WSJ: Despite a Boom, Minnesota's Vein Of Miners Dries Up

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Ironed Out

Despite a Boom, Minnesota's Vein Of Miners Dries Up

Students Take Summer Jobs, But Don't Stick Around; Few Think Growth Will Last

'There's No Future for Them'

By JONATHAN EIG
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
July 28, 2005; Page A1

EVELETH, Minn. -- The Iron Range is booming again. For college students here, that means one thing: some of the dirtiest, sweatiest and best-paying summer jobs anywhere. For generations, summer mining jobs have helped young men and women buy their first cars, make down payments on houses, and start their careers as miners. But though the mines are blasting away this summer, rattling windows and lifting spirits, this year's students aren't like their parents or grandparents. Many don't plan to stick around past summer. Instead, they're putting their earnings toward college tuition so they can leave the northern Minnesota region known as the Iron Range.

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The problem is similar to that facing many rural communities: Young men and women are moving to the cities and suburbs in search of high-paying jobs, leaving their small hometowns smaller. What makes the Iron Range so striking is that youths here have a viable choice -- yet they're choosing to get out anyway.

The current boom here is genuine, brought on by China's voracious appetite for steel, whose main ingredient is iron ore. Mining companies have not only reopened for business, they're also investing heavily in expensive new equipment that makes their operations more efficient. Dozens of small companies that contract with the mines to provide maintenance and supplies are cashing in, too.

Yet even the most optimistic don't expect the prosperity to continue for more than three or four years. Chinese demand could slip, they say, or Brazilian mines might start sending iron ore to the U.S. at prices low enough to compete with the Iron Range's taconite. Steel prices have fallen about 50% in the past nine months for the most common product, hot-rolled coils used for everything from appliances to cars.

EDITED BY ADMIN: COPYRIGHT

URL for this article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB112251568392898304,00.html(subscripton)

[Parche]

1. Miners

MINERS ROCK!!!!!

Miners do it better in Bed rock

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