The state Court of Appeals has affirmed Minnesota's rules governing hard-rock mining, delivering a blow to environmentalists who challenged them as too vague to protect the state's natural resources for a new era of excavation on the Iron Range.
The case was the first legal test of Minnesota's environmental rules for the industry, as two international minerals firms prepare to build the first copper-nickel mines in Minnesota's water-rich northeast. Hard-rock mining carries much greater environmental risks than the iron ore and taconite mines that have long dominated the region.
In an unanimous opinion issued Monday, the appellate judges said their focus was limited to whether a chapter of rules governing nonferrous mining, issued by the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR), exceeded statutory authority or violates constitutional provisions. It doesn't, the three-judge panel concluded.
"Petitioners' true complaint appears to be that chapter 6132 does not impose more specific and universal limitations on nonferrous mining," they wrote. "This complaint is more appropriately directed to the Legislature or the DNR."
DNR Deputy Commissioner Barb Naramore issued a statement saying the agency is pleased the judges affirmed the rules, which were developed with significant public input in the early 1990s.
"We continue to believe that the current nonferrous rules fundamentally provide an effective framework for implementing our regulatory responsibilities and ensuring protection for public health and the environment," Naramore said.
Jon Cherry, president and chief executive of PolyMet Mining Corp., which is first in line to open a copper-nickel mine in the state, said in a statement that Minnesota's rules are among the strictest in the world. "We demonstrated through the extensive environmental review and permitting process that we can meet or exceed these standards," Cherry added.
The conservation groups who challenged the rules were not swayed by the decision.
