While prowling around in the latest issue of the Ironwood Daily Globe I found this most interesting story about portions of the so called closed White Pine Mine being used in a most unusual way. Here's the story
Subterra lighting up former White Pine MinePublished Friday, December 22, 2006 2:03:14 PM Central Time
By JAN TUCKER
Globe Staff Writer
WHITE PINE -- The bowels of the former Copper Range Mine in White Pine are dark, cold and damp. But you reach a door, open it and you are in another world, a world of plants, bright light and warmth. You are at Subterra, the second of three underground growth centers in the world.
The concept of a growth center in the White Pine Mine was the result of a story in National Geographic. Eric Dudson was president of Copper Range in 1996 and the owners of the mine had made the decision to close it down and flood it. Dudson was reading National Geographic and there was a story of a underground growth center in the Flin Flon Mine in Manitoba. Dudson contacted Brent Zettl owner and president of Prairie Plant Systems, which operated the center.
Zettl first stepped foot on the White Pine Mine site in 1996.
In 2000, Subterra was formed and the second underground mine in the world in White Pine became a reality. Reality was slow to come to fruition, however, since it took until February 2004 to negotiate with the former mine owners and the State of Michigan the long-term access to the site.
Meanwhile a 3,000-square-foot pilot project opened with a contract with Health Canada to grow tobacco for use in the study of treatment for bone cancer.
Today, the growth center is full and serious discussion s are underway with three pharmaceutical firms
The largest present contract is with Prairie Plant Systems own firm developing a Hepatitis C vaccine. The vaccine is licensed through the University of Canada at Saskatchewan, Division of Vaccines and Infectious Disease. Prairie Plant Systems has the world wide rights for the plant manufacture research. Zettl said that the plant becomes the living host and the plant actually manufactures the vaccine. Zettl said the discovery found the protein molecule is designed to go after the core of the hepatitis virus.
Zettl said that since the present 3,000-square-foot chamber is full, the company has a potential of developing over 60 acres in the mine when new contracts are available. He said it would take about eight months to prepare an expansion.
Zettl continued that the vaccine is processed on the site and what is left is burned.
A second contract underway at Subterra is growth of a plant that produces insulin. It is being done on a pilot scale at the present time.
Zettl points to the Canadian operation which he said started slowly at first and now has large laboratories which meet all regulatory compliances with good manufacturing practices. "We have proven we have the ability to produce this material under all regulatory and secure conditions and manage all genetic materials in an environmentally responsible manner," Zettl said.
Zettl is passionate about the future of the center.
"I see a good future here," he predicted, noting that by 2020 it is expected that medicines produced in plants will be worth $26 billion in the retail system.
He continued that outdoor manufacture of these products will not be an option for the pharmaceutical companies since outdoor risks are too high . The companies need quality control, ideal weather and confidentiality.
"Nothing will stop the march of science as we have some nasty diseases that need to be harnessed. The use of plants as a living host is basic and environmentally the safest way to go," Zettl said.
He called the growth centers in Canada and White Pine pioneers in a cutting edge field. He explained that often he has been unable to talk publicly about the program because some pharmaceutical companies do not want their competition to know about specific experiments. "But we want the public to know we are alive and kicking in White Pine and right now operating at capacity."
Zettl will be featured soon on the HD Television network when he flew to Los Angles for an interview with Dan Rather. That interview featured the Canadian Growth Center in the Flin Flon.
For White Pine, and Subterra, the future is promising and that cold, dark, empty mine has a bright future, one that could help cure disease and ease pain for millions of people
