PATTEN, Maine — Wolfden Resources Corp., a Canadian mining company based in Thunder Bay, Ontario, has had its zoning petition for 528 acres of land in northern Penobscot County accepted as complete for processing by the Land Use Planning Commission.
The petition, filed in January, looks to rezone the land around Pickett Mountain, located near Mt. Chase, in order to explore for deposits of copper, lead, silver and gold minerals.
The land, which was acquired by Wolfden Resources in 2017, would go from being a general management to a planned development subdistrict, allowing for a metallic metal mine as well as any associated buildings and infrastructure.
Now that the petition has been accepted for processing, it will be reviewed by LUPC staff, followed by a public hearing process. The public hearings were originally scheduled for the spring, but are now expected to happen in the fall due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
After the public hearings, the hearing record remains open for at least 10 days to allow submitted written comments, and for an additional seven days for filing rebuttals. Following this, the hearing record will be closed and the LUPC will make a final decision on the petition.
Wolfden has already begun test drillings at the proposed mining area earlier this month, announcing plans to start a 5,000-meter drill program on Pickett Mountain to identify new mining targets discovered during recent exploration of the area. Drilling will be carried out by Boart Longyear, a mineral exploration company headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah.
The LUPC was created by the Maine Legislature in 2012, as part of the Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry. It’s purpose is to extend planning, zoning and permitting authority to unorganized parts of the state, such as townships and plantations.
