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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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Another closed blast furnace a warning to Range mines
On Monday, U.S. Steel announced plans to close a steelmaking facility in Alabama and its accompanying blast furnace. The company said its goal is to reduce costs and improve efficiencies in its production. More than 1,100 workers are affected by this closure. From a U.S. Steel press release: “We have made some difficult decisions over the last…
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Steelworkers warn of possible strike at Range mines
The United Steelworkers represents miners in most Minnesota iron mines. The union is currently negotiating new contracts with the mining companies. Though several companies own the mines of the Iron Range, the contracts are generally timed to expire at the same time, in this case Sept. 1. When there’s a labor problem on the Range it usually encompasses…
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Gin Blossoms headline Merritt Days in Mountain Iron
This week the Iron Range city of Mountain Iron holds its annual celebration of Merritt Days, a series of fun summer events and live music in the “first city” of the Mesabi Iron Range. The event is named in honor of the Duluth and Iron Range family that opened up the Mesabi Iron Range for logging…
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U.S. Steel announces September restart for Minntac
WDIO is reporting that U.S. Steel will call back all its laid off workers at Minntac for a September restart of its idled lines at Minnesota’s largest taconite mine and production plant. That date is consistent with estimates of the shutdown’s duration when it was announced earlier this year. U.S. Steel’s other mine at Keewatin…
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Some miners called back to work, but not for mining
The Mesabi Daily News reported yesterday that a number of laid off miners at Minntac were called back to work this week to perform scheduled maintenance projects. In this case, the miners are replacing outside contractors who otherwise would have been hired for the work. The so-called word on the street always was that idled workers at U.S. Steel’s…
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Steelworkers negotiations underway in Pittsburgh
After a spring and early summer in which Iron Range mine owners tightened belts, idled workers and sought relief from taxes and environmental regulations, now we come to a new phase of the region’s simmering crisis. This week in Pittsburgh, the United Steelworkers, the union that represents most Iron Range miners, opened negotiations with ArcelorMittal…
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Summer of trials and tribulations on the Iron Range
The last few months of Iron Range politics and economics have been discouraging. That’s as polite as I can be in describing what’s happened: the repetitive, lazy assumptions of local media, the underreported stories of inside dealings, the overstatement of future economic growth from new kinds of mining and the understatement of the tremendous market pressures…
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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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See active Iron Range mines or tour virtually
This Thursday brings the first of the Hibbing Taconite mine tours available via the Minnesota Discovery Center in Chisholm. The tours run every Thursday afternoon from June 25 to Aug. 6. The Hibbing Taconite mine tour takes you through an active iron mine and processing facility. You see how iron is blasted out of the ground and turned…
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The lobbying cycle that limits Iron Range progress
Last weekend, the Star Tribune continued its investigative reporting on Iron Range politics and economic development with a Jennifer Bjorhus story that focused on Iron Range lobbyist Gary Cerkvenik and one of his highest profile projects, Mt. Iron’s Silicon Energy. The story received almost no attention on the Iron Range, but I’d like to revisit…
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State cuts mining lease costs for U.S. Steel
The Associated Press reports that after a unanimous vote of the state executive council yesterday, Minnesota will reduce the royalties owed by U.S. Steel from 91 cents to 75 cents per ton for iron ore mined from state land. Those royalties pay into funds that support schools and universities in Minnesota. This was the result of a direct…
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Embattled RAMS settles on four candidates for top job
The Range Association of Municipalities and Schools (RAMS) has announced four candidates for its long vacant position of executive director. The position drew significant controversy earlier this year when the RAMS board named State Sen. David Tomassoni to the position, presenting a widely-perceived conflict of interest for Tomassoni and the group that lobbies St. Paul…
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IRRRB mulls $33 million 2016 budget
Even though the legislative session may go to the wire tonight at midnight, Iron Range lawmakers — who comprise the statutory Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board — will meet Tuesday morning in St. Paul to hash out the agency’s $33 million FY 2016 budget. “I am pleased that over half of the proposed budget…