Provided photo An aerial photo of the White Pine property by Kinterra Capital. The company announced a $75M investment in the White Pine copper and silver project.

WHITE PINE – A press release from Invest UP indicated Kinterra Capital Corporation has secured $75 million in co-investment financing to support continued work on the proposed White Pine North Project in Ontonagon County.

According to the Thursday release, the funding will help advance engineering, permitting and stakeholder engagement as the project moves toward a final investment decision. An updated pre-feasibility study is expected in the third quarter of this year.

The proposed underground copper and silver mine is tied to the historic White Pine site, which produced more than 4.5 billion pounds of copper over more than 40 years.

The new project is expected to have a 26-year mine life. The investment will continue momentum around a project with significant potential long-term implications for jobs and the region’s natural resource economy.

A May 20 announcement from Kinterra indicated the co-investment financing, which was expected to close by today, follows significant development spearheaded by Kinterra at the Project, which is culminating into an updated pre-feasibility study (“PFS”) that demonstrates exceptional project economics at long-term consensus pricing.

Kinterra Copper USA is an affiliate of private equity firm Kinterra Capital, a Canadian company, which is actively developing U.S. copper assets to support the energy transition, controlling approximately 14 billion pounds of copper resources.

The White Pine mine has a long, productive history. In 1929, Copper Range purchased the White Pine mine property at a sheriff’s sale. The property had been previously developed by the Calumet and Hecla Mining Company, then subsequently abandoned in 1920. C&H had focused primarily on the native copper in the White Pine’s Nonesuch copper lode, largely because milling technology was not advanced enough in the early 20th century to treat its copper sulfide ore.

Copper Range began testing the Nonesuch Lode at White Pine in May, 1949, and finished in Dec. 1950. Testing suggested the mine was expected to reach a maximum production of 35,000 tons by 1955. In that year, it became one of the nation’s top 10 producers. The facility’s capacity was designed for 36,000 tons. By 1955, it had been increased to 50,000 tons. Over the next 40 years, the mine produced more than 4.5 billion pounds of refined copper.

Today, says Kinterra, White Pine is being advanced as a modern underground mine with a proposed 26-year mine life and an expected average annual production of approximately 60,000 tonsof copper equivalent once ramped up.

Copper is one of dozens of commodities on the 2025 U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) critical minerals list. The Dept of the Interior, through the USGS, published the final 2025 List of Critical Minerals on November 6. It outlines 60 minerals vital to the U.S. economy and national security that face potential risks from disrupted supply chains, according to the USGS website.