Hibbing, MN (Northland's NewsCenter) -With growing global population, the demand for copper is increasing.
Record prices of the metal are making a deposit in Northeastern Minnesota look even more appealing.
Turn on the water. Start you're car. Talk on your cell phone.
Chances are at some point in your day, copper will be present.
"We have these metals in everything we use, every day of our lives," said Frank Ongaro with MiningMinnesota.
The increasing demand for metals like copper has driven the prices sky high.
The Iron Range is used to measuring the value of taconite, but that scale won't cut it when it comes to record copper prices.
"You value that in pennies per pound. You're talking right now over 4 dollars a pound for copper," said LaTisha Gietzen, Vice President of Public, Governmental, and Environmental Affairs with Polymet.
For a country that currently relies heavily on the importing of metals like copper, it could be beneficial that there is a hefty amount of the un–mined material, right here in Northeastern Minnesota.
"The Duluth Complex is one of the largest complexes in the world and so it draws a lot more attention when the value of copper goes up," said Gietzen.
Officials say the price of copper is cyclical and can go down.
But Polymet says they looked at the value of their project with much lower copper prices, and still came out on top.
"The last run that we did at economics is we looked at a dollar copper price and we still have a very valuable project at that lower price. You can't just decide if you have a project at $4,00 copper. You need to make sure it is sustainable for those swings," said Gietzen.
Other metals that look to be mined from the Duluth Complex include nickel, platinum and palladium, all of which can see ups and downs with their prices.
Strict environmental regulations in Minnesota are currently being looked at in an effort to speed up the permitting process for projects like Polymet to potentially get at these metals.
"The better we do that, the faster we do that, the more willingness there will be for people to start investing in this state and putting people to work with hundreds and hundreds of jobs," said Ongaro.
And while the prices may fall, officials say there is little chance the demand for these metals will go away.
"Demand for base and precious metals is growing domestically and globally and that is not going to change.," said Ongaro.
Polymet says their projected timeline calls for their supplemental draft environmental impact statement to be out this summer, with permits potentially coming in 2012.
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