Duluth News Tribune
Editorial Board

One is that the mining is to be underground, meaning far less intrusive than the massive, dust-filled, open-pit ore mines that mark so much of the Iron Range. Also, “Underground mining creates opportunities to target the ore, minimize surface impacts, and eliminate waste rock,” as a company official wrote in a commentary in the News Tribune last month.

Another thing known is that the mining won’t produce environment-harming acid, as the company has said repeatedly, citing “extensive testing.” While critics’ claims to the contrary refuse to abate, Twin Metals Minnesota CEO Kelly Osborne explained it again last week: The rock sandwiching the copper, nickel, and platinum that the company plans to extract “is almost completely free of sulfides,” and “only a minute amount of sulfides will remain” after minerals are removed.

Last week we learned one more thing about Twin Metals’ plans — and this one seems game-changing.

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