Copperwood Mine Gets $50 Million in Public Money

On August 25 the Michigan Strategic Fund approved $50 million in public money for the Copperwood mine in Gogebic County. Highland Copper’s announcement that same day described the project as “fully permitted.”

Michigan EGLE’s nonferrous metallic mining page lists Copperwood’s state mining permit as “Issued, not effective.” Directly below it on the same page, Eagle Mine reads “Issued, in effect.”

Both statements are public and both are current. They do not agree, and almost every account of the grant has repeated the company’s version.

What the $50 million is

The award splits two ways: $44,971,691 to Copperwood Resources Inc. for roads, power and communications infrastructure, and $5,028,309 to the Gogebic County Road Commission.

It comes with conditions. Highland has to demonstrate $150 million in additional project financing by March 31, 2028. Eligible expenditures are reimbursable through March 31, 2033. The project has to produce a minimum of 380 qualified jobs.

Highland has said it holds a $250 million letter of interest from the U.S. Export-Import Bank, which it describes as roughly 60 percent of initial capital. A letter of interest is not a loan.

What “not effective” means is not explained anywhere

EGLE’s page is a status table. It does not say what separates an issued permit from an effective one, and we could not find the trigger written down in the department’s public material.

The likeliest candidate is a financial assurance requirement, the same kind of posted bond that appears in Eagle Mine’s permit conditions. We could not confirm that, so we are not printing it as fact. What is certain is that the state’s own status field and the company’s press release describe two different situations.

A permit is still open

EGLE reopened public comment on Copperwood’s wastewater discharge permit on April 15, 2026 and extended the window. No issuance appears on the record.

The comment fight centers on the redside dace, a small fish that Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources lists as state endangered. EGLE spokesman Scott Dean said the discharge point “is not expected to impact the redside dace, as the fishes’ observed range is located upstream from where the west branch and Namebinag Creek meet.”

So one permit is issued but not in effect, another is pending, and the money was approved in between.

A former board member says the vote was not hers to give

Cindy Warner sat on the Michigan Strategic Fund board from 2019 to 2025. After the August vote she objected publicly to how the approval was handled: “At no time was ANY approval that I provided, for any project, transferrable, to ANY other project, ever.”

How to check the permit status yourself

This is a two minute job and it does not require trusting anyone’s summary, including ours.

EGLE maintains a nonferrous metallic mining page listing every Part 632 operation in Michigan with its permit status in plain language. Copperwood, Eagle Mine, Humboldt Mill and the surrendered Back Forty permit are all on it. The status column is the whole story: “Issued, in effect,” “Issued, not effective,” “Surrendered, not effective.”

Air permit applications carry their own numbers. Copperwood’s is APP-2023-0218, filed by Copperwood Resources, Inc. to “install and operate a copper and silver mining and ore processing facility.” EGLE posts public notice bulletins for those, and the comment dockets are public while they are open.

Anyone in Gogebic County can read the same fields we did. When a company and its regulator describe the same project differently, the regulator’s status field is the one with a legal meaning attached.

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