MINE XII: Guest Column: Land Withdrawal Threatens the Region
Mesabi Daily News, Hibbing Daily Tribune, Grand Rapids Herald-Review and the Chisholm Tribune Press
Bill Hanna
The federal government is threatening our region. Future jobs and our way of life are at risk.
The citizens of Northeastern Minnesota need to take action and let their voices be heard.
MINE XII: PolyMet: Slow and Steady Progress
Mesabi Daily News, Hibbing Daily Tribune, Grand Rapids Herald-Review and the Chisholm Tribune Press
Bill Hanna
Jon Cherry took little time pondering the question and his response.
After all, he’s heard the same query repeatedly the last few years. And his answers have varied only when significant project updates were inserted from time to time.
“Obviously we wish it would be going faster,” Cherry said in a recent telephone interview from company Twin Cities offices, regarding final permitting work for the PolyMet copper/nickel/precious metals venture near Hoyt Lakes and Babbitt.
“But the process is being followed, and it will be very good — the best — when done,” he added.
[…]
Or, put another way: If such slow and stringent approval would have been needed to extract minerals to build the country, horses would have been regularly shoed and wagon wheels fixed well beyond their commercial life expediency.
The project holds great job and financial promise for the Iron Range — especially the east end, which has been economically devastated ever since LTV Mining shut down in 2001.
County Board Gives Trump Letter Final Approval
Duluth News Tribune
John Myers
The St. Louis County Board of Commissioners Tuesday gave final approval to a resolution asking the Trump administration to overturn a late Obama administration ban on copper mining near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.
Read More: http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/news/4218056-county-board-gives-trump-letter-final-approval
Our View: Trump Can Undo Order to Change Rules on Mining
Duluth News Tribune
Editorial Board
Mining hadn’t even been proposed yet. There was still just mineral exploration in far Northeastern Minnesota, the drilling down into the Earth to see what was there, to see if there was enough to help satisfy our nation’s hunger for the copper and other metals that power our everyday existence, our necessities like cell phones, cars and lights.
[…]
Twin Metals was $400 million into that process and into what could be $3 billion of private investment in our state with the promise of nearly 1,000 badly needed, good-paying, family-supporting jobs.
Fox 21
Melissa Lentz
PolyMet Mining, Inc. has submitted their updated water appropriation permit application to the Department of Natural Resources.