Jobs paying $80,000 to $120,000 could come to Gogebic County if the proposed Copperwood Mine moves forward, and Gogebic Community College says it is ready to train the workforce.

The proposed underground copper mine, currently estimated at $425 million, is planned for Wakefield and Ironwood townships. State and company projections call for 380 direct jobs paying $80,000 to $120,000 annually — roughly twice the region's median wage of about $44,900. The project's design, cost and employment projections remain subject to change as Highland Copper revises its plans.

Gogebic County has lost more than 13% of its population since 2010, falling to 14,285 residents, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates.

At Gogebic Community College in Ironwood, the project has drawn attention as a potential anchor for workforce training.

"Gogebic Community College trains exactly the kind of employees the mine needs," interim President Richard Shrubb said. "For the community, these are jobs that start at 80K. They are enough money that people can have a house, have a baby, buy a car and get married."

Shrubb told Sen. Elissa Slotkin during a Sept. 1 campus visit that retaining young people in the western U.P. is urgent. He described the goal as wages where workers "could actually have a family here … and have what's a genuinely livable salary," WLUC reported.

The college offers Career & Technical Education programs that pair classroom instruction with hands-on training alongside local industry partners.

The W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research has found the U.P. labor force holds steady at about 135,000 workers but faces a significant decline in prime-age workers between 25 and 54. In an April report, the Upjohn Institute found that mining jobs in the U.P. pay 59% more than the average U.P. job and 45% more than the statewide average.

Ryan Stern of the Michigan Building & Construction Trades Council said at the Aug. 25 Michigan Strategic Fund Board meeting that 18- to 25-year-olds are "currently our number one export" from the western U.P., as WZMQ reported.

Ironwood Mayor Kim Corcoran called the project "a lifeline." She said the area has experienced significant loss and that she sees Copperwood as a chance to rebuild and regrow.

Gogebic County Board Chairman Dan Siirila said his county has watched jobs disappear and young people leave for decades. The western U.P. lost the White Pine Mine, which ceased operations in the mid-1990s and closed permanently in 1997, the Ontonagon Paper Mill in 2010 and the Ojibway Correctional Facility in Marenisco in 2018.

The economic benefits remain projections. Copperwood has not been built, Highland Copper is revising the project's design and costs, and its state mining permit is not yet effective.

State funding and what comes next

On Aug. 25, the Michigan Strategic Fund Board voted 7-2 to approve up to $44.97 million for Copperwood Resources Inc. and unanimously approved another $5.03 million for the Gogebic County Road Commission.

Separately, the Michigan Department of Transportation awarded a $7.54 million transportation grant to help upgrade County Road 519, a 12.8-mile route rated 2 out of 10 on the PASER road-condition scale.

Highland Copper, the Canadian parent company, expects construction to begin in 2028 and commercial production in 2030.

The Copperwood grant is performance-based and structured as reimbursement funding. The company cannot become eligible for reimbursement until it meets its financing requirements.

Under the term sheet, Copperwood must show by March 31, 2028, that it has secured at least $150 million in additional project financing. Highland Copper has said it is also considering a smaller facility and revising project costs, which could affect the 380-job projection, Bridge Michigan reported.

Not everyone supports the project.

The proposed mine site is near Lake Superior and immediately west of the roughly 60,000-acre Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park. On Sept. 14, the environmental group Protect the Porkies filed a claim of appeal in Ingham County Circuit Court challenging the Strategic Fund Board's grant approval, The Detroit News reported. The group said it filed with support from local residents, tribes and environmental organizations.

Tom Grotewohl, executive director of Protect the Porkies, argued that the Strategic Fund Board set a dangerous precedent for public money going to foreign companies without legislative oversight. State economic-development officials and project supporters have said the funding was lawfully appropriated through the Michigan Strategic Fund.

No hearing date had been publicly announced as of Sept. 23.

Copperwood's core mining permit is listed by the state as "issued, not effective," and a renewed wastewater discharge permit remains pending.

If built, Copperwood would be the first Upper Peninsula mine primarily developed for copper production since the White Pine Mine closed in the 1990s.