Crandon Mine owner asks DNR to continue permit review Location of the mine site in Forest County near Crandon (photo by H. Marc Larson). By Monique Balas News-Chronicle Crandon Mine owner Nicolet Minerals Co. has reversed its previous request to halt its mining permit application and has submitted to the state Department of Natural Resources a request that the process continue. Gordon Connor, project manager for Nicolet Minerals Co., initially asked the DNR on May 29 to stop investigating its permit to mine at the site. On Aug. 26 he asked that the process continue. "Given recent discussions with the DNR addressing the issues that initially triggered our request for a stay, we are now withdrawing our request, notwithstanding and recognizing the fact that both the DNR and the (Army Corps of Engineers) continued with the permitting process," Connor said in a letter to the Department of Natural Resources' Crandon project manager, Melissa DeVetter. A copy of the letter was sent to The News-Chronicle. Connor's request came shortly after the DNR published a notice of intent to set minimum qualifications for metallic mining and prospecting mining permit applicants and operators. The DNR's notice is listed in the Aug. 15 Wisconsin Administrative Register. "The proposed rule will have direct application to the proposed Crandon Mine project and will likely be extremely controversial," the notice states. "At some point in the regulatory process, the applicant will need to demonstrate compliance with the minimum qualifications." In June, a group of 24 citizens, environmental groups and the town of Nashville filed a complaint and an intent to file a lawsuit with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. The group threatened the DNR with a lawsuit if the agency did not begin to require minimum standards of people who apply for mining permits. The notice gave the DNR 30 days to comply with the group's wishes before the lawsuit was filed.