Will bankrupt Essar Steel’s plant in Nashwauk reopen soon — the question as Governor Mark Dayton met Tuesday with Mesabi Metallics’ interim C-E-O and with local officials from around that Iron Range community. Dayton says he shares people’s frustration. “For seven-and-a-half years I’ve been given the same runaround, the same promises, same assurances that haven’t come forward,” he says. “Imperative that we get this project to succeed… whatever twists and turns and ups-and-downs, this project’s gotta get through to the finish line and then begin to produce pellets and jobs.”
Dayton says Mesabi Metallics is doing 30- to 40 million dollars’ worth of engineering this year and hopes to begin reconstruction of the plant next March. Interim C-E-O Gary Heasley says, “Mesabi Metallics remains the only entity that can move this mine project forward.”
State Senator Dave Tomassoni from Chisholm says, “We been working on it for a long time and, boy, hopefully this is the one.”