Environmentalists cheer as budget passes without controversial funds for UP mine • Michigan Advance

When the state parliament finalized the budget for the 2025 fiscal year at the end of June, environmentalists praised the exclusion of funds for a controversial mining project as a success for nature conservation.

On March 26, the Michigan Strategic Fund board approved $50 million for Copperwood Resources Inc. to build the Copperwood Mine in Wakefield and Ironwood townships. While the mine is expected to create 380 jobs in the Western Upper Peninsula, tribal members, environmentalists and some residents of surrounding communities have raised concerns about the mine’s environmental impact.

According to a Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) fact sheet on the project, the project involves building a tunnel under the westernmost part of Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park.

UP coalition raises concerns about $50 million Michigan Strategic Fund grant to Copperwood Mine

The mine’s tailings pond, which is designed to hold waste from mining, is located on a slope down to Lake Superior. If the dam breaks, the lake could be contaminated by heavy metals in the mine’s tailings pond. Protect the Porkies, a nonprofit organization opposing the project, also pointed to the danger of acidic mine water, in which sulfide tailings ponds combine with air and water to form sulfuric acid, which dissolves heavy metals and leach them into groundwater and surface water.

The organization also raised concerns about mining emissions that release heavy metals into the air and nearby waterways, where they accumulate in wildlife.

Because the Copperwood Mine is located in territory ceded under the 1842 Treaty of La Pointe, any potential contamination would jeopardize the Anishinaabe’s treaty rights to hunt, fish and gather in the ceded territory.

Protect the Porkies also pointed out that the North Country Trail – a 4,800-mile trail system recently added to the national park system – would border a 323-acre landfill.

Highland Copper has already completed environmental impact assessments for the mine, including diverting water around the tailings pond and creating a compensatory wetland to offset wetland impacts.

Despite the threat to natural resources and indigenous sovereignty, supporters of the project tout its potential economic benefits. Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s office stated that the project would help source copper for the mobility and cleantech industries and generate more than $15 million in local, regional, state and federal revenue annually, as well as a $130 million increase in business spending across the state.

For the appropriations transfer to move forward, both the House and Senate Appropriations Committees must approve the $50,000 grant. While members of the House Appropriations Committee voted 21-5 in favor of the appropriation, the matter was never brought to a vote in the Senate Appropriations Committee after hearing witnesses on May 22. Because of this, the funds could not be included in the state budget.

When asked if the Senate would continue the debate on the transfer, Rosie Jones, a spokeswoman for Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks (D-Grand Rapids), said in an email: Advance payment She had no further information at that time.

In his Legislative report The Michigan chapter of the Sierra Club, issued after the state legislature began its summer recess, called the lack of funding for the mining project a success.