By JEFF BENNETT
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER
July 21, 2000

In an Upper Peninsula mine where workers once extracted copper, Canadian scientists are growing tobacco plants in hopes of discovering a medicine to fight bone marrow cancer.

The work 200 feet below the surface also could give a boost to a small town that has had its share of economic problems. Biologically engineered plants are grown within the walls of the defunct White Pine Mine, which was once the U.P.'s largest copper producer.

The mine environment can be controlled and there's an abundance of carbon dioxide in the air. By regulating temperature, light, nutrients and water, the growers avoid setbacks caused by insects, drought or wind.

The plants' seeds carry a protein that will be extracted by researchers for Health Canada, the nation's health department. The project is expected to be unveiled today at the mine.

About 40 plants are being grown in the 3,000 square-foot chambers. That number is expected to increase later to 1,000.

The White Pine growth chamber pilot project, which would be the third underground growth chamber of its kind in the world and the first in the United States, will cost about $500,000.

SubTerra, a joint venture of White Pine area investors and the privately held Canadian company Prairie Plant Systems Inc., operates the growth chamber and hopes ultimately to hire 75 to 100 workers.

Brent Zettl, Prairie Plant's president and chief executive officer, said that if the pilot project goes as expected, the mine's growth chamber would be expanded. The goal is to contract research projects with other Canadian and American pharmaceutical companies. "Ultimately we want to add another 400,000 to 500,000 square feet."

It's welcome news for the town of White Pine.

When the mine closed in September 1995, more than 1,000 workers were thrown out of work, said Robert Burgess, a mine worker for 40 years and now the White Pine Township clerk. Its unemployment rate in May was 7.7 percent, more than double the state average of 3.3 percent.

White Pine has been looking for a spark to bring in new business. It has even turned the mine area into an industrial park.

"I'm sure this is going to be a definite boost to the area when they get the product up and \running and it is accepted," Burgess said. "There is hope that there will be more employment in the general area."

The protein research is part of a project to manufacture proteins that will protect human cells from being attacked by cancer.

Primary bone cancer is rare, with about 2,500 new cases diagnosed each year in the United States. But more commonly, bones are the site of tumors that result from the spread of cancer from other organs, such as breasts, lungs and prostate.

The White Pine plan is based on a successful pilot project at the Flin Flon copper mine in Manitoba, Canada, where, in a 1,000 square foot space, Prairie Plant accelerated the growth rate of 200 varieties of plants ranging for hibiscus to roses to herbs and woody plants.

Agriculture biotech, once an industry success story, has met resistance, first in the mid-1980s in Europe. Now in the United States has shielded away from genetically enhanced agriculture. The fear is that, in growing a plant to host a protein, a new breed is created that could be harmful to humans and wipe out current crops.

White Pine Mine once produced about 35,900 tons of copper annually. The Copper Range Co. closed the mine due to rising expenses and volatile copper markets.

The following year, the company began shipping sulfuric acid by train from the Southwest to the mine. The company was injecting the acid into the underground mine galleries and tunnels to dissolve the copper in the remaining ore. The project was abandoned after protests from the Bad River Chippewa, who feared a spill from a train transporting the acid through their land in Wisconsin.

How proteins work

The copper mine in White Pine Township is the new site for a biotechnology project conducted by Health Canada that nation's health department. The department has contracted with a Canadian company to increase production of tobacco seeds containing a new protein to treat bone marrow cancer.

Tobacco plants are among the easiest to biologically engineer. The protein is to be extracted by Health Canada researchers once the seeds are harvested in October.

Proteins fight cancer in a number of ways:
* Bonding to a human cell to block it from being attacked by cancer
* Strengthening cells and thereby stoping the spread of cancer within the affected cell.
* Assisting cells to communicate with other cells within the body to identify where cancer exists.

Use of proteins is one of the latest steps in cancer fighting. In 1999, Dr. Gunter Blobel won the Nobel Prize in medicine for his work in understanding how a cell works and introducing the idea of using proteins to fight different diseases.