TAMARACK, MINN.— A Northern harrier hovered low over the wild rice stalks covering Rice Lake in mid-August, riding the thermals as it hunted for prey.
Rice Lake, part of a National Wildlife Refuge northeast of Lake Mille Lacs, is one of the richest rice beds harvested by the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe. And this year, the pending harvest looks promising.
“We’re right in the center of the most abundant area of wild rice,” said Kelly Applegate, commissioner of the Mille Lacs Band’s department of natural resources.
The flowing wetlands near Mille Lacs are home to some of the world’s best natural wild rice beds, Applegate said as he gestured over Rice Lake. Wild rice — manoomin in Ojibwe — is a sacred staple food for the Indigenous Anishinaabe people of the Great Lakes region. It requires clean, flowing water to grow.
A proposed mining project a few miles from Rice Lake could put manoomin and other natural resources at risk, the Mille Lacs Band fears. The Tamarack Mine is a joint venture between the Talon Metals Corp. and the international mining corporation Rio Tinto, which wants to extract nickel from deep beneath the Earth’s surface.
The mine aims to meet the demand for nickel sparked by the transition to a cleaner economy. The metal is used in electric vehicle batteries and to create high-performance alloys used in wind turbines and solar panels. It is also the key ingredient in stainless steel.
The Mille Lacs Band and Minnesota environmentalists are concerned about the project’s potential impacts. Nickel mining is known to cause significant water pollution. If pollutants were to enter the flowing waters of central Minnesota, it could be devastating, Applegate said.
“We still hunt, fish and gather like we’ve done for millenia, and those things are under threat from this proposal,” he said. “The mining companies coming in are just interested in the financial gain. We’re not convinced they genuinely care about the Earth and those resources.”
The project is approaching a key stage of its environmental review process with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. The DNR is expected to release a scoping document in early 2026 that will determine the topics to be thoroughly studied during environmental review.
Jessica Johnson, Talon Metals’ vice president of external affairs, said she knows there’s legitimate fear based on the ecological history of mining, and a long way to go to build trust.
“We want to listen to concerns, and we want to address those concerns in mine design,” Johnson said. “If society is wanting to shift away from being a fossil-fuel dependent energy system, there needs to be a different source.”
“Water knows no boundaries”
Hundreds of millions of years ago, rich formations of magma flowed underneath the Earth’s crust. As magma bodies dwindled, mountains like Minnesota’s Sawtooth Mountains were formed, according to Nathan Manser, professor of geology and mining at Northern Michigan University. Some empty magma chambers collapsed, like the one that formed Lake Superior. Glaciers moved across and receded from the land, providing bedrock access to minerals formed by the magma.
In northeastern Minnesota, northern Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, those magma formations left behind deposits of precious metals, including nickel and copper. Above them are pristine wetlands and forests.
“There’s quite a bit of knowledge about where these deposits are,” Manser said.
Mining is an inefficient process that must cut through and extract tons of waste rock to access the valuable minerals. The nickel at Tamarack is surrounded by sulfide waste rock, which oxidizes when exposed to air and water and forms acid mine drainage. This battery-acid-like compound can cause major water pollution.
The potential for acidic pollution damage to wetlands that are part of the Mississippi River watershed is concerning, Applegate said. The water table is high in the area, and wetlands flow into and out of each other.
“Water really knows no boundaries,” he said.
The mine would be located near the Mille Lacs Band’s District 2, a group of Ojibwe communities north and east of Lake Mille Lacs.
But the tribe wasn’t consulted about placing the mine nearby.
“We were never asked,” Applegate said.
Near several District 2 facilities lies the McGregor Marsh, a bog that is home to rare birds like the yellow rail and Nelson’s sparrow. Butterflies and bees hover on goldenrod and milkweed emerging from the swamp. The marsh and the wildlife it supports are sensitive to changes in water level, according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.
“Just one slight change to the water quality can offset the entire thing,” Applegate said.
Worth protecting
Talon Metals says it plans to extract nickel deep underground and minimize the amount of time waste rock spends on the surface to protect the environment.
The Tamarack mine’s environmental assessment process began in 2023. Johnson said the company has incorporated measures to address concerns over waste rock acid pollution into its design.
Talon’s original design featured an exposed surface area that would have made waste rock dust vulnerable to rain or snow, Johnson said. Early comments identified that as an issue, and the company revised the plan to incorporate protections for large storms. Commenters then asked Talon for plans to keep the waste rock dust from leaving the site for up to a 500-year storm event, she said.
Now Talon’s plan is to build a facility around the mine’s tunnel exit that would enclose the area entirely in an attempt to prevent any infiltration of stormwater or waste rock exposure to the air.
“What we’re hopeful for as a team is for people to see that we are trying,” Johnson said. “We recognize that these types of changes that we’ve made might not be enough for everybody.”
Tamarack’s high-quality nickel deposit lies deep beneath the Earth’s surface, Manser said. That depth is an advantage ecologically. Nickel mining in Indonesia has resulted in severe water pollution because those deposits are geologically younger and closer to the surface, he said.
“Underground mining is very attractive because it can be so precise,” Manser said.
With more work done below ground, waste rock is exposed to air for less time, decreasing the risk for acid drainage pollution, he said.
Manser believes mining can be done well, and that modern technology and regulations make it safer. But it carries risks that make for a difficult tradeoff, he said, and it’s not easy to get all parties to agree.
“The thing with deposits is they are where they are, and that one is close to several areas that are unique and worth protecting,” Manser said.
Joy Anderson, an attorney with the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, believes the tradeoffs aren’t worth it. Nickel mining has had severe water pollution impacts globally, she said.
“It’s very dangerous, it’s very polluting, and the danger doesn’t go away,” she said.
The mining industry will be paying close attention to the Tamarack project as it goes through the environmental review process. If the project does move forward, and successfully extracts nickel in a way that is profitable and ecologically friendly, other deposits in the region may be pursued, Manser said.
“I think the spotlight’s on Tamarack in a lot of ways,” Manser said.
The Mille Lacs Band is trying to raise awareness about the Tamarack project. The tribe is leading an initiative called Water Over Nickel, which seeks to share information about nickel mining and potential environmental impacts.
The campaign conducted a survey this year that found 86% of Minnesotans say protecting clean water is very important and 95% say clean water must be protected for future generations. The same survey found just 58% of people know about nickel mining’s water pollution risk and only 16% of Minnesotans have heard about the Tamarack mine.
Tribal involvement in environmental review
Environmental review for the Tamarack mine is ongoing. The scoping document to be released early next year will shape the remainder of the process.
That document will help focus the environmental impact statement (EIS) that the Minnesota DNR prepares for the project, according to Randall Doneen, a regulation manager in the agency’s ecological and water resources division. It will kick off the public-facing element of the state’s environmental impact process, he said.
“We put that out to the public so everyone can give us feedback,” Doneen said.
Environmentalists say it’s critical to make sure the scoping document calls for rigorous study of potential environmental issues.
“It’s important that we do that right,” Anderson said.
Michael Liljegren, assistant director for mine permitting in the DNR’s land and minerals division, said the agency’s research facility in Hibbing conducts extensive studies on waste rock that will help influence the environmental review process.
In Hibbing, the DNR is studying how samples of sulfide waste rock from different depths and deposits break down upon exposure to air and water. Determining how long it takes for such exposure to turn waste rock runoff acidic is key to setting proper regulations.
“You’re better off keeping that out of the environment,” Liljegren said.
The Tamarack project marks the first time the DNR has made space at the table for tribal governments early in the project, a welcome move, according to Applegate. It’s allowed tribes to ask questions, make comments, and do their own due diligence.
When the DNR conducted an environmental impact statement for Polymet’s proposed copper and nickel mine project in the 2000s, the agency didn’t involve tribal nations early enough, Liljegren said.
“We learned from that experience,” he said.
The Mille Lacs Band and the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa have been instrumental on the development team for the Tamarack project, Liljegren said.
Johnson said Talon Metals has appreciated the comments it has received from the bands.
“To me, that makes the project better,” she said.
‘Not a big scary mining company’
The Tamarack project is a joint venture between Talon Metals and Rio Tinto, a company based in the United Kingdom and Australia. Talon is based in the British Virgin Islands, but most of its employees are in Tamarack, Johnson said. Talon currently controls 51% of the venture, she said.
That model of a large, multinational company working with a local firm is common in major mining projects, Anderson said. Firms will often sit on deposits for years waiting for market conditions to become favorable, and are accustomed to lengthy review and permitting processes.
“These are huge, huge multi-international conglomerates that have a lot of interest in a lot of different places,” Anderson said. “Once they know the minerals are in the ground, they can be patient.”
The discovery of precious metals near Tamarack began with a state project to identify precious metals using geological surveys taken by airplanes in the 1970s, Johnson said. In the 1990s, Rio Tinto geologists began looking over state reports and focusing on the area. Official exploration of the Tamarack site began in 2002 with drilling for samples, and in 2008, nickel was found, she said.
Talon Metals joined Rio Tinto on the project in 2019. In January 2020, Talon started exploratory drilling at the Tamarack site, according to a company news release. Since then, the company has built out its team in Tamarack and regularly issues news releases about exploratory drillings that have uncovered further deposits of nickel.
“We’re not a big scary mining company,” Johnson said.
In 2023, Talon Metals entered an agreement with the U.S. Department of Defense to expand domestic nickel mining. The government contributed $20 million to encourage the company to look for more nickel deposits in Minnesota and Michigan.
‘Still exploring’
Talon’s current proposal is to mine the area for about eight years, using a method that will take up about 80 acres of land on the surface. The mine itself would go thousands of feet below ground. In addition to nickel, the site contains deposits of copper, gold, cobalt and platinum.
“We’re still exploring today, so we’re always learning more about what’s in the ground,” Johnson said.
The Mille Lacs Band and environmentalists are concerned that the project, if approved, would only be the beginning of mining in the region.
“The thing about Talon that’s really concerning is they’re really clear that this is the first step of what they want to do there,” Anderson said.
Tamarack would be just the second mine focused primarily on nickel in the county, Manser said. The first, Eagle Mine, located on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, has many geological similarities to Tamarack, he said.
Eagle Mine has extracted nickel and copper in that area for more than 10 years.
Initially, the Eagle Mine was pitched as a seven-year undertaking, but a new deposit was found and mining continued, Manser said. (Talon is currently developing plans for a nickel mine less than 5 miles from the Eagle Mine project in Michigan, Johnson said.)
The DNR is currently evaluating the specific project proposed by Talon. Any large-scale addition to the proposed project would require another round of environmental review, Doneen said.
“We treat them like brand new proposals,” Doneen said.
Long way forward
Although the site has been explored for years, the project is a long way from formal approval. The scoping document release will be followed by a public comment period, and then the document will be finalized. Then comes the preparation phase for the environmental impact statement, which is also followed by a draft statement that’s made available for public comment before being finalized, receiving another batch of public comments and a determination of adequacy.
Environmental review needs to be finalized before permits could be issued by state and federal agencies. The process could take years.
Johnson said Talon Metals hopes to begin formal mine construction by the end of 2027.
Applegate says his job is to ensure that future generations of Mille Lacs Band members can enjoy clean and protected natural resources. If the mine is approved and operates in the area for a decade, there will be a need to constantly monitor the impact on surrounding air and water quality as it could take years for the full impacts to reveal themselves, he said.
“We want to know what, ultimately, this project is going to look like,” Applegate said.
