Mining makes northern Minnesota, and to a point, the entire state move forward. That is true for our schools and our economy.
“From 2013-2022, approximately 70% of annual gross revenue generated from school trust lands was from minerals management,” reports the Minnesota Office of School Trust Lands.
During the 2024-25 school year, the Minnesota Department of Education distributed a record $58 million from the PSF to the state’s 329 public school districts and 181 charter schools.
That’s revenue from mining in Minnesota, but if you are against mining in northern Minnesota, it begs the question, what’s the acceptable distance from the BWCA for acceptable mining? Is Tibet far enough away?
New mining including copper and nickel would generate even more revenue. Cities, colleges, hospitals all rely on these precious metals. Computers, X-rays at the emergency room, smart watches, the Visa credit card readers that the anti-mining retailers use daily, function largely due to metals mined elsewhere.
Where’s elsewhere again? Think Mandarin or Cantonese and you’re getting close. The day-today regular human with a car, cell phone, even the most modern coffee pots, yeah, use lots of precious metals.
Mining risks, potential spills leaks, environmental damage, coal mines caving in, toxic gases, the list of fear fueled highly volatile wordage, with the anti-mining crowd, are quite numerous, and for many, completely unfounded.
The global demand on mineralogy has demanded environmentally sound mining practices and corporate responsibility. They don’t want injured or sick miners, it’s bad for business.
Anti’s put out a lot of misinformation, and sometimes even downright half-truths with their raised capital. There are folks who are led like the blind, thinking mining will occur inside the BWCA because of false narratives.
So hey, if we can’t stop mining outside the BWCA, let’s loosely word it that we’re saving the BWCA, and let the donations roll in to a bank that uses precious mined metals to keep track of all that anti-mining cash the anti’s spent to keep some folks poorly informed.
