Minnesota DNR - Monthly Update: Twin Metals Minnesota EIS
About this Update
To provide information about the State’s environmental review of Twin Metals Minnesota’s project proposal, the Minnesota DNR will be issuing monthly updates to those who have signed up to receive them on the State web portal for Twin Metals Minnesota project. This message is the monthly update for July 2020.
Each monthly update will provide information on the status of Minnesota’s Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) process as well as identify any new documents that have been posted on the Minnesota DNR’s webpages for the project since the prior monthly update.
Minnesota DNR is the responsible governmental unit (RGU) for the State’s EIS. Please note that the federal government is preparing a separate EIS for the Twin Metals project. Information about the Federal EIS is available here.
State EIS Process Status
Preparation of an EIS for any large and complex project is a multi-year process. Minnesota DNR is currently in the early stages of the scoping phase of the EIS process for the proposed Twin Metals project. The scoping process helps us ensure the future EIS assesses the proposed project’s potentially significant environmental impacts, but also helps define project alternatives, potential mitigations, timelines, and additional data needs.
Twin Metals Minnesota submitted its Project Proposal to Minnesota DNR on December 18, 2019. Since then, we have completed our initial review of the project proposal, determined that it was incomplete, and on June 15, we requested additional information from Twin Metals. On July 24, 2020, Twin Metals submitted its revised Project Proposal to Minnesota DNR along with its responses to our comments. We are now in the process of reviewing this information.
The scoping process is iterative. As is typical for a project of this complexity, we anticipate multiple rounds of Minnesota DNR comments followed by revisions from Twin Metals.
New Documents Available
The following new documents were posted in July 2020 to our project website. Please click on underlined text to link directly to the material(s).
DNR Documents
No new DNR documents were posted in July 2020.
Proposer Documents
July 24, 2020 TMM Revised Project Proposal Description. This is Twin Metals’ Project Proposal revised in response to RGU review comments on its initial proposal.
July 24, 2020 TMM Responses to DNR-RGU Comments. This document contains Twin Metals’ responses to the comments generated by the Minnesota DNR and Minnesota Pollution Control Agency during RGU review of the initial Twin Metals Minnesota Project Proposal Description received on December 18, 2019.
More Information
All project updates as well as key documents (new and previously posted) can be accessed through the State web portal for Twin Metals Minnesota project. The website provides access to basic information about the project, EIS status updates and documents, fact sheets to help explain the process and summarize complex issues, and proposer-developed data and studies that have been submitted for DNR review. Project updates are available through the News tab.
If you would like to receive email updates on the environmental review process please sign up with your email address.
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