Tom Rukavina used to be a populist voice for the good folks of the Range, who are too good to be disappointed generation after generation by morally and financially bankrupt multinational mining conglomerates.

The philanthrophy of the old iron mines did little to remediate the devastation wrought by their exploitation of the land.  It was window-dressing to placate neighboring communities whose water and air and the land on the Range were ruined, turned from lakes and forests to pits and dumps when ore was processed and taken away forever.

No, Tommy, mining did not make tourism possible.

Iron mining did not even treat the mesothelioma victims or pay the pensions of its own workers.

Now, the sulfide mine era he hopes to usher in, promising 150 YEARS of mining, which by my reckoning should create 300,000 years of acid mine drainage (they still haven’t explained HOW that will be avoided or mitigated, in theory or practice), will not even hire local union labor (you WATCH!). Their “facts” are empty promises; their promises are lies.  Their “jobs” are slavery everywhere else they are allowed to operate.

Rukavina and his beloved Rangers have no reason to expect anything different from Glencore, Antofagasta, Rio Tinto, and the governments they have bought and paid for.  They ought to expect a lot less.

Marco Good

Grand Marais, Minn.