News

Mesabi Daily News
April 14, 2010

Mining just keeps on providing jobs and paychecks on the Iron Range long after the mineral was supposed to be exhausted.

Remember 2002? That was the previous name of a fund in the 1980s at the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board based on the projected year when mining resources would have been depleted.

The agency was created with a vision that no other mining area has realized. Establish a production tax paid by mining companies in lieu of property taxes, with the funds staying in the region to generate economic development when the nonrenewable mineral is gone.

The goal of economic diversity in a mining region is clear but has not been that easily attainable. Such economic diversity will always be a work in progress for the agency - work that should be done daily with an urgency that matches the reason for the IRRRB's existence. It's unfortunate that's not always the case.

Yes, we are better economically diversified than in the mid-1980s when the bottom fell out of the iron and steel industries. But while we have call centers, health care initiatives, a few more light manufacturing businesses and a much more aggressive and successful tourism industry, we also fall far short of generating the businesses and jobs needed to backfill the terrible exodus of families from the area more than two decades ago. The continuing annual declining K-12 enrollment numbers points out just how important is an aggressive agenda of jobs for the region.

Meanwhile, and quite fortunately, the mining industry on the region continues to be the backbone of the Range's economy.

Taconite mining remains strong, with last year's tough downturn part of a global economic meltdown. However, once again, the demand for taconite pellets is high and mines are running at good productivity.

Mesabi Nugget, producing a high-grade of iron ore nuggets, is now up and running with about 100 jobs created.

On the west end of the Range, a taconite mine and steelmaking operation is moving ahead.

And on the east end of the Range, we are poised for a new era of nonferrous mining that will produce copper, nickel and precious metals the state, nation and world needs to move forward with products that are essential to everyday life and also to help the global environment. So let's get on with it. It's time for bureaucrats and some environmentalists to get out of the way

Then there's Magnetation, which is producing hematite from iron ore tailings and providing even more mining jobs out of what has been discarded waste products.

Naysayers have often loudly proclaimed mining dead. Even the experts were wrong when they pinpointed 2002 as the year when the mining industry on the Range would go silent.

To paraphrase Mark Twain: The report of mining's death was an exaggeration.