Author
Northeast Minnesota’s fraught choice: Precious metals v. precious water
This story is a project of the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University. SEAGULL LAKE, Minn. — The thorny process of unearthing some of the world’s most sought-after minerals is unfolding in Minnesota, which has some of the nation’s largest deposits of nickel, cobalt and other metals used in electric cars and other green technologies. […]
Sulfide mining advocates say they’ll deliver jobs, but how many?
The late Gov. Rudy Perpich, the favorite son of the Iron Range, coined the phrase, “jobs, jobs, jobs” in response to the downturn in the mining economy in the 1980s. It’s been the dominant theme of politics in northeastern Minnesota ever since. And it’s driving debate about two controversial copper-nickel mines proposed in the Duluth […]
Biden gives hope to defenders of the Boundary Waters as Chilean mining giant seeks copper, nickel
Grand Marais, MN — In Minnesota’s northernmost wilderness, full time resident Dave Seaton knows how to rescue a 600-pound moose if it falls through frozen lake ice: Get a team together, haul two canoes on either side of the animal and toss canoe straps around the moose to help it ease its legs to the […]