A company that is conducting exploratory drilling for copper at Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park is resuming a search that was interrupted because of mild weather.
Highland Copper received a permit from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources to do the work — but only on frozen ground, preferably with snow at least one foot deep, to limit surface disturbance.
The update on work resuming was announced this week. The DNR says it's expected to be completed by April 30.
The DNR says Michigan had to allow the drilling because it doesn't own rights to minerals beneath the park lands.
If the company were to mine copper, it would have to gain access to the underground ores from outside park boundaries and prove it wouldn't damage surface rivers and forests.
