Copper exploration near Ely to be appealed

Private property owners from the Ely area will make a final appeal today to the state's top leaders to stop exploration for copper on their land, which lies in a part of the state cherished for its clean lakes and stately forests.

The state's Executive Council, made up of the governor, the attorney general and other elected officials, is holding a special meeting to hear out citizens who have been fighting the state's decision last April to sell 50-year mineral leases on their land.

Residents and cabin owners in what may become a new copper mining district near Ely say they were shocked that the state's century-old minerals law seems skewed to favor mining companies over property owners. It was also their introduction to a side of the Department of Natural Resources that they had never seen -- the one with a mission to promote mining.

Officials say they are only following the law, which gives the state rights to the copper, nickel and other valuable ore under some private property. It's all part of a century-old legal framework in Minnesota that has provided millions of dollars in mining-lease revenue for the state's public schools. Any surveying or exploratory work by mining companies, they add, must be negotiated with property owners.

Four mining companies are now looking for copper on both public and private land, and they predict that the coming boom will bring thousands of jobs to an area hungry for industry since the taconite boom ebbed.

But the region is also home to dozens of resorts and outfitters, hundreds of cabin owners and a rising number of people fulfilling a lifelong dream to retire in Minnesota's North Woods. Many of them fear that despite industry assurances to the contrary, copper-nickel mining comes with grave environmental risks.

"It's like putting a porn shop next to a church," said one landowner. "There should be some public dialogue about what we want for this area, and that doesn't seem to be happening."

DNR Commissioner Tom Landwehr said public debate will occur if and when the mining companies decide they want to mine. At that time, the state and federal government would conduct an environmental review of the proposals and, if approved, issue permits regulating the mines.