Third in a series on the money behind the Copperwood Mine. Everything here comes from documents you can read yourself. Sources are at the end.
The short version
An organization called InvestUP has spent two years telling the Michigan Legislature, the press, and the people of Gogebic County that the Copperwood Mine deserves a $50 million public grant.
In one of those releases, InvestUP told the public that the mine’s cleanup costs are covered by the company “no matter what.”
Michigan’s own mining permit estimates the cleanup at $37,960,000. The state actually holds a bond worth $6,479,089.
And the chief executive of the mining company sits on InvestUP’s board of directors.
None of InvestUP’s releases about the Copperwood Mine mention that last part.
That’s the whole story. The rest of this is the evidence.
The sentence
In December 2024, InvestUP published a press release headlined “Don’t Let Misinformation Kill a Once in a Generation Opportunity.” (1)
It was a fact-check. Nine bullet points under the heading “Here are the facts.” The last one:
“As required by Michigan law, Highland Copper maintains a bond with the state to ensure that the cost of mine closure and remediation is covered by the company, no matter what.”
Here is what Michigan’s mining permit actually says, in Special Condition N.1:
“The total financial assurance estimated for the Copperwood Mine for reclamation costs at the closure stage of production is determined to be $37,960,000 as of the date this permit was issued.” (2)
That permit was issued in April 2012. The bond currently on file, according to the company’s own audited financial statements, is $6,479,089. (3)
About seventeen cents on the dollar, measured against a fourteen-year-old estimate. I wrote about that gap two weeks ago, before I knew this press release existed.
Who InvestUP is
InvestUP calls itself the regional economic development organization for the Upper Peninsula, working across all fifteen counties. Its chief executive is Marty Fittante, who spent fourteen years working in the Michigan Legislature before taking the job in 2019. (4)
Nobody expects InvestUP to be neutral about economic development. Promoting it is the organization’s stated purpose, and it does real work on housing, workforce, and business growth across a region that badly needs all three.
But a booster saying “this project would be good for us” is a different thing from a booster saying “here are the facts, ignore the misinformation.” The second one asks you to trust it as a referee. And that’s when it matters who is on the team.
The name on the list
InvestUP files an IRS Form 990 every year. It is a public document. Anyone can read it on ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer.
The 2024 return lists thirty-three voting directors. Number twenty-four is Barry O’Shea. (5)
Barry O’Shea is the Chief Executive Officer of Highland Copper Company — the parent company of Copperwood Resources Inc., which owns the Copperwood Mine.
He is quoted by name, as Highland Copper’s CEO, in that same December 2024 release and in at least four others InvestUP has published about the project. (1, 6, 7, 8) One of them is datelined “Marquette, Mich. and Vancouver, Canada,” carries both organizations’ logos, and lists media contacts for both.
So when InvestUP told Michigan that Copperwood’s cleanup costs were covered no matter what, the organization saying it had the company’s chief executive on its board.
None of the releases mention that.
What the governance answers say
The same Form 990 asks a series of standard questions about how a nonprofit polices itself. (5)
Line 12a: Does the organization have a written conflict of interest policy? Yes.
Line 12b: Are officers, directors, and key employees required to disclose annually interests that could give rise to conflicts? No.
Line 13: Whistleblower policy? No.
Line 14: Document retention and destruction policy? No.
Schedule O explains that the expectation is for a conflicted director to recuse himself, “as evidenced by past practice.”
That is an honor system. It may work fine. But it is worth knowing that it is the only mechanism in place on a board where one member’s company is the subject of the organization’s most sustained public advocacy campaign.
One more number from the same return: of $2,311,288 in contributions and grants, $1,626,053 came from government grants. (5) InvestUP is substantially funded by public money.
The poll released three days before the vote
On the morning of Friday, August 21, 2026, InvestUP issued a press release announcing new statewide polling conducted by EPIC-MRA. The headline number: 71 percent of Michigan voters support the Copperwood Project. The release added that 46 percent of respondents expressed some concern about environmental impact, and that 61 percent remained in favor after environmental factors were considered. (13)
WLUC TV6 and WUPM both carried it. (13, 14)
EPIC-MRA is a legitimate firm. It has operated in Lansing since 1985 and is the most frequently cited pollster in Michigan, quoted by NBC, CBS, CNN, NPR, and most major newspapers in the state. Nothing here questions their competence.
What is missing is everything a reader would need to evaluate the number.
The release did not disclose who commissioned the poll. It did not give the sample size, the field dates, the margin of error, or — most importantly — the wording of the questions asked. When EPIC-MRA polls for media clients, the full instrument is routinely published; WOOD TV, for example, posts the complete frequency-of-response tables. Nothing comparable was released here.
That matters because EPIC-MRA, like most survey firms, runs a monthly statewide omnibus survey in which outside organizations can purchase a battery of questions. Under that arrangement, a poll can accurately be described as “conducted by EPIC-MRA” while the questions themselves were written and paid for by an interested party. I do not know whether that is what happened here. I asked. (See below.)
Tom Grotewohl of Protect the Porkies called the poll “bogus” and argued that question wording drives the result. (13) He may be right, but neither he nor I can demonstrate it without seeing the instrument.
The timing is a matter of public record. The Michigan Strategic Fund Board is scheduled to take up roughly $50 million in state support for Copperwood infrastructure in the coming days — the third such attempt, after the first stalled in Senate Appropriations in 2024 and a second was stripped from the state budget in October 2025. (15, 16)
A favorable poll, released by the project’s principal advocacy organization, with no methodology attached, on the last business day before that vote.
The pattern
InvestUP’s handling of public money has drawn scrutiny before, and the reporting is not mine.
In August 2025, Craig Mauger of The Detroit News published “Nonprofit uses tax money to fund ‘upscale’ U.P. apartments developed by its founder.” (9) The story concerns a $15 million state earmark to InvestUP for housing, and money flowing to apartments developed by Robert Mahaney, who was InvestUP’s chairman at the time. The Detroit News followed with additional reporting in December 2025. (10, 11)
Mahaney remains on the board; he appears as director number nineteen on the same Form 990. (5)
He has responded publicly. In an October 2025 Q&A with The Mining Journal, Mahaney said his company followed every applicable guideline, never sought favorable treatment, never spoke with Build UP decision-makers about the awards, and that board membership at InvestUP follows automatically from being one of roughly thirty-five member organizations. (12)
I have not independently verified The Detroit News reporting. I cite it as published work by a statewide newspaper, for context — not as a finding of my own. Readers should read it and judge for themselves.
The relevance here is narrow and I want to state it precisely: an organization substantially funded by public money, whose stewardship of public money has already been the subject of newspaper investigation, does not require its directors to disclose conflicts annually — and has the CEO of the mine it promotes sitting on its board.
Questions this raises
These questions are open to InvestUP, to Highland Copper, and to any member of InvestUP’s board:
When did Barry O’Shea join the InvestUP board? Did he recuse himself from any decision relating to InvestUP’s Copperwood advocacy? Is Highland Copper a dues-paying member or financial contributor to InvestUP?
Who commissioned the EPIC-MRA polling released on August 21, and will the full question wording and methodology be made public?
And on what basis did InvestUP tell the public that closure costs are covered “no matter what”?
I have not received answers to any of these. I will publish any response I get, in full, including any that shows I have gotten something wrong.
Questions also remain outstanding with the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy: whether the reclamation cost estimate updates required every three years by General Permit Condition F.6 have ever been filed, and what the state’s current cleanup estimate is in today’s dollars. (2)
Twenty-two units of local government passed resolutions supporting this project. They were reading material like this. I would like to know whether anyone showed them the permit at the same time.
Previous pieces: “Copperwood Mine: The $31 Million Hole in the Cleanup Fund” and “Copperwood Mine: Its Owner Told Investors It Might Not Survive.”
How this publication is researched and written, including my use of AI as a research and drafting tool, is on the About page.
Sources
InvestUP, “Don’t Let Misinformation Kill a Once in a Generation Opportunity,” December 16, 2024. investupmi.com.
Nonferrous Metallic Mineral Mining Permit No. MP 01 2012, Special Permit Conditions § N.1. Permit issued April 30, 2012. General Permit Conditions § F.6 requires an updated reclamation cost estimate on or before March 15 of every third year after issuance.
Highland Copper Company Inc., Consolidated Financial Statements for the years ended June 30, 2025 and 2024: surety bond of $6,479,089 secured July 2023 as financial assurance for the Copperwood Project.
InvestUP, “Meet the Team,” investupmi.com.
Invest Up, IRS Form 990 for fiscal year ending December 2024, EIN 82-2441360, filed January 2026. Part VII Section A (directors); Part VI Section B lines 12a, 12b, 13, 14; Schedule O; Part VIII line 1e. Available at ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer.
InvestUP, “Upper Peninsula Leaders Commend $50 Million State Investment in Copperwood Mine Project,” 2024.
InvestUP, “Western Upper Peninsula Communities Demonstrate Continued Support for the Copperwood Mine Project,” datelined Marquette, Mich. and Vancouver, Canada.
InvestUP, “’We’re Not Slowing Down’: U.P. Resilience Powers Copperwood Mine Project Despite State Budget Decision,” 2025.
Craig Mauger, The Detroit News, August 26, 2025: “Nonprofit uses tax money to fund ‘upscale’ U.P. apartments developed by its founder.” Also carried by The Mining Journal, August 28, 2025.
The Detroit News, December 8, 2025: “U.P. business group reported lobbyist, whiskey glass bills after getting taxpayer cash.”
The Detroit News, December 8, 2025: “3 projects involving same U.P. developer netted help from state lawmakers.”
The Mining Journal, October 23, 2025: “Mahaney addresses Detroit News article in Q&A session.”
WLUC TV6, August 21, 2026: “Poll suggests 71% of Michiganders support Copperwood Project; Protect the Porkies calls poll ‘bogus.’”
WUPM 106.9, August 21, 2026, news summary carrying the InvestUP polling release.
Bridge Michigan, October 2025: reporting on the removal of $50 million for Copperwood infrastructure from the state budget.
Reporting on the Michigan Strategic Fund Board’s scheduled reconsideration of approximately $50 million in state support for the Copperwood Project, August 2026.