State Continues To Monitor Reclamation Of GTAC Mining Site

On Monday, state officials visited the site where mining company Gogebic Taconite once planned to build a $1.5 billion iron ore mine to check on the company’s progress closing out the site.

Gobebic Taconite — commonly referred to as GTAC — officially abandoned its plans to mine at the Penokee Hills site in March.

Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Hydrogeologist Zoe McManama conducted surveillance at the company’s three bulk sampling sites. McManama said GTAC has reclaimed all of them, and only one stormwater permit remains to be closed out for an access road there.

Overall, McManama said site work went well.

“They constructed all of the structures within the confines of their permits, and, with a few minor changes, they did what they said they were going to do,” she said.

DNR Waste and Materials Management Director Ann Coakley agreed: “There were no permit violations along the way.”

Coakley said they’ll release GTAC’s $27,000 bond for the three sites and plan to finish up work on monitoring wells and drill holes in the winter.

The DNR visit comes as Iron County officials say other mining companies are taking an interest in developing a mine in the Penokee Hills. Iron County Development Coordinator Kelly Klein said La Pointe Mining Company representatives told county officials they want to continue collecting information at the site.

“They seem to be willing to continue some of the scientific studies. Of course, they got all the data that GTAC produced, so now they’re going through that,” said Klein.

Coakley said either GTAC or the landowners need to seal or maintain drilling holes and monitoring wells.

“Then, with the monitoring wells, they need to keep monitoring them in some way, even if it’s as basic as taking groundwater measurements,” said Coakley.

Coakley said they’ve asked GTAC to let them know whether landowners RGGS Land and Minerals or La Pointe will be taking over that work by this fall.