Mining in Minnesota is a $1.5-billion-per-year industry employing 20,000 people — a point not lost on Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura as he opened mining awareness week at the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Centre in Duluth.
“I’m here to tell you that mining is alive and well here in Minnesota,” Ventura declared. “Mining is not dead or dying. To the contrary: we are excited by the prospects for a whole new era of mining in Minnesota — mining for platinum and palladium used in catalytic converters, fuel cells and other high-tech applications, mining for gold, for copper and for nickel.”
Ventura vowed to change the state’s reputation for being a quagmire when it comes to permitting.
“Certainly, our requirements for environmental protection need to be met, but we think that good operators, committed to doing right by the environment, using modern technology, can be permitted in Minnesota,” he stated.
The governor also introduced the Twenty-first Century Fund, which will provide US$80 million in the form of loans and equity investments in mineral processing facilities.
“This fund is proof that the state of Minnesota is willing to put its money where its mouth is,” he proclaimed.
Even the state’s iron producers are receiving assistance from the Ventura government.
“The state of Minnesota, by way of the Iron Range Resources & Rehabilitation Board, the Department of Natural Resources, the Department of Trade and Minnesota State University, is working with our taconite companies to help produce the lowest-cost and highest-quality iron pellets. There is no shortage of taconite. In fact, there’s enough for at least another 200 years.
“Let’s not let happen to iron and steel what has happened to oil and gas and other commodities. These are basic American and Minnesota industries,” Ventura warned.— The preceding is an excerpt from a release published by the Iron Range Resources & Rehabilitation Board, based in Eveleth, Minn.
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