Various mining interests gathered in Duluth yesterday to learn more about the state of mining in the Iron Range. After bottoming out, mining on the range is entering a boom cycle. Demand is at a global high and as the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board commissioner Tony Sertich told the Northland News Center there are "hundreds" of mining projects underway. It's a bit tricky to determine how those projects add up to hundreds.

The IRRRB wasn't able to produce a master list of projects, but they do point to a a few sources that provide project details. The Laurentian Vision Project has the most comprehensive map of projects. The Range Readiness Initiative maps 7 major projects and 3 proposed projects. Some of the major projects have multiple projects that could be counted within them. But with all the discussion of boom time, the publicly available information available online about projects is scant.

Share your information on mining projects in the comments.

Also on MN Today

Budget deal hits Minnesota hard

Government shutdown averted. Now come the details (Star Tribune).

Senator Franken calling for investigation into PBGC

A management company, hired on the Iron Range in 2009, had a history of poor job performance, according to U.S. Senator Al Franken from Minnesota (Northland News Center).

St. Cloud school board cuts $3M from budget

In all, what amounts to 38 licensed positions will be eliminated and 14 of those are regular classroom teachers. Of the positions lost, 15 are people who are retiring and will not be replaced (St Cloud Times).

DNR confiscates dead cub from Ely researcher

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources will conduct its own necropsy to determine the cause of death, and the carcass then will be returned to researcher Lynn Rogers if he obtains a permit (Duluth News Tribune).

Fire in UMC sheep facility appears to kill some animals

A fire broke out early Wednesday afternoon in the sheep facility on the University of Minnesota, Crookston campus. The smoke was apparently too much for some of the lambs and possibly other sheep, too, as bystanders reported that some animals perished (Crookston Times).

Lourdes High drumline competes in Ohio

The Lourdes High School drumline starts competition at the Winter Guard International's Percussion Championships in Dayton, Ohio, on Thursday in what will be the school's first appearance at the national level.

"We know there's going to be a lot of nerves. We just tell them to relax and enjoy the moment," said the drumline's director, Lee Krueger, who started Lourdes' drumline program in 2003 and is the percussion teacher for Rochester Catholic Schools (Rochester Post Bulletin).

Photo of the day

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This was the first time I tried crossprocess in the Lubitel and it came back as my weirdest roll yet. Not one picture was consistent with the next. I had colors from blue, green, pink, yellow and purple. Every one of them different. Almost like they all came from different kinds of film. Very Strange! Photo Credit: Flickr/Trisha V

Insight NowIssue of the day

Time for raising taxes on consumption - Your thoughts

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We asked you to talk about whether Minnesota should follow up on proposals to broaden sales taxes to currently exempt items, like clothing, and to raise it on Internet sales.

We got back some great comments. Brian Bergs (@brian_bergs) gave us a brief history lesson on the sales tax in Minnesota - including that it was a Republican governor who created what would have been a temporary sales tax in the state.

Rick Morris (@Rick_Morris) said that he'd be fine with expanding the tax to exempt purchases, but it needs to happen along with an end to the corporate tax in the state.

Jennette Gudgel (@jennette_gudgel) says raising any taxes at a time like doesn't make sense. But she also concedes that if in-store purchases are taxed, then online purchases should be as well.

Alan Shilepsky (@alan_shilepsky) wrestled with the fairness of an Internet sales tax. At first, he liked the notion of taxing online sales because he dreads losing the brick-and-morter stores. But later, after talking with his wife who sells craft kits over the Internet, he realized that taxing online purchases might hurt the small business person, as opposed to the big Internet sales companies.

Now, you might notice that those voices are relatively new to the Insight Now community. I welcome them... and hope you see how the conversations you conduct here have brought other thoughtful folks into the fold. Thank you.

Now let's continue talking sales taxes in Minnesota.

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