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- Editorial: A needed and clear sign for nonferrous
- PolyMet: Oberstar Visits
- Officials tout benefits of mine near Ely
- Pawlenty ‘excited’ about mine proposal
- Deal could bring Iron Range 600 new mining jobs
- New law helped pave way for Michigan nonferrous project
- Copper mine near BWCA gets financing
- Duluth Metals Signs Definitive Participation Agreement With Antofagasta Plc On Nokomis Project
- Nokomis project gets $130 million infusion
- PolyMet Waits For The O.K.
News
Duluth News Tribune
January 12, 2010
Most people do not know that the products they consume — appliances, cars, cell phones, electricity, clothing, homes, cabins, hotels, office buildings and on and on — have to come from somewhere. I don’t mean Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Ford Motor Co. or real estate companies, etc. Products come from Mother Earth. Included in the things we get from Mother Earth are copper, nickel, palladium, platinum and gold — sometimes referred to as the precious metals group — and are used in or are required to develop all of the products we consume on a daily basis.
Most people do not know that the products they consume — appliances, cars, cell phones, electricity, clothing, homes, cabins, hotels, office buildings and on and on — have to come from somewhere. I don’t mean Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Ford Motor Co. or real estate companies, etc. Products come from Mother Earth. Included in the things we get from Mother Earth are copper, nickel, palladium, platinum and gold — sometimes referred to as the precious metals group — and are used in or are required to develop all of the products we consume on a daily basis.
We have been mining iron ore in Minnesota on the Mesabi Range for more than 100 years and actually still provide about 75 percent of the iron ore needed to make steel for this country. Northeastern Minnesota, which is not just a vacation land for those of means, has an opportunity to mine the precious metals listed above, on a brownfield site, which happens to be the former LTV Steel Mining Co., near Hoyt Lakes.
PolyMet Mining hopes to receive the necessary permits to mine and process the metals at the former LTV Steel plant site. In fact, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, in conjunction with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, recently released the long-awaited PolyMet Mining Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the project.
The state of Minnesota has some of the strictest environmental laws in the country, Northeastern Minnesota has the natural resources, Minnesota needs the employment and increased tax revenue, and PolyMet Mining has the project. Let’s get off our laurels and complete this permit process.
I support this project and so should everyone in Minnesota!
Art Lind
Hibbing
