Starwatcher-

According to Minnesota Department of Economic Development St. Louis County has just under 100,000 people under employment of which fewer than 4000 are employed in mines or logging. A far cry from 50%.

I'm all for jobs in this neck of the woods but not at any cost.

The pit PolyMet will leave behind will not be a "lake" but a storage and containment pond for the tailings with the highest level of sulfides. A body of water that must be isolated from surface and groundwater systems for hundreds of years (A tall order for a company that has existed for less than five years). Basically an acidic lake- quite different from the ferrous pits strung across the range. The other concern is whether or not PolyMet will still exist as a corporate entity when it comes time to pay for the cleanup. Unfortunately dissolving corporate structures is an often used strategy to avoid costly reclamation once the ore is gone (very common among coal companies in West Virginia and Kentucky). The "cleanup" bonds required by Minnesota would not come close to covering the possible costs of this operation.

Akula's analysis is as good as I've seen at stripping it to the most important points, ignoring the noise being emitted by the cheerleaders and knee jerk nay sayers.