Talon Metals Corp. has received an approval from Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) for an additional 23,000 acres of mineral leases in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Talon is actively involved in the EV sector, with the company agreeing to supply Tesla with 165 million pounds of nickel from the Tamarack Nickel Project in Aitkin County, Central Minnesota.
As noted in an MLive report, the approval that Talon recently received was for nickel deposits in the Baraga, Houghton, Iron, and Marquette counties. The approval also follows Talon’s acquisition of mineral rights to explore for deposits on 400,000 acres of land in the Upper Peninsula. In a press release, Talon noted that the land package was originally assembled by Henry Ford and owned by the Ford Motor Company for about 70 years.
The combined 423,000 acres are located within 1.7 miles of the Eagle Nickel Mine and 0.4 miles of the Humboldt Mill, which processes the Eagle mine’s nickel ore. Talon views the region as highly prospective for additional high-grade nickel deposits. This is something that Talon CEO Henri van Rooyen highlighted in a comment.
“Our exploration team’s sole focus is to discover more high-grade nickel deposits in the United States. With funding from the Department of Defense, Talon will bring its proven approach to exploration drilling and geophysical analysis to try to discover new high-grade nickel and copper mineralization in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, currently the only region with a nickel mine in the United States.
“Within the mineral sourcing requirements of the Inflation Reduction Act’s electric vehicle tax credits, minerals sourced domestically enjoy the highest level of preference under the law. The United States is currently dependent on foreign countries such as Russia and China for nickel, which is an untenable supply chain vulnerability. This extraordinary context is why Talon is advancing its proposed Tamarack Underground Mine proposal through the Minnesota environmental review process while also exploring for additional high-grade deposits in both Minnesota and Michigan,” van Rooyen said.
Talon Community & Tribal Engagement Liaison Cody Mayer also noted that the mine developer is planning to host a community event that should allow the public to share their thoughts on the project.
“The Michigan DNR approval process included opportunity for extensive public comment. We are planning to host a community ‘Open House’ in the spring prior to any drilling, and we have had a number of information sharing meetings with proximate Tribal sovereign governments to discuss our initial area of interest for mineral exploration, seek their feedback and discuss the potential contribution of tribal knowledge in our fieldwork,” Mayer noted in a press release.
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