In February, the Fond du Lac Band asked the court for discovery sanctions against PolyMet and its counsel of record, after the court granted what the tribe called its “modest” set of discovery requests about the land swap between the company and Northshore Mining.
According to the sanctions motion, PolyMet avoided disclosing relevant information with “boilerplate” language and allegedly unsupported claims of attorney-client privilege.
Judge Brisbois on April 29 refused to sanction PolyMet but ordered the company to produce copies of documents that the court had identified as improperly withheld, saying that after three attempts it had been unable to show that attorney-client privilege applies to many of its communications.
More recently, on May 6, U.S. District Judge Patrick J. Schiltz granted PolyMet’s motion for a temporary restraining order, blocking the April 29 ruling that the company must produce 497 documents from its privilege log within 14 days.
PolyMet Mining Inc. became NewRange Copper Nickel LLC, holder of the NorthMet asset, after the close of a joint venture announced in February 2023 between the company and Teck Resources Ltd. As of Nov. 7, PolyMet is a wholly owned subsidiary of Switzerland-headquartered commodity trading and mining giant Glencore PLC.
