Twin Metals plans electric vehicle fleet for mine, near Minnesota’s Boundary Waters

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Twin Metals Minnesota said Thursday that it plans to rely almost exclusively on electric vehicles for its proposed underground copper-nickel mine near Ely.

Its Chief Regulatory Officer Julie Padilla said that using electric mining and support vehicles instead of diesel vehicles will reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the mine by 65% and will reduce ventilation and heating needs underground. The company plans to acquire 65 electric vehicles, she added.

Twin Metals and the separate planned PolyMet copper-nickel mine have faced stiff opposition from environmental groups.

Twin Metals has drawn additional criticism because its site is upstream from the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. The company says its design eliminates the risk of acid mine drainage associated with such mines.

Along with the risk of polluting the pristine Boundary Waters, environmentalist are concerned about the amount of wilderness that will be destroyed for such a mining operation.

The Obama administration tried to stop the Twin Metals mine, which is owned by a Chilean billionaire, but the Trump administration revived the project, amid controversy.

Jeremy Drucker, senior advisor to the Campaign to Save the Boundary Waters, dismissed the announcement as “greenwashing pure and simple.”

He said the vehicle fleet would make up just a fraction of the mine’s total carbon footprint when its electrical needs and shipping are factored in.

“This is a very small part of an otherwise massively pollution operation,” he said.

Padilla denied that it’s greenwashing.

“This is important for us and for the state and for the country to continue to tackle in ways that we can the impacts of these projects and the impacts of climate change on our environment,” she said.