Mining may displace yet another Iron Range highway

The ever expanding and deepening Hull Rust Mahoning Mine Pit located just north of Hibbing, Minnesota. (PHOTO: Lars Hammar, Creative Commons license)

The ever expanding and deepening Hull Rust Mahoning Mine Pit located just north of Hibbing, Minnesota. (PHOTO: Lars Hammar, Flickr CC)

By now we’ve talked plenty about the rerouting project for Iron Range Highways 53 and 135 near Virginia and Eveleth to accommodate new mining activity at Cliffs’ United Taconite mine. Now Cliffs says it will need to move Highway 5 between Hibbing and Chisholm to allow Hibbing Taconite to continue mining.

The project would happen in 2017 and would temporarily route traffic through downtown Chisholm, perhaps requiring a new intersection near the Iron Man.

Unlike the massively expensive Highway 53 project, for which the state is on the hook, the mine must negotiate with the state for who pays for the Highway 5 project. With the mining industry reeling in 2015, talk of the survival of Hibbing Taconite will surely play into those negotiations.

But the question remains: how many mines will survive this current iron pricing collapse? Big changes are coming to the Range, and the rosy talk of just scooching over a highway might not be so simple.

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