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Is this the 1980s again on the Iron Range?
I grew up in the 1980s on a junkyard just a few miles south of Eveleth Taconite. Growing up on a junkyard is probably the best way to understand the things humans build, sell, use and discard. So let’s consider a new car. I’ve only ever bought one brand new car fresh off the lot. It…
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Political theater ensures people keep ‘driving through’ Range
It’s been a busy week and will be a busy weekend, so I can’t get too wound up about highway politics on the Mesabi Iron Range. After all, I’ve probably said enough in recent months about State Highway 53 and St. Louis County Highway 5, both of which are on the move to accommodate mining…
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Range War: Essar, Cliffs clash shows Mesabi at crossroads
~ ~ ~ Speculation can be ignored, but one must reckon with concrete. Here along Northern Minnesota’s Mesabi Iron Range one finds many messy versions of the truth surrounding Essar Minnesota’s new taconite mine under construction near Nashwauk. While controversial, actual activity at Essar shows that new mining will happen on the grounds of the…
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Cliffs CEO threatens to close mine
UPDATE: Cliffs Natural Resources spent most of Monday trying to walk back Goncalves’s comments about closing an Iron Range mine. ### Lourenco Goncalves, CEO of Cliffs Natural Resources, is threatening to close one of Cliffs’ Iron Range mines in the event Essar Steel opens its new mine near Nashwauk. This is Bill Hanna’s front page story of today’s…
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Thinkers, tinkers and 3-D printers
Growing up, my dad was a leather whip of a man who chain-smoked Winston cigarettes and spent nearly all his free time tinkering with an invention in his garage. When they first taught us how to use this new thing called “the internet” at my high school, my inaugural search was about patent law, seeking…
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‘End is Near’ for Iron Range mine view
With peak fall colors upon us, this weekend offers a historic opportunity for travelers to Northern Minnesota’s Mesabi Iron Range. “Mineview in the Sky” is a scenic overlook situated upon a mine dump between Eveleth and Virginia. Due to proposed new mining by Cliffs’ United Taconite plant which is forcing the relocation of Highway 53, “Mineview in the Sky” will…
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Feds OK environmental review on Highway 53 project
Federal regulators have approved the environmental review for the Highway 53 relocation project on Northern Minnesota’s Iron Range. The state seeks to move the existing road — a vital north-south artery for the whole region — to accommodate an old agreement with mining interests who wish to extract iron ore beneath the current road. The…
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Highway 53 to the Danger Zone
Right now preparations are underway to reroute Highway 53, Northeastern Minnesota’s north-south corridor, to accommodate a nearly 50-year-old agreement with mining interests. The Cliffs-run United Taconite has put in notice that it wants to mine the area under the current highway, requiring a new one. Engineers say the new Highway 53 will track further east out…
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Kurtfest 2015 is Aug. 29 in Eveleth
My first two jobs were in Eveleth. The first gig was delivering pizza’s at Snicker’s; the second was spinning adult contemporary records (and also carts and CDs) for 97.9 WEVE-FM. The combination of these jobs gave me a holistic view of the town that it would normally take many years to get. In short, it’s a charming blue collar…
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Cliffs seeks permits for value-added iron
Cliffs Natural Resources faces several serious problems: huge debt, an anemic iron ore price, tougher global competition. Nevertheless, Cliffs is announcing that it the company is moving on its proposals to convert a production line at Northshore Mining to direct-reduced iron and to add a flux pellet at the soon-to-be-idled United Taconite. The Mesabi Daily News…
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Cliffs has bluster, but does it have luster?
Mining, despite its booms and busts, is still vitally important to the economy of Northern Minnesota, but its mechanics are typically so boring as to drive men to drink and/or high-rent metropolitan neighborhoods. For those who follow the doings of the Iron Range mining industry, the conference calls of Cliffs CEO Lourenco Goncalves have become…
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Cliffs to idle United Taconite in Eveleth
Today, Cliffs Natural Resources announced the indefinite idling of United Taconite on the Mesabi Iron Range, including the mine in Eveleth and the production plant in Forbes. The move affects about 500 employees. United Taconite is the mine that needs Highway 53 to move to access its next body of iron ore. A source tells…
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Range business, gov’t leaders call for summit
In Sunday’s paper, the Mesabi Daily News published a story about the fact that Minnesota Power (Allete) executive Al Hodnick, former State Sen. Doug Johnson and IRRRB Commissioner Mark Phillips were joining to call for an Iron Range economic summit. From the Bill Hanna story: Hodnik wants an Iron Range economic summit soon to provide…
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With contracts looming, Range mines crunch numbers
No matter your job or politics, ten dollars is always ten dollars. By some reports, that’s how much money some Iron Range mines need to shave off their cost for a ton of taconite iron ore to survive the coming global steel industry contraction. John Myers at the Duluth News Tribune reported on this last weekend, highlighting…
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Highway 53 funding part of bonding bill deal
State leaders are announcing that a $373 million bonding bill will be part of the upcoming special legislative session, including $140 million in funding for the Highway 53 relocation/bridge project that fizzled out at the end of the regular session. From Patrick Condon in the Star Tribune: Dayton has yet to call a special session, which…