A company that is conducting exploratory drilling for copper at Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park has interrupted the search 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.
DNR spokesman John Pepin says Highland Copper will decide in a couple of weeks whether to resume drilling or wait until next winter.
Pepin says the state 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.
