Updated timeline for PolyMet mine presented

Regulators in Minnesota have laid out an updated timeline for completing the environmental review on the proposed PolyMet copper-nickel mine in northeastern Minnesota that calls for a 30-day public comment period.

The Associated Press reported that the timeline from the Department of Natural Resources gives state, federal and tribal agencies until early November to review and revise the 3,100-page preliminary final environmental impact statement, which they received last month. The final EIS would then be published, and the 30-day public comment period would begin sometime between early November and early December.

The state would then issue its determination of whether the final EIS is adequate in early February 2016. The federal agencies involved would make their determinations sometime next year. After the U.S. Forest Service publishes its draft decision, there would be 45 days for objections.