What we leave behind

Trump and Walz Can Agree on One Thing: Mining in Minnesota

Northeastern Minnesota is home to one of the world’s largest undeveloped mineral deposits, including what is estimated to be the third-largest nickel deposit and second-largest copper deposit in the world, according to labor-union figures. Humans will need to mine more copper by 2050 than was mined in all of human history up to 2018 to keep up with current growth trends, one study found, and converting to electric vehicles will only further strain that demand.

 I spent the most formative years of my young life in this part of Minnesota. I've seen the vast open-pit iron mines of the Missabe range…

…and worked one summer for the railroad that hauled ore down to Duluth and Two Harbors for transport east.

And I've canoed the Boundry Waters.

It'll be a loss of indescribable proportions, digging that up. But there'll be disasters of other sorts if it's not dug up — and of course there's a lot of money to be had — and so the digging will happen as sure as the world turns. (And warms.)