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YELLOW DOG PLAINS -- Kennecott's Eagle Project has gotten the green light from the state for a nickel-copper mine in Marquette County.   It's a mine that would extract the minerals from a sulfide ore body. 

And if there's one thing that both those for and against the mine can agree on, it's that Kennecott's approval might open the gates for other mines in the Upper Peninsula.

In the last ten years, Kennecott Minerals has acquired close to half a million acres of mineral rights in the U.P., the rights needed before they can drill.  By this May, Kennecott hopes to begin construction on its first mine in the U.P., the Eagle Project.

"We are looking for nickel-copper mineralogy,” said Kennecott Project Manager Jon Cherry, “and the U.P. has a lot of mineralogy; it has a lot of inherent minerals in the area up here."

It's the mineralogy that brought miners here in the first place.  It created what some have called the Golden Age in Upper Michigan from the 1880s to the 1920s.

Now, almost a century later, most mines are abandoned.  Only iron ore and limestone are currently mined in the U.P., but that could all change in the next several years.

The Eagle Project is Kennecott's first site.  It's located on the Yellow Dog Plains in Northern Marquette County.  But Kennecott also says they're looking at six other prospective targets for mines.  Kennecott won't give specifics of their locations, but they're fairly close to the Eagle Project.

Kennecott is not alone on the plains.  Prime Meridian, a Canadian company, is also looking for nickel and copper ore.  They wouldn't talk to TV6, but according to their website, they have drill-ready targets within three miles from the Eagle Project.

Prime Meridian has other target areas as well in Iron, Gogebic and Southern Marquette Counties.

In the Western U.P., Bitterroot Resources, another Canadian company, is looking for uranium deposits on the Gogebic and Ontonagon County border.  They're also looking at copper, nickel and platinum in Ontonagon and Houghton Counties.

Finally, in the south, Aquila Resources, yet another Canadian firm, is considering building a mine in Menominee County, ten miles west of Stephenson near the Menominee River.

Aquila started actively drilling the area in 2002.  They believe beneath the ground are zinc and gold deposits in, at last estimate, a 6.6 million ton massive sulfide ore body.

"We're entering an early stage of development, which is basically a preliminary economic assessment of the project, where we will actually look at conceptual mining plans and costs," Aquila Resources President & CEO Tom Quigley said.