Polymet Mining Corp (PLM)

[trickledownfacists]

Posted: Thursday, September 4, 2014 11:14 am

By Bill Hanna Mesabi Daily News

While Gov. Mark Dayton speaks with pride of the state’s unemployment rate so far this year, you don’t hear mention of the Iron Range.

And for good reason.


Pretty hard to put a good spin on an Iron Range unemployment rate that is 64.3 percent higher than Minnesota’s overall average for the first seven months of 2014 through July.

And that’s with the taconite mines pretty much running full bore, and Magnetation, which recycles taconite tailings to produce concentrate for the mines, expanding on the West Range.

Meanwhile, on the East Range, the job-rich PolyMet copper/nickel/precious metals project near Hoyt Lakes continues to slog toward a final environmental impact statement, which, if approved, would allow construction to begin before permitting. The Twin Metals venture near Babbitt and Ely is not as developed as PolyMet.

Here are the average jobless rates calculated by the Mesabi Daily News from

January through July:

• Minnesota overall: 4.88 percent.

• United States: 6.41 percent

• Minneapolis/St. Paul: 4.92 percent.

• Iron Range (Virginia, Hibbing, Grand Rapids and their surrounding communities combined): 8.02 percent.

• Grand Rapids: 9.69 percent.

• Virginia: 7.34 percent.

• Hibbing: 7.05 percent.

• Northeastern Minnesota: 6.51 percent.

• Duluth-Superior: 6.17 percent.

• Rochester area: 4.2 percent.

• St. Cloud area: 5.07 percent.

On the Range, the Grand Rapids area is the big hurt regarding unemployment. It registered double digits each of the first three months: 11.6 percent in January; 11.9 percent in February; 11.2 percent in March.

In January, Hibbing was at 8.2 percent and Virginia at 8.0 percent. Each area, however, has not reached 8.0 percent any other month so far this year.

Iron Range legislators have said that the region traditionally has a higher unemployment rate than the rest of the state.

And Iron Range Resources & Rehabilitation Board Commissioner Tony Sertich has previously told the MDN that Duluth figures should be included in Iron Range figures to get a true picture of the region’s jobless rate.

However, even it that is done and the Northeast Minnesota jobless rate of 6.51 for the year’s first seven months is applied, the region’s jobless rate is still more than 30 percent higher than Minnesota’s number.