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… Read More →
U.S. Steel announces September restart for Minntac
July 23, 2015 by Leave a Comment
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… Read More →
Some miners called back to work, but not for mining
July 18, 2015 by Leave a Comment
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… Read More →
Steelworkers negotiations underway in Pittsburgh
July 8, 2015 by Leave a Comment
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… Read More →
Summer of trials and tribulations on the Iron Range
June 29, 2015 by 1 Comment
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… Read More →
Range business, gov’t leaders call for summit
June 29, 2015 by 48 Comments
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… Read More →
With contracts looming, Range mines crunch numbers
June 22, 2015 by Leave a Comment
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… Read More →
See active Iron Range mines or tour virtually
June 22, 2015 by Leave a Comment
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… Read More →
The lobbying cycle that limits Iron Range progress
June 16, 2015 by 39 Comments
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… Read More →
State cuts mining lease costs for U.S. Steel
June 4, 2015 by Leave a Comment
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… Read More →
