EMPLOYEE SPOTLIGHT

Paul Brunfelt, Plant Division Manager

Paul has been with PolyMet for four years and has more than 20 years of engineering and management experience in operations and maintenance in the mining, power, and material-handling industries. Paul has his bachelor�s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Minnesota and is a registered professional engineer.
He serves on the Industrial Advisory Committee for the Chemical Engineering Department at the University of Minnesota Duluth and on the Industrial Advisory Board for Iron Range Engineering. He lives on Lake Vermilion in Cook, Minn., with his wife, Lainie Plotnik, who works for Minnesota Power. They have two children, Kellen (17) and Hannah (14), and a yellow lab named Millie.

Paul Brunfelt

What does your job entail?

As plant division manager, I oversee the engineering design and construction of the processing facilities for the NorthMet project. Currently, I am acting as an engineer, providing input into the design of the wastewater treatment facilities. Once the process facilities are fully constructed, I will also be responsible for the commissioning and operation of the facilities.

Where did you grow up?

Mt. Iron, Minnesota.

What is your favorite thing about where you work?

Fishing and hunting deer and grouse are some of my favorite things to do. Since I live on Lake Vermilion, I�m able to fish and enjoy the outdoors often.

In fact, all of us who work at PolyMet live in Minnesota to enjoy the outdoors. Since nature is something I personally value, I would only be part of a project that preserves the natural resources that northern Minnesota has to offer.

DID YOU KNOW?

The truth about acid rock drainage

What is acid rock drainage?

Acid rock drainage is caused by a natural oxidation process when rock containing metallic sulfides is exposed to water and air. This combination can form a chemical reaction that can change the characteristics of the water that contacts the rock, making the water acidic. (An acidic solution is one that has a pH of less than 7. pH is the measurement of the acidity or alkalinity of a solution.) If not properly collected and treated, contact water could enter into the environment, where it could have a negative impact.

A question we get a lot is: Will the NorthMet project produce acid rock drainage (ARD)?

We are committed to minimizing and treating acid rock drainage if and when it occurs. That�s why, even though PolyMet�s ore contains less than 1 percent sulfur, we worked with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources to complete comprehensive waste characterization testing. The analysis, which measured the pH of water that comes in contact with waste rock, showed that even without treatment, 96 percent of the contact water would have a pH of 6.5 to 7, which is within the normal range of stream water (pH of 5 to 8) and less acidic than rain water (pH of 5.5 to 5.8). The remaining 4 percent of the waste rock could produce contact water with a pH of approximately 4, which is slightly less acidic than orange juice (pH 3.3). The testing, which started in 2005, is ongoing and currently includes more than 1.5 million analyses.

With this information, PolyMet has developed a systematic plan to ensure water discharged from the project meets applicable water quality standards. This includes using stringent protocol to sort waste rock into stockpiles based on its potential to generate acid and a robustly engineered system to capture and treat any water that comes in contact with the waste rock.

Each stockpile will have an engineered foundation with an engineered system to collect and treat water that contacts exposed mining rock. Any contact water will then be treated using RO technology at wastewater treatment facilities (with the RO process described above) at both the mine and plant sites prior to being discharged offsite. Mining at the site will begin on the east side in an area designated as the East Pit. Once the East Pit is mined out, the rock that could potentially generate acid will placed into the pit and permanently stored under water as the pit is reflooded. This will eliminate the rock�s exposure to oxygen and prevent oxidation which could lead to the potential formation of acid rock drainage.

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