Talon Metals Scraps North Dakota Nickel Mill Plan

Talon Metals is no longer building a new mineral processing plant in North Dakota. On September 10, Talon Metals announced it selected its existing Humboldt Mill in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula as the processing site for ore from its Tamarack Nickel-Copper-Cobalt Project in central Minnesota, ending plans for the Beulah Minerals Processing Facility, a proposed $365 million plant on the site of a retired coal mine in Mercer County, North Dakota.

At a glance

• Talon Metals will process Tamarack ore at its Humboldt Mill in Michigan instead of building the previously planned Beulah Minerals Processing Facility in North Dakota.
• Talon already owns Humboldt and the neighboring Eagle Mine, the only primary nickel mine currently operating in the United States, after acquiring both from Lundin Mining in January.
• A feasibility study on processing Tamarack ore at Humboldt is due by the end of 2026. Talon is also working with the U.S. Department of Energy on the fate of a $114.8 million grant tied to the North Dakota plant.
• Rio Tinto is Talon’s partner on Tamarack, a nickel, copper, and cobalt deposit in central Minnesota. Talon owns 51 percent of the project with rights to grow that stake to 60 percent.

What did Talon Metals just announce?

Talon Metals told investors it will send nickel, copper, and cobalt concentrate from its Tamarack project in Minnesota to Humboldt for processing rather than build a standalone mill in North Dakota. As The Northern Miner reported, Talon had spent years planning the Beulah facility on land once used for coal mining before deciding an operating mill it already owns is the faster, cheaper route to production.

Why is Talon dropping the North Dakota mill plan?

Talon only gained the option to use Humboldt this year. In January, the company closed its acquisition of the Eagle Mine and Humboldt Mill from Lundin Mining, picking up an operating nickel-copper mine, a working mill, and the trained workforce that runs it. Building the Beulah plant from scratch would have meant new permits, new construction, and a new crew in a county with no mining workforce to draw from. Processing Tamarack ore at a mill Talon already runs, with people who already run it, cuts both the capital needed and the time before Tamarack ore reaches a plant gate.

What happens to the $114.8 million federal award?

The Beulah project was not a private decision alone. In 2022, the U.S. Department of Energy selected it for $114.8 million in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding meant to build out domestic battery mineral processing, an award Senator Kevin Cramer’s office highlighted at the time as support for cutting reliance on foreign-sourced critical minerals. North Dakota Governor Kelly Armstrong said the state was disappointed to lose the roughly 150 jobs the plant would have created, while noting Talon’s circumstances had changed since the project was first announced. Talon says it is now working with the DOE on whether any of that funding can follow the ore to Humboldt instead, and neither side has confirmed an outcome.

Why does this matter for U.S. nickel supply?

The United States currently produces primary nickel from exactly one mine, the Eagle Mine that Talon now owns. Every ton of nickel, copper, and cobalt that Tamarack can eventually send to an already-operating U.S. mill supports the same domestic battery supply chain the original Beulah grant was meant to build, just through a shorter, already-permitted path. Mining Our Future tracks projects like Tamarack as part of its broader look at how critical minerals move from the ground into American factories, alongside the mines and mills it visits on tour.

What happens next?

Talon’s feasibility study on processing Tamarack ore at Humboldt is due by the end of 2026, and the company has not set a construction start date for Tamarack itself. The project still needs to clear Minnesota’s permitting process before any ore reaches Michigan, and the DOE has not said whether the federal award tied to the abandoned North Dakota plant will move with it. Readers who want to see how Mining Our Future evaluates projects like this one can find more on our partner page.