Here’s a seemingly benign story about the delay of a land sale deal from Itasca County to Essar Steel, the company that has backed a proposed iron mining and steel-making operation on Minnesota’s Iron Range.

What is really going on here is that there is question about the true intent of Essar Steel in operating a true iron-to-steel operation or just a taconite plant that feeds a steel plant owned by Essar in Ontario. What’s the difference? Hundreds of jobs and the future of the Iron Range as envisioned by the developers of this project.