News Room

St. Croix 360 | August 28, 2026

““This is very different from any mine I’ve ever looked at, in that Talon has proposed as its first project, a footprint that is less than one percent of the deposit,” she says. “Every other mine project I’ve ever seen in Minnesota has come to the state with a whole proposal.”

It’s one of what Maccabee says are many shortcomings in the proposal. She says documents submitted so far have provided scant details about what Talon plans to do, particularly in how the company would deal with waste from the mine or where ore would be processed.

“We’re not looking at the science of a proposal,” she says. “We’re looking at science fiction.””

Minnesota Star Tribune | August 6, 2026

“The lines were drawn even before the three hours of comment began. Mining boosters wore blue T-shirts emblazoned with the logo of MiningMinnesota, a nickel and copper mining industry group. A significantly larger group wore yellow bandanas with the image of bird claws, with slogans like “Talons off our waters.” […]

One concern raised by several commenters was the fact that Talon’s mine plan only concerns a small piece of the Tamarack Intrusion, a tadpole-shaped underground formation that contains valuable metals. The company has previously touted the quality of minerals outside of the project area to investors, saying it had “district-scale potential.”

But in a key document submitted to the state, Talon replied “No” to the question: “Are future stages of this development including development on any other property planned or likely to happen?”

“This is a bait and switch,” said Don Arnosti, who helped the state complete a 1990 study simulating the challenges of nonferrous mining. “We need to scope an EIS for the entire deposit.””

The Timberjay | August 6, 2026

““NewRange may want to say, ‘Oh, we did the right thing now because we’re such good guys.’ But the truth is that their prior plan was deeply flawed, and they kind of ran out of rope,” said Paula Maccabee, chief legal counsel with WaterLegacy. […] “PolyMet Mining Inc. and PolyMet Corp. are gone,” Maccabee said. “Instead, you have this huge conglomerate with Glencore and Teck Resources calling the shots and controlling two, not one, large deposits.”
Given the extent of the changes, Maccabee argues that the new proposal needs to start from scratch.”