The global demands for ferrous and non–ferrous metals has significantly decreased, cutting a number of mining jobs and slowing production here in Northland, but a recent study conducted by the University of Minnesota Duluth shows the industry's statewide economic impact could almost triple by 20–13.

LeAnn Wallace has our story.

Minnesota's iron ore industry is the single largest contributor to the Arrowhead region's economy and researchers say recent non–ferrous exploration could give the region a much needed economic boost in the coming years.

"We looked at 14 different projects, 8 of them from the current ferrous or iron/ore mining and then we looked at potentially 6 non–ferrous projects that really are in the exploration stage right now but could be full–fledged projects by the year 2013 if they get their permits."

Economist Jim Skurla and his team of researchers conducted a 3 month study focusing on the statewide economic impact from the mining industry.

"We found out that the impact of the ferrous or the iron ore is very large, in that it has an economic impact of about 2 billion dollars directly and 3.1 if you include all the indirect benefits to the area here."

Non–ferrous mining currently has a direct impact of nearly 270–million dollars but that figure could potentially increase to nearly 2–billion dollars if all of the projects move forward.

"The more they explore the more excited they become, there's actually more deposits then they originally thought."

The study found that if all iron mining expansion and new ferrous and non–ferrous projects move ahead as planned, the statewide economic impact could increase to 8–point–7–billion dollars.

Craig Pagel, president of the Iron Mining Association of Minnesota says Iron Mining accounts for nearly 35–percent of the region's economy.

"That has raised some interest and I'm going to be going down to the cities to talk to some people that look at investing in buildings and projects and to give them a little more information about the state of the industry, where we're at now, where we're going to be."

Experts say the worst case scenario would be that non–ferrous mining wouldn't take off, causing little or no economic impact.

But on the Iron Ore side, they would expect the economic impact would remain the same.