By Jerry Burnes/Iron Range Today

Attorneys for Itasca County and the city of Nashwauk have asked the Minnesota Court of Appeals to allow the entities to file an amicus brief supporting an effort to divide state mineral leases between Mesabi Metallics and Cleveland-Cliffs.

Mesabi Metallics filed its appeal on June 23.

Cliffs and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources alternatively defended the state Executive Council’s decision to award the leases to only Cliffs, and argued that Mesabi Metallics didn’t have grounds to appeal in the first place.

Splitting the leases between the companies became an 11th-hour argument for Mesabi Metallics, Itasca County and Nashwauk officials, ahead of a May 25 Executive Council meeting.

For the public entities, the case to share the leases embodied their years-long efforts to have an active economic driver on the West Range, where Mesabi Metallics and its parent company, Essar Group, have attempted to build a mine and pellet plant at the former Butler Taconite site since 2008.

The Appeals Court filings, submitted July 7, echo many of the same arguments made by officials to the Executive Council.

“The consequences of the Court’s decision in this matter extend far beyond the
parties and encompass significant income streams to the City and other Iron Range
communities, and more broadly, the economic vitality of the entire region,” wrote Kathleen M. Brennan, a Minneapolis attorney representing the city of Nashwauk.

Itasca County Attorney Matti Adam proposed holding the Mesabi Metallics portion of the leases essentially in escrow, allowing the company one more chance at finishing pellet plant construction, an idea the state previously rebuffed.

“…That the leases thus proposed to be awarded to Mesabi may be kept in reserve
until such time as the pellet plant construction has progressed sufficiently such
that it is in a position to commence operations in 9 months thereafter, leases will
be provided so that crude ore may be ready for processing,” Adam wrote.

The state and Cliffs countered that the Executive Council acted within its rights and cited a previous ruling by the Appeals Court — and a subsequent decision by the Minnesota Supreme Court to not review the case — that set the state on a path to negotiate lease terms with another company.

Cliffs said it will use the Butler Taconite ore body to feed its Hibbing Taconite operation, which has an estimated timeline of 2026 before it runs out ore to mine, jeopardizing more than 700 direct jobs. The company signed the leases terms within an hour of Executive Council approval in May.

“Cliffs estimates that, following all regulatory approvals, its new project will take two years to construct, wrote W. Anders Folk, an attorney for the company. “Cliffs has already expended time and money on the project pursuant to the executed leases.”