulfide mining proposals advance as well.
PolyMet would be the first ever sulfide mine in Minnesota, and allowing it would cause irreversible damage. MCEA is absolutely essential in the fight to protect our communities.
Libby Bent, Duluth for Clean Water
PolyMet/NewRange Legal Battles
Help Us Stop Sulfide Mining Pollution
With a 1700-acre open pit, tens of millions of gallons of groundwater pollution, and the largest permitted destruction of carbon-sink wetlands in Minnesota’s history, the PolyMet proposal would commit us to permanent destruction and risk -- both at levels without precedent in Minnesota. We are fully committed to protecting Minnesota from PolyMet and irresponsible sulfide-ore mining.
Mining Updates
Bob and Pat Tammen on why they support MCEA:
"Last winter Pat and I sat in a Saint Paul courtroom and watched MCEA defend our clean water from the mining industry. The environmental victory brought joy to our retirement years.
That's why we give."