Another resource squabble has flared in northern Minnesota. This time it's copper vs. crude oil.
Kennecott Exploration Co., a unit of one of world's biggest mining companies, said in a regulatory filing Thursday that Enbridge Energy's preferred route for the Sandpiper crude oil pipeline passes through 1,860 acres of land near Tamarack, Minn., that's being studied for a copper-nickel mine.
"The preferred route will intersect and limit Kennecott's access to mineral deposits critical to the exploration and potential development of copper nickel minerals," the company said in a filing with the state Public Utilities Commission.
Kennecott said it has spent tens of millions on the Tamarack Project to drill more than 200 test holes and conduct preliminary environmental and other studies on four mineral leases in Aitkin and Carlton counties, 50 miles west of Duluth.
But the mine leases would lie along the route of Enbridge's proposed $2.6 billion pipeline designed to carry crude oil from North Dakota to Superior, Wis. State regulators are reviewing the 299-mile segment through Minnesota.
"While still in an exploration stage, Kennecott believes there is significant potential at the Tamarack Project," company attorneys said in a request to intervene in the review.
Kennecott, a Utah subsidiary of Rio Tinto, the world's largest publicly traded iron mining company, said Enbridge hasn't addressed "the sizable economic impacts of limiting or precluding access to the mineral resources," including the implications for royalty payments to the state under 50-year mineral leases.
Enbridge says it's aware of the conflict and has discussed the matter with Kennecott. But Kennecott said the discussions haven't been fruitful yet.