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Magnetation to reorganize under Chapter 11 bankruptcy
Last week we reported the financial woes of Magnetation, the scram mining and iron ore processing company based on the western Mesabi Iron Range. Their partner and chief customer AK Steel declined to continue putting money into the company and Magnetation began working with financial advisors to keep the company afloat. Rumors were grim, to…
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Cliffs lays off 100 Iron Range salaried workers
On Monday, Cliffs Natural Resources announced 100 job cuts at its Northern Minnesota mines affecting salaried workers at Hibbing Taconite, United Taconite in Eveleth and Northshore Mining in Babbitt and Silver Bay. Cliffs had declared optimism about avoiding Iron Range shutdowns just last week, but also unveiled a mine closure in Michigan and huge first quarter losses.…
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The distant barons of Duluth and the Iron Range
As readers here know, we in Northern Minnesota are living in a time of speculation and bewilderment over the machinations of distant industrial powers. The regional economy of the Iron Range is dangling on a bouncing string pulled by unseen actors. But this is nothing new. Same now as it ever was. Zenith City Online, a…
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The mighty power of the freshwater seas
In Northern Minnesota, one’s eyes simply adjust to seeing the Canadian flag alongside the Stars and Stripes. Whether it started as a diplomatic favor, or a ploy to pull in Canadian tourists, the practice shows no signs of changing. The pep bands learn “O, Canada” and it’s widely understood that we have a lot more…
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Life is for people, not industries or ideologies
Northland’s NewsCenter recently completed a four-part series “Boom, Bust, and Beyond” about the causes and effects of the coming mining downturn on the Iron Range and ways to deal with it. The last piece focused on economic diversification, a frequent topic here at MinnesotaBrown, and featured an interview with yours truly, along with other Range officials…
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Audit shows lack of clarity, transparency in mining taxes
UPDATE: Post amended to reflect corrections from conflating IRRRB with genteral practice of mining taxation. Yesterday, Minnesota’s Legislative Auditor released a highly anticipated review of the financial practices of the state’s mining taxation system, which funds loval governments and the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board, the unique state agency that distributes funds from the Taconite Production Tax,…
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Cliffs optimistic even as other Iron Range mines struggle
UPDATE: Post amended to add Cliffs plant shutodown in Michigan. We’ve spend an exhausting amount of digital ink and radio blathering on the struggles facing Iron Range mines amid a global contraction in steelmaking and iron ore. U.S. Steel properties in Northern Minnesota are preparing for shutdown that could last the rest of the year, while…
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Another Russian incursion in Nordic waters?
Today, media sources reported that the Finnish Navy fired depth charges at a mysterious object in its territorial waters below the Gulf of Finland. Though an investigation will be needed to determine the exact nature of the object, it was suspected to be a Russian submarine. If so, that would be the second suspected Russian…
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Ride a painted pony let the spinning wheel turn
I’ve been wresting with something. If you were a regional blogger with yet-unrealized ambitions for greatness living in the woods deep outside a decaying industrial frontier where whatever doesn’t fit in your mailbox has to be picked up at the post office in Bovey (which is one of the closest towns but still 17 miles…
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Larson cruising in Duluth mayor race
Duluth City Councilor Emily Larson continues to clear the field in the race to succeed Duluth Mayor Don Ness in this fall’s election. On Tuesday, former Lt. Gov. and State Sen. Yvonne Prettner Solon announced she would not run for Mayor, and endorsed Larson in the process. Earlier in April, St. Louis County Commissioner Chris…
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Dire challenges ahead for Magnetation
The scram mining company Magnetation appears headed for a make or break moment in coming months after partner AK Steel said Tuesday it would not put any more money into the company. Right now Magnetation processes waste rock at old Mesabi Iron Range mine sites into iron pellets that feed AK Steel’s operations in Indiana.…
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City mulls animal layoffs at Duluth zoo
The Lake Superior Zoo in Duluth, Minnesota, is a place of special memories for those of us who grew up in Northern Minnesota. On one hand, it was “our zoo,” the first place where we laid eyes on exotic animals like you see in the storybooks and subject of our youthful curiosity. On the other,…
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Duluth Mayor opens Homegrown with pothole rock anthem
That’s right, the Duluth Homegrown Music Festival opened last night and runs all week in the Zenith City of Lake Superior, home to so many people who are in bands that the 2020 census might create the first Member of Congress elected by multi-band bass players and shiftless drummers experiencing creative differences. By all means,…
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Better living through sawhorses
In the hurly-burly churn of Iron Range news and controversies, it can be hard to find the steady constant of a noble cause. How about sawhorses? Everyone needs a sawhorse, eventually. Those sawhorses should be better. Lighter. More easy to store. And if an entrepreneurial couple from St. Paul with a tie to the Iron Range so happens…
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Smokey, smooth and sweet: Actual Wolf’s ‘Itasca’
Eric Pollard is a Grand Rapids, Minnesota, boy better known by the name he shares with his stage persona, band and ethos: Actual Wolf. A few years back, he emerged from behind the drum kit to become a front man and accomplished songwriter. Listening to him was to hear to a wolf trying on sound;…