Tuesday is a huge day for Minnesota Steel, the mining and steel-making operation set to break ground in Nashwauk within days. The Itasca County Board has several key decisions to make during its meeting today. Tonight officials with Essar, the Indian company that owns the project, meet with Range lawmakers and other leaders to go over final details about groundbreaking. Most indications I’ve seen show that the first phase of this project, the concentrate mine, is a go. Groundbreaking dates I’ve seen range from Sept. 15-19. It would be even better if we got some indications that the full steel mill was also entering finite planning stages.
This project, like any big industrial project, always creates mixed feelings. Some will be disappointed that yet another polluting plant will be built in our north woods, while others will cheer the potential jobs and economic growth. I have concluded that large-scale projects build on brown sites (already touched by past industry) are good, so long as they make financial sense and meet environmental regulations. That’s why I have been very supportive of some projects and very opposed to others. This project, if realized, puts the area’s economy back to where it was when Butler Taconite closed on the same location back in the early 1980s. We get another chance to build a modern economy on the shoulders of our natural resource traditions. Let’s get it right.
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