Mining Companies and Their Suppliers Meet in Duluth
DULUTH, Minn. — Mining in Minnesota is a four billion dollar industry. Recreation in the state is also a four billion dollar industry.
Mining in Minnesota dates back nearly 140 years; It was recognized late in that the 1900’s that the old mine sites and piles of waste could be used for recreational purposes. This would help attract people to the iron range and help the economy of the area.
In Duluth, the Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration, or SME, held its annual meeting. The theme of the three-day meeting is “Sustainable Mining: The Past Reveals Our Future.”
Mining will continue as the driving economic force into the future. Iron mining will likely be joined by Helium and copper mining. The commissioner of the IRRRB, Ida Rukavina, spoke about an example of how a mining pit has been turned into a tourist attraction that brings people and jobs into the region.
“I had an example of the golf course at Giant’s Ridge,” said Ida Rukavina “If you were there today and you drove your cart you’d see foxes in the woods and you’d never know you’re on the site of a former mine. That’s reclamation the finest of uses. You cannot tell there was a former mine there and now it’s tourism providing jobs.”
Mining operations need to use many different companies and experts that also contribute to the region’s economic health now and in the future.
Companies exhibiting at the event ranged from those who drill core samples to those who fly drones over the sites. Mike Brink of Timberline Drilling said, “We take core samples from all over in different sizes. Right now we’re literally in several locations. We just go around and any client that’s looking to poke holes and look for mineralization”.
“First and foremost it really just gives you a different perspective to really just give you a view from a different perspective to view your mine,” said Katy Rudolph of Frontier Precision Unmanned. “So an aerial view, whether you are doing visual inspection it’s like the simplest or flying visual inspection, just monitoring or maybe it’s a blast before and after. But also beyond that, getting into being able to map.”
In between the ground and the sky, there are a lot of companies doing business on the range. Rukavina is confident that mining will continue for another hundred years, while the opportunities for different recreational sites and activities will continue.
