LANSING, MI-- Two U.P. lawmakers urged the Michigan Senate to encourage Cleveland Cliffs to reopen the Empire Mine.
Representative Sara Cambensy and Senator Tom Casperson testified in front of the Senate Natural Resources Committee Wednesday. They both authored a resolution encouraging the company to come back to Marquette County instead of building a new mine in Minnesota.
Casperson told the committee, “Iron ore mining has shaped our culture and has been an iconic industry for Yoopers for over 170 years.” Cambensy said, “The time to invest in the next generation of iron ore mining is now. We have a short window of opportunity to recapture the more than 300 high-paying mining jobs in Marquette County that we lost in 2016.”