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Mesabi Metallics to try building upon Essar bones
Mesabi Metallics issued a plan last week to bring the former Essar Steel Minnesota iron ore project in Nashwauk, Minnesota, out of bankruptcy and back into construction. A judge must now consider whether the newly reorganized company has sufficiently proven its case to keep the state mineral leases along the western Mesabi Iron Range. “Creditors will receive vastly…
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Animation depicts Hibbing’s new Beltline roundabout
This summer, the Minnesota Department of Transportation and the Iron Range city of Hibbing will install a two-lane roundabout at the intersection of Highways 169 and 37. News of this change has already caused many Range residents to go, “blurggle, blurggle, a-fuff-fuff-fuff!” This is one of Hibbing’s busiest intersections. I spend a portion of most mornings…
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Minnesota fifth largest source of U.S. minerals
Minnesota is the fifth largest producer of American mineral resources according to a recent report by the U.S. Geological Survey. The state remains the largest producer of iron ore in the country, but also produces many millions of dollars worth of industrial sand and stone. From the Myers story: The USGS report reiterated what…
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ERP Iron Ore finalizes purchase of Magnetation
Bankrupt Magnetation is officially under new ownership. State of Virginia-based ERP Iron Ore finalized a purchase agreement of Magnetation according to ongoing bankruptcy proceedings. WDIO reported the story earlier today. Magnetation, based in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, is a scram mining and iron ore processing company. The company recycles iron ore from waste piles in Northern Minnesota and…
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MINOS lab departs Soudan mine cavern
This week crews remove components from the MINOS laboratory on the 27th level of the Soudan Underground Mine on Northern Minnesota’s Iron Range. The picture above shows massive steel “neutrino tracking” panels” being removed from the facility. Since 2003, the lab hosted notable experiments testing the nature of subatomic particles in a beam fired underground…
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Former Range senator Tony Perpich dies
Last Saturday, former Iron Range State Sen. Tony Perpich (DFL-Eveleth) died in his Shoreview, Minn., home at the age of 84. He had battled heart disease. Perpich grew up part of a politically charged first generation Croatian immigrant family raised in the mining location of Carson Lake. With his brothers, he helped reshape Iron Range politics in the 1960s,…
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School gun range shot down by lead complaint
Last October, I shared news of a suddenly controversial gun range in the basement of the Lincoln Elementary School in Hibbing. After efforts to keep the range compliant with safety concerns, it now appears that lead contamination may doom the facility. For sixty years the Lincoln, originally a middle school, featured an underground gun range that…
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Slice of Life: 78 years of columns from Floodwood writer
Every once in a while I congratulate myself because I’ve written a continuous weekly newspaper column for the Hibbing Daily Tribune since June of 2001. Every Sunday (and sometimes more often) I’ve had an original thought, sometimes coherent, in the paper. As of today, that’s almost 16 years of columns, not insignificant in today’s media…
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Hwy 53 bridge work spans cold Iron Range winter
We woke up to 32 below in my western corner of the Mesabi Iron Range this morning. Unlike other parts of the country, that’s a matter of personal comfort. It would take even colder conditions to disrupt routine. Minnesotans may not like, but generally can handle such temperatures. After all, the vast majority work indoors, where…
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Mesabi Metallics sues former parent Essar Global
Essar Steel Minnesota, now doing business as Mesabi Metallics, is suing former parent company India-based Essar Global over mismanagement. WDIO and other media outlets reported the news Thursday. Mesabi Metallics seeks to emerge from bankruptcy and resume construction of a $1.6 billion taconite plant near Nashwauk, Minnesota. But according to their lawsuit, the project site…
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On PolyMet and the price of hope
This week, the U.S. Forest Service announced the approval of a land swap with the PolyMet Mining Corporation. The government will release 6,650 acres of federal land in Northern Minnesota to PolyMet in exchange for 6,690 acres of non-federal lands. Essentially, PolyMet gains access to a large contiguous section of forested land located within its…
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Fairview takes over Grand Itasca
The Grand Itasca Clinic and Hospital in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, is now under new ownership. The Fairview System officially took over Grand Itasca on Jan. 1. Fairview is affiliated with the University of Minnesota Health system in Minneapolis. Fairview also operates the Range Regional Medical Center in Hibbing, the Iron Range’s largest hospital. According to…
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Format changes shake up Iron Range radio dial
Last August I shared news that Midwest Communications had purchased five new stations from Duluth-based Red Rock Radio. Wausau, Wisconsin-based Midwest owns more than 73 stations in seven states. Due to federal regulations, Midwest had to shed some of its other frequencies in Northern Minnesota to take over the new stations. On New Year’s Day, format…
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Iron Range Makerspace finds home in Hibbing
Iron Range Makerspace announced just before Christmas that it bought the empty Hibbing VFW building on the Highway 169 Beltline. The move will finally provide a permanent location for this unique laboratory for tinkers, be they students, amateurs or professionals. I wrote about the Iron Range Makerspace concept just over a year ago. CEO Andrew Hanegmon and his…
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MinnesotaBrown’s Top Posts of 2016
Goodbye, 2016. Hello, 2017. As we mark this turn of the calendar page, let’s look back at the year that was at MinnesotaBrown.com. This year I celebrated 10 years of blogging at MinnesotaBrown.com. Fifteen years of writing a column in the Hibbing Daily Tribune. Twenty years of work in Iron Range media, dating back to…