Located in northern Minnesota, Twin Metals Minnesota’s 32,000 acres of property interests are roughly 10 miles to the east of Babbitt, Minn. and about 15 miles to the southeast of Ely, Minn. Within this area are three NI 43-101 compliant mineral deposits: Maturi, Spruce Road and Birch Lake.
A mining project of this magnitude is brought to life through a multi-year systematic process involving multiple public, private and local, state and federal government stakeholders. After the strategic metals deposits were better defined by Duluth Metals Limited, the company formed a partnership with Antofagasta PLC, and together they founded Twin Metals Minnesota LLC in January 2010.
In February 2011, Twin Metals Minnesota acquired Franconia Minerals Corporation, effectively doubling Twin Metal Minnesota’s mineral and land assets, providing the opportunity for greater efficiency and maximum environmental protection for the project. During the summer of 2011, Twin Metals Minnesota completed a mine project conceptual study, evaluating possible environmental, operational and economic issues, with the most viable options moving to the next phase of project development.
Twin Metal Minnesota launched the project’s prefeasibility study (PFS) in October 2011. The PFS is being led by a team from Bechtel Mining & Minerals, a member of the world-leading engineering, construction and project management firm. Targeted for completion in 2013, the PFS will evaluate project details such as potential environmental impacts, environmental protection strategies, mine engineering and design, proper mine processing technologies, potential facility locations, and estimated economic impacts such as job creation, royalties and tax revenues. The PFS will provide a detailed project proposal that will be subject to rigorous, thorough and lengthy environmental review by multiple state and federal regulatory agencies.
Throughout the project development process, Twin Metals Minnesota will be conducting “in-fill” drilling, focused on better defining the scope, depth and breadth of the targeted ore deposits. In-fill drilling information is critical to the process of properly engineering the proposed underground mine and for determining all the project details that are the subject of the PFS. Other activities currently underway include metallurgical testing of strategic metal ore samples and the collection of environmental baseline data used to characterize specific chemical, physical, biological or environmental components of the study area.
