The Birch Lake Project Overview

Franconia Minerals’ Birch Lake Project is the proposed development of two proposed underground mining operations that would extract and process sulfide-bearing ore to recover valuable copper, nickel, platinum group metals (PGMs) and cobalt from two deposits about six miles east and northeast of Babbitt Minnesota near Birch Lake Reservoir.

The two sites (known as Bob Bay on Birch Lake and Maturi) are about four miles apart, adjacent to Birch Lake in northeastern Minnesota, some 230 miles north of the Twin Cities and 80 miles northwest of Duluth.  The Birch Lake deposit at Bob Bay is one mile east of the northeastern end of  the Mesabi Iron Range and the Maturi deposit is about four miles to the north northeast. Both are near the western edge of the Superior National Forest and five to ten miles west of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

Franconia Minerals is an exploration and development company currently drilling on the Lake and in the surrounding area to better define the deposits and assess the project’s feasibility.  Many of Franconia’s people and consultants have a long history on the Range. It is headed by Brian Gavin, a certified professional geologist, with more than 24 years experience in exploration and mining.  One of Franconia’s directors, Ernest Lehmann, has been active in Minnesota’s mineral industry since 1957 and is currently president of the Minnesota Exploration Association and on the Governor’s Committee on Minnesota’s Mining Future.  Franconia has also contracted leading engineering, environmental and technical firms to aid in project development.