Keweenaw Report Your Source for Local News and Sports
Officials from Highland Copper Company say they are optimistic about the chance to mine in the Upper Peninsula.
The company has been testing samples of copper from a site near the Porcupines Mountains Wilderness Park.
They are currently working on a feasibility study to see how much copper is in the site and how can it be safely and efficiently mined.
“We learned that there is copper there, basically, and good quality,” said Carlos Bertoni, vice president of Highland Copper Company. “We need to know what mass, how many tons of material we have and what’s the quality.”
After a month of work, Bertoni says they have outlined around 30 million tons of rock that have an average of 1.6 percent copper.
Officials from the company say they estimate around 300 jobs will be created directly by the mine.
However, Highland CEO and President Denie Miville–Deschenes says three or four times that many jobs will come from stores, contractors and other organizations supporting the mine.
Additionally, he said that the company wants to close on the White Pine property and begin looking for other locations.
“We will at the same time work the White Pine Project, do a scoping study, define the approach of this one,” Miville–Deschenes said. “That’s gonna be our growth plan once we put Copperwood in production.”
The original story and video by ABC-10’s Matt Miller can be viewed here.
