Ten million Benjamins lined up for Essar’s new Range mine?

If it’s Friday afternoon on the Iron Range, some distant corporation must be quietly releasing an extremely important piece of news in a highly controlled manner. Folks ’round here just call this Miller Time.

The Hibbing Daily Tribune reports today that “foreign media outlets” are reporting that Essar Steel Minnesota has secured $1 billion in financing for its proposed mine near Nashwauk on Minnesota’s Mesabi Iron Range. My corresponding Google search reports that those foreign media outlets include the Hindu Business Line and the Press Trust of India. Amusingly, these exotic stories from the across the globe still seem to be written from an Essar corporate press statement, a practice that transcends religious and cultural differences. It is indeed a mighty press release that can be blindly converted into a news story on multiple continents. I will honor their success by doing the same here on my internet “weblog.”

Local Essar officials aren’t talking yet, but I’d say we’d be wise to trust the Hindu Business Line on these and other related matters until further notice. Get your Google Alerts on, people. The news gets dumped on Kolkata time these days.

Anyway, media snark aside, this would indicate that the troubling delay in Essar’s financing appears to be over and that the company will soon have the money it needs to start principle construction on its Nashwauk concentrating plant. The goal, as stated, includes building the Iron Range’s first direct reduced steel plant in coming years. That part remains a mystery. Stay tuned.

CORRECTION: An initial version of this post described “a billion Benjamins” for Essar’s financing package. Oops. A “Benjamin” equals $100. $1 billion would be ten million Benjamins.