A few ways in which these characteristics are showcased are through Porcupine Mountains State Park, located on Lake Superior near Ontonagon, and the North Country Trail, the longest National Scenic Trail in the US and a recently designated piece of the National Parks System. Unfortunately, with natural beauty also often comes resource extraction, and the Superior watershed has been plagued with more than its fair share of mines, logging operations, and more.
The Copperwood Project is a proposed copper sulfide mine at the juncture of Porcupine Mountains State Park, the North Country Trail, and Lake Superior. It would be the closest sulfide mine to Lake Superior in history, with plans to mine up to 100 feet from the lake’s surface. It also plans to host operations directly adjacent to and mine underneath the Presque Isle Scenic Area of the park.
The proposed mine’s average ore grade is only 1.5%, which means that 1.5% of what they pull out if the ground will be copper, and the rest will be sulfide-bearing mine waste that will need to be stored, onsite, permanently. To do so, the mining company is currently destroying wetlands to construct a 320-acre tailings pond to hold the waste, which will sit approximately 2 miles from the Lake Superior shoreline on terrain sloping toward the lake.
Further, the immediate area in Ontonagon and Gogebic counties has seen two separate severe, 1-in-1,000-year storms in the past decade which have caused significant damage to roads, bridges, and infrastructure (1, 2). This tailings pond is designed to withstand only 1-in-100-year storms (see comment 52), which are much less severe; this makes a rupture of the tailings dam very likely to fail.
This model from the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission (GLIFWC) shows the path of destruction when the western portion of the dam collapses.
A study done in 2012 found that, of the 14 copper sulfide mines producing nearly all copper in the United States, 92% failed to contain seepage, and every single one spilled toxic waste into the surrounding environment. Some like to refer to Marquette County’s Eagle Mine as the model for environmentally sound mining, yet even Eagle Mine has experienced spills and several instances of high levels of chronic wastewater toxicity.
Highland Copper was considered for a $50 million taxpayer-funded grant from the Michigan Strategic Fund's SOAR fund in 2024. Despite strong and abundant public comment given at MSF meetings opposing the grant, the MSF approved the grant on March 26, 2024. However, that wasn’t the end of the story for this grant – MSF’s SOAR grants also must be approved by both the Michigan House and Senate Appropriations Committees.
In June of 2024, the grant to Copperwood was passed by the Michigan House Appropriations Committee, but it met strong opposition in the Senate Appropriations Committee and failed.
It was revived in December 2024, and despite thousands of people contacting members of both committees to demand rejection of the grant, the House Committee passed it, tied to multiple other completely unrelated funding items. However, when it reached the Senate Committee, pressured by the massive public opposition and mounds of evidence contradicting Highland Copper's misleading claims, the Senate Appropriations Committee chose to separate Copperwood from the other funding requests, and pass everything but Copperwood. This was a clear message from the Senate: this project doesn't deserve our taxpayer money. Though it's possible that the grant will be revived next year under new tactics, we'll be ready with a strong peoples' movement to remind them to make the right decision.
Copperwood’s lack of funding is how we’re going to prevent the mine. Together with Protect the Porkies, we’ve compiled a list of current and potential investors we expect Highland Copper to target, and are conducting outreach to those investors to make sure they’re aware of the massive opposition to the mine and the significant concerns behind it. Sign the Change.org petition to voice your opposition to the project and show investors and state authorities that we won’t stand for the destruction of our lakeshore.
Copperwood Grant Advocacy Two-Pager
Highland Copper Information:
2024 Highland Copper Corporate Presentation
2023 Highland Copper Financial Statement
General Copperwood Information:
2023 Copperwood Feasibility Study
2024 Porcupine Mountains State Park - Copperwood Mine Factsheet
Permits:
Copperwood Wetland Impacts Permit Application
2018 Copperwood Wetland Impacts Final Permit
2018 Mining Permit Public Comments and Responses
Additional Permitting Documents via MIEnviroPortal
MSF Grant:
March 2024 (FINAL) Michigan Strategic Fund Grant Proposal and Terms
January 2024 Michigan Strategic Fund Grant Proposal and Terms