×

UPX mineral lease to be discussed at meeting

MARQUETTE — Marquette County property owners, concerned citizens and environmental groups will have the opportunity to address the Michigan Department of Resources about UPX Minerals Inc.’s metallic mineral lease request at a public meeting to be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday in the University Center’s Charcoal Room on Northern Michigan University’s campus.

DNR officials will provide a brief overview of the updated 2,500-acre request covering municipalities throughout Marquette County and give the public the opportunity to ask questions and provide comments on the matter, DNR Public Information Officer John Pepin said in a Wednesday email.

“The goal of the meeting is to answer questions and obtain feedback to inform the DNR’s decision,” Pepin said. “All feedback will be considered prior to a leasing decision being made.”

Like other property rights, mineral rights may be sold, transferred or leased, but they are distinct from surface rights, which are the right to use the land surface for residential, agricultural commercial or other purposes, according to a Michigan Department of Environmental Quality fact sheet.

“Mineral rights may be sold or retained separately from the surface rights, in which case the mineral rights are said to be ‘severed,'” the fact sheet states.

If the lease is granted, the owner of the mineral rights, in this case the state of Michigan, would be entitled to royalties if any of the parcels are mined.

“The owner or lessee of the mineral rights, whether severed or not, has the right to reasonable use of the land to extract minerals from the property,” the fact sheet states. “However, the owner of the surface rights to a parcel may be entitled to compensation for loss of crops or timber.”

UPX’s initial request, made in November 2017, nominated 6,655 acres, Pepin said, 62 percent of which, or 4,154 acres, have been withdrawn, Pepin said.

The DNR received 46 written comments from the public, with 14 from surface owners of the nominated parcels, Pepin noted.

“Surface owner letters were sent to a total of 59 parties,” he said. “Approximately 24 percent of them sent in a comment.”

One such property owner, Sue Beckstrom Noel wrote a recent letter to The Mining Journal editor opposing the leases.

“The surface rights of landholders are subservient to the mineral rights. Translation — when mineral rights are granted, the mining company can do exploratory drilling and other exploration of your property, and you as the land owner have no control over it,” Beckstrom wrote. “Moreover, there is very little oversight of such activities at this stage.”

During an interview in April, UPX Exploration Manager Justin Van der Toorn, who will also be in attendance at Monday’s meeting, said the lease requests are an effort to eliminate boundary issues in exploration efforts and don’t automatically mean there would be drilling or any other invasive action on the property where mineral rights would be leased.

“The first thing we would do is look at the geology on your land,” Van der Toorn said. “That would simply mean literally walking the ground, possibly taking geochemical samples. Our intention is that all work is done with the permission of any surface landowners, and the company will make more detailed arrangement should anything beyond this, such as drilling, take place.”

In 2017, UPX purchased the mineral exploration rights for nearly 448,000 acres of Upper Peninsula property from Kennecott Exploration Co. and Rio Tinto Nickel Co.

Lisa Bowers can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 242.

Newsletter

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper *
   

Starting at $4.62/week.

Subscribe Today