3/4/2025

GOGEBIC COUNTY - The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy has issued an air quality permit to Highland Copper for the proposed Copperwood Mine, which is another step in allowing the project to move forward. The air quality permit is meant to ensure projects like the mine meet rules and regulations to protect public health and the environment, requiring additional testing of emissions from mine vents, as well as the emissions from emergency generators tht run on natural gas and off-gas formaldehyde. Those tests will be required, and the state will be allowed to conduct that testing at any time. The permitting process for the mine is now considered complete, but there is still the hurdle of funding, including a $50 million state grant that is currently waiting to be reconsidered, after the Senate Appropriations Committee failed to pass it last year.