Controversial new Beargrease sponsor bows out of North Shore race

DULUTH – A controversial new sponsor of northeastern Minnesota’s Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon, a 300-mile endurance test along the North Shore, has pulled out after the race organization’s decision to end the partnership.

Race officials announced NewRange Copper Nickel as a sponsor at the end of December, igniting outrage from some environmentalists and members of Native American tribes.

The company is seeking to mine copper and other minerals from an open pit near Babbitt called NorthMet, a project first proposed two decades ago by PolyMet.

Opponents have long fought that project and other hard-rock mining proposals for their potential threats to lakes, rivers and wild rice through water discharge contamination. It’s a type of mining that hasn’t been done in Minnesota.

In a statement Jan. 8, the company’s head of external affairs, Colin Marsh, said NewRange respects the Beargrease organization’s decision.

“NewRange remains committed to engaging respectfully with Tribal Nations and local communities and supporting the region in other ways,” he said. “We hope for good weather, great snow, and big attendance to make this year’s race a huge success.”

A spokeswoman for the race directed questions to Board President Mike Keyport, who did not return repeated calls.

The sponsorship was “a double slap in the face to our homelands, wild rice waters and seven generations,” Rep. Liish Kozlowski, DFL-Duluth, wrote on social media last week.

Kozlowski, who is Ojibwe, said they were disappointed to “see the pride of our Grand Portage rez and ancestors be used as propaganda for copper nickel mining.”

The Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa has been one of the most ardent critics and legal opponents of copper-nickel mines and potential downstream effects on water quality.

The race’s initial announcement of the sponsorship on social media said that NewRange understands the balance between preserving the wilderness of northern Minnesota and strengthening the regional economy.

The company’s “commitment to responsible resource development helps support both the Northland’s environment and the local traditions rooted in it,” the announcement said.

She understands operation of the Beargrease is an expensive endeavor, she said, but its reputation is one of respect for the land it runs through.

She couldn’t support the race taking money from a company “who I think is going to harm our environment,” she said. “I think our water is more important than any mineral they can take out of the land.”

NewRange would mine the open-pit NorthMet, with ore processed in a former LTV Steel site in Hoyt Lakes. The company continues to seek key approvals for the mine that has been mired in studies and legal action for years.

PolyMet was a subsidiary of the Swiss conglomerate Glencore, and NewRange is a partnership that includes Glencore and Teck Resources, a Canadian company that has been exploring a deposit near NorthMet. In 2022, Glencore pleaded guilty in New York to a bribery and corruption case and agreed to pay $1.1 billion in fines. Charges included a global chain of bribes and a scheme to manipulate oil prices at two U.S. ports. NewRange formed in 2023.

Copper and nickel are critical minerals for electric vehicles and electricity, and NorthMet, if approved, is estimated to produce 32,000 tons of mostly copper daily.