Session Update: Sustaining Mining Potential

A measure to ensure the continued development of an embattled mining site in Nashwauk was laid over for later consideration by the Senate Mining and Forestry Policy Committee Tuesday, March 23. Butler Taconite shuttered operations in 1985, and efforts to revitalize the mine have met with repeated roadblocks. Senator David Tomassoni, I-Chisholm, is the author of SF 2112, a bill that would prevent the termination of environmental permits related to the mine in the event the current permit and mineral lease holder, Mesabi Metallics, fails to meet the provisions of agreements with the Department of Natural Resources and the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.

Citing global pressures and financing difficulties, Tomassoni called the bill a kind of insurance policy in the event Mesabi Metallics fails to meet an upcoming deadline. By allowing the environmental permits to continue despite a mineral lease termination, another company would be able to take over the site without starting the environmental permitting process over again.

“Your iPhone has sixty-one different minerals in it, and none of that magically falls out of the sky and shows up at Apple’s factory. What we do is the start of a lot of big things, and they’re very, very good jobs, and we are very good stewards of the land,” Senator Tomassoni concluded.