By Jerry Burnes/Iron Range Today

Glencore has put an offer on the table to buy 100% of PolyMet Mining for around $73 million and make it a private enterprise.

The Swiss mining conglomerate has been a financial backer of the proposed copper-nickel mine on the East Iron Range dating back to 2008, and owned a majority of the company prior to Monday’s full-control offer.

Glencore’s offer — $2.11 per share for the remaining 18% share of PolyMet it doesn’t own — represents a 167% premium over PolyMet’s 79 cents per share price as of Friday’s market closing. News of Glencore’s offer boosted PolyMet stock to $2 midday Friday, a 156% jump.

PolyMet bought the former LTV Steel taconite facility in 2005 with its sights set on building Minnesota’s first copper-nickel mine. Glencore began financing the project in 2008 and has since amassed 82% ownership in PolyMet.

Earlier this year, PolyMet and Teck Resources formed a joint partnership on the project — rebranded as NewRange Copper Nickel — with a 50-50 split of PolyMet’s project and Teck’s early-stages copper-nickel exploration located nearby.

The Glencore offer to take full control of PolyMet doesn’t appear to impact NewRange, but the Swiss firm has been steadfast in trying to acquire all or parts of Teck in recent months.

In late April, Glencore offered to buy the Canadian mining behemoth’s copper and coal businesses jointly for $22.5 billion, which Teck rebuffed. In June, Teck confirmed it is in talks with Glencore about selling off its coal businesses separately.

Glencore gaining full control of PolyMet is also unlikely to settle the massive division around the NewRange project. Environmental groups have long-opposed the project as a potential polluter of local water sources, and have pointed to Glencore’s past legal and environmental missteps as further cause for concern.

Last year, Glencore admitted guilt to bribery and corruption charges, agreeing to pay a settlement around $1.2 billion — $700 million in the U.S. alone. In 2019, more than 40 workers at one of the company’s facilities in the Democratic Republic of Congo died after the mine collapsed.

Still, NewRange remains a key issue for the Iron Range and its supporters, which have said the potential for hundreds of jobs, more than $1 billion in economic impact and a project that would help the U.S. reach clean energy and electric vehicle goals is necessary.

The project was dealt a massive blow last month, when the U.S. Army Corps. of Engineers revoked a critical water permit for the project, saying NewRange posed too much of a threat to water quality in the region.

Two state permits are also on hold after challenges from environmental groups.