Twin Metals Dry Stack Announcement Is Great News, No Matter What The Anti-Mining Groups Say

Yesterday, Twin Metals Minnesota announced that they were going to be storing their mine waste using a dry stack storage method, which is often hailed by environmentalists as the best way to store mine tailings. Furthermore, extensive testing of the rock shows that there will be no acid mine drainage because of the low-sulfur rock that will be mined in the Duluth Complex.

One would think this would lead to celebration among environmental groups, who pretend that they would be in favor of mining if there were adequate environmental protections, but they predictably condemned the announcement because they’re not pro-environment, they are simply anti-mining.

This point is perfectly exemplified by this tweet by the “Friends of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.” This group claims that dry stack tailings storage was actually worse than Twin Metal’s original plan to use a tailings pond just outside of the Rainy River watershed. It just goes to show that it was never about the tailings storage plan, it was always about stopping the Twin Metals mine.

This isn’t surprising, really. This group’s National Chairwoman is Becky Rom, who made waves in 2017 with her disparaging comments about the citizens of northeastern Minnesota. In case the quotes aren’t fresh in your mind, you can read them below:

“Resentment is the primary driver of the pro-mining crowd here — they are resentful that other people have come here and been successful while they were sitting around waiting for a big mining company,” Carron told me. “They want somebody to just give them a job so they can all drink beer with their buddies and go four-wheeling and snowmobiling with their buddies, not have to think about anything except punching a clock.”

“We’ll never change a Dan Forsman’s mind,” Rom said. “We’ll never change his father’s mind. Because they’re not open to a conversation.”