Duluth News Tribune
Editorial

While not exactly a team of rivals, the varied interests coming together to rally for precious metals mining in Northeastern Minnesota send an unmistakable message: This budding industry, with its potential to transform our economy and our region for the better, needs to finally be permitted and up and operating and creating jobs and having an impact that’s sure to be felt all the way to St. Paul and beyond.

Under the umbrella of a 4-month-old nonprofit coalition called Jobs for Minnesotans (jobsforminnesotans.org), people increasing the volume on the urgency for metals mining and its positive impact include labor, industry management, economic-development professionals, chamber officials and even a state senator.

“We’ve got a fantastic story to tell. It’s incumbent on us to tell it,” Jobs for Minnesotans spokesman Mike Franklin said this week in a meeting with members of the editorial board. “(Mining) is a statewide asset. We can do it without jeopardizing the environment. … Having business and labor joining together (to tell the story) is the best.”