How do you drown-proof a mine? A reprise

September 21, 2019

It’s the question on everyone’s lips

by Steve Timmer

Former DNR Commish Tom Landwehr:

May 27, 2019

The fate of the headwaters of the St. Louis River is in Minnesota’s hands

by Steve Timmer

Oh for the evangelical certainty of an engineer!

January 30, 2019

And who is Dennis Martenson, anyway?

by Steve Timmer

Trust us; we’re good for it

May 14, 2017

Minnesota’s mining regulators at the Land and Minerals Division of the Department of Natural Resources face a stiff test of fidelity to the citizens of Minnesota as described in an article by Josephine Marcotty in the Strib’s paper edition on May 14th. The issue is: what are the financial reserves that must be set aside […]

by Steve Timmer

We have good news and bad news

November 6, 2015

Never operated a mine; never earned a dime

by Steve Timmer

The numbers guys win a Spotty ™

October 29, 2015

Criticizing the Pride of the Business Press

by Steve Timmer

How do you drown-proof a mine?

October 28, 2015

It’s the question on everyone’s lips

by Steve Timmer

Put your best mine forward

October 26, 2015

In order to help him figure out whether copper-nickel sulfide mining is the cat’s pajamas or the worst idea in the history of ideas, Governor Dayton is going to visit two mines: one chosen by the mining romantics, and one by the people who choose to plan more than six weeks into the future, the […]

by Steve Timmer

Hiring more dingoes as babysitters – a reprise

August 7, 2015

I wrote, a year ago today, about the shameful circus near Likely, British Columbia, involving the failure of a tailings dam at a sulfide mine there. The toxic sludge is still there, sitting on the bottom of Quesnel Lake, a pristine lake that is — or maybe used to be — home to one of Canada’s largest […]

by Steve Timmer

Hubris and blandishments

July 21, 2015

It hasn’t been much in the news around here, but in more sentient parts of the world, notice has been made of the fact that the United States’ monument to the Cold War — the Runit Dome, or the Tomb, to the locals — is leaking radiation after having built a mere 35 years ago. Swell. This is […]

by Steve Timmer

Looking upstream

April 14, 2015

A group of friends is enjoying a picnic on the bank of a pleasant river surrounded by woods. Birds are singing and there is a faint whisper from the breeze in the trees. The idyll is shattered when one of the friends shouts, “There’s a baby in the river!” He jumps in the river and wades out to […]

by Steve Timmer

Forever is a really long time

August 11, 2014

It’s even longer than 500 years

by Steve Timmer