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Core drilling taking place at White Pine North mine

Keweenaw Report

ONTONAGON COUNTY, MI— Highland Copper is moving forward with its copper mining project near the old White Pine Mine in Ontonagon County.

The company has begun infill drilling at the site. That’s the process by which officials determine how much copper could be extracted from the mine. The initial phase of the program consists of eight holes representing approximately 8,400 meters of core drilling.

Officials say about 5 billion pounds of copper could be present.

The company’s Copperwood project, just outside of Wakefield, is also expected to contain around 5 billion pounds of copper.

Highland Copper is conducting a Preliminary Economic Assessment on combining the two projects. It wants to construct an ore processing center at White Pine Mine that would serve both mines.

Nicole was born near Detroit but has lived in the U.P. most of her life. She graduated from Marquette Senior High School and attended Michigan State and Northern Michigan Universities, graduating from NMU in 1993 with a degree in English.