ST. PAUL, Minn., June 30, 2020 – Twin Metals Minnesota today announced it has received the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Notice of Intent to scope and prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for Twin Metals’ proposed copper-nickel-cobalt-platinum group metals mine in northeast Minnesota.

The BLM notice formally initiates the scoping and environmental review process at the federal level under the National Environmental Policy Act, which will allow for a thorough analysis of the potential impacts and benefits of Twin Metals’ proposed project. Multiple federal agencies and tribal governments will be engaged in the process, and the public will have several opportunities to participate through comment periods. A parallel environmental review process will be led by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

The BLM determined Twin Metals’ proposal to be complete in late May after the company responded to comments from federal agencies on its initial mine plan submittal.

“This is a standard but significant step in the process,” said Julie Padilla, Twin Metals Chief Regulatory Officer. “It signals that the federal government is moving ahead with its regulatory review, which we expect will take a number of years to complete and should include any relevant data from previous studies. We look forward to contributing a decade’s worth of data collection and analysis to support the BLM’s process, which will also include input from the public, coordination with state and federal agencies, and tribal governments.”

Public comments will be solicited by the BLM during scoping of the EIS and after the publication of the draft EIS.

Twin Metals formally submitted its mine plan on December 18, 2019, following more than a decade of engineering, environmental and engagement work. The submittal kicked off a multi-year, multi-agency environmental review process that will thoroughly evaluate all aspects of its proposed project.