AP reported that Iron Range officials are upset with threats by Magnetation Inc to build a USD 300 million iron ore pellet plant in another state to get around Minnesota's tough mercury pollution rules.
The Duluth News Tribune reported that Magnetation is considering sites in Superior, Wis., Indiana and Illinois as an alternative to northern Minnesota's Itasca County for a plant that would employ about 150 people.
Rep. Tom Rukavina and St Louis County Commissioner Keith Nelson are criticizing the company because Minnesota gave Magnetation a USD 1 million state grant in 2008 to help it get started. The company also got government loans that it has already repaid ahead of schedule.
Mr Rukavina said that "To me, it's embarrassing that a guy who got USD 1 million of free taxpayer money from Minnesota would even consider going to another state.”
Magnetation CEO Larry Lehtinen told the newspaper that the company needs to get a pellet plant operating somewhere by early 2015, and that will require having permits in hand this fall so that construction can begin by year's end. Wisconsin, Indiana and Illinois can meet that timeline, he said, but Minnesota regulators haven't made that promise.
Magnetation uses a proprietary technology to recover iron from tailings at old Iron Range mining sites and process it into concentrate. The proposed plant would turn that concentrate into high grade pellets suitable for the blast furnace steel mills of its partner, AK Steel Corp.
Mr Lehtinen said that "We would love to build this plant in Itasca County; that's our first choice, that's where our operations are. But the way we are reading Minnesota's rules on mercury, there's no room for any new sources. We don't have any way to offset our mercury. ... It's essentially a cap-and-trade system without any trade."
The plant will install so called best available mercury control technologies no matter where it is built to meet federal requirements, Lehtinen said. But Minnesota has additional mercury reduction efforts in place beyond most other states.
Mr Lehtinen also said the plant almost certainly couldn't meet the state's limit on sulfate discharges into lakes or rivers where wild rice grows. While the state has suspended enforcement of that limit until new studies on the effects of sulfates on wild rice are completed, Lehtinen said there are too many unknowns to move forward until the issue is settled.
(Sourced from www.duluthsuperior.com)
