About Us

History

PolyMet was incorporated in British Columbia in 1981 under the name Fleck Resources Ltd.

The company explored various mineral deposits in North America, including Labrador and Minnesota. Fleck conducted exploratory work in the Duluth Complex and acquired the NorthMet deposit from United States Steel Corporation in 1989.

In June 1998, the company decided to focus on mineral development instead of mineral exploration and, to reflect the change in corporate policy, changed its name to PolyMet Mining Corporation. The term "Poly" refers to “many” and "Met" to metals.

In 2005, PolyMet acquired the former LTV Steel Mining Company processing plant (Erie Plant).

The Erie Plant comprises a large crushing, grinding and milling facility that was built by a consortium of steel companies in the mid-1950s and processed low-grade iron ore known as taconite that was transported to the facility by railroad from nearby mines. In the mid-1980’s, the consortium was consolidated into a single owner – LTV Steel. Pickands-Mather and its successor Cleveland Cliffs operated the plant on behalf of the owners, processing approximately 100,000 tons per day of taconite ore. The plant was shut down in 2001 when LTV Steel filed for bankruptcy protection.

Strategic Partnership

In 2008, PolyMet entered into marketing and financing agreements with Glencore AG. Glencore AG maintains offices in Stamford, Connecticut, is a subsidiary of Glencore International AG (together "Glencore"), which is a leading diversified natural resources company with worldwide activities in the smelting, refining, mining, processing, purchasing, selling and marketing of metals and minerals, energy products and agricultural products.

For further information about Glencore, see www.glencore.com.

Under the marketing agreement, Glencore is the exclusive marketer of all of PolyMet's metal products – concentrates, intermediate products or finished metal - for a period at least the first five years of operations.

As part of this agreement, one of Glencore's senior technical experts has joined PolyMet's Technical Steering Committee. Through both the marketing and technical relationship, Glencore has been involved in PolyMet's repositioning of the project to focus on production of concentrates and intermediate products.

In addition, Glencore has invested and committed a total of $80 million dollars, in three financing transactions. In summary, as of November 2010 these transactions comprise:

• $25 million debenture secured by the assets of the company, which can be exchanged into PolyMet common stock at $4.00 per share. The debentures are due September 30, 2012 and carry an interest rate of 12-month US dollar LIBOR plus 4%. At Glencore's election, the interest is being capitalized into the loan.
• $25 million equity investment at $2.65 per share.
• $30 million equity investment at $2.00 per share committed November 2010.
• In addition, Glencore holds warrants to purchase 3 million shares of PolyMet common stock at $2.00 per share at any time until December 31, 2015.

Collectively these agreements give Glencore the right to own approximately 20% of PolyMet's common stock based on exchange of the debentures and exchange of the warrants.