Introducing the Copperwood Waste Mine
The closest metallic sulfide waste facility to Lake Superior in history
Although billed as a "copper mine," in fact 98.55% of all material produced at Copperwood will be waste. For every ton of extracted material, only 30 pounds will be copper and 1,970 pounds will be waste.
If 98.55% of what you make are hats and only 1.45% are shoes, it's most accurate to call yourself a hat-maker, no matter how much you love or profit from your shoes. And so Copperwood would best be described as a waste mine.
All in all, Copperwood's waste would comprise 40+ million tons in total, containing mercury, arsenic, cadmium, led, and many other toxins, to be stored forever on downward-sloping topography, in a water-rich environment, in unprecedented proximity to this continent's largest, cleanest source of surface freshwater.
But what about the Copperwood dam?
Mine waste surging into Lake Superior and the State Park
A 2024 model by the Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission predicts that, in the event of a rupture at Copperwood's mine waste facility, a flood of tailings over ten meters in depth could surge into both Lake Superior and the State Park.
The mining company disputes the quantity of waste discharge predicted by the model. In the end, no models are ever completely accurate — that's what makes them models — but it would be irresponsible not to explore worst-case scenarios.
And we must ask: is there any quantity of waste flowing into Lake Superior which should be tolerated for the sake of short-term, boom-and-bust jobs and copper shipped out of country?
Severe ruptures are increasing in frequency
A 2014 report reveals that severe tailings dam collapses are on the rise, because advances in mining technique are outweighed by the unwieldy quantity of waste being stored from operations with ever diminishing ore grades.
Michigan is not prepared
A report from the Association of State Dam Safety Officials reveals that Michigan's Dam Safety Program is "extremely understaffed to perform the mission of dam safety as required by rules, legislation, and best practice" (page 6).
A mining engineer with the U.S. Forest Service says such facilities "may require care and maintenance exceeding 1,000 years."
What happens when another 1000-year storm hits?
Since the mine is projected to run only 10.7 years, the company has designed all infrastructure — including the waste dam — to anticipate 1-in-100 year storm events, despite the fact that there have been two 1-in-1000 year storm events in the immediate area in just the last decade (1,2), Clearly, "thousand-year storms" need to be renamed, and assuming that another will not happen during the mine life is the definition of a gamble.
The mining company claims the waste basin would withstand such a storm, but many claims are made to get a project funded and launched, and none of the tailings dam ruptures in history were ever predicted in advance. Considering the waste dam's unprecedented proximity to both Lake Superior and Porcupine Mountains State Park, is it really worth the risk?
But even assuming the waste dam holds...
It will be visible from the Lake of the Clouds Overlook
Copperwood's waste facility would be among the largest structures in Michigan: over 244 football fields in area and higher than the Statue of Liberty from toes to torch-tip. The company has acknowledged that it would be visible from the Lake of the Clouds Overlook, Copper Peak, and the North Country Trail (see comment 35).
Photo by Bryan Mitchell
And the mine is guaranteed to pollute
A tailings dam rupture is only the most cataclysmic form of pollution, but there are many other ways that metallic sulfide mines can and almost always do harm the environment, often gradually over the course of decades and centuries.
For more information, visit our Environmental Research page.
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