Mining officials and concerned citizens met tonight at the Hartley Nature center to discuss the future of a multi-million dollar mining operation.

Trevor Roy attended the meeting and has more.

Representatives from Polymet tried to ease citizens' concerns over a planned mine off Birch Lake in Soudan.

Polymet would be mining for various metals including copper and palladium - something some residents see as asking for trouble:

"I believe that it doesn't quite make economic sense to open up an ore body that's less than 1% copper, if we're going to have to destroy this wetlands."

However, Polymet officials say that they are doing everything in their power to make sure the environment is unharmed.

"We started the environmental review process over 3 years ago. We look at wetland impact and analyze what wetlands will be impacted. And we'll actually replace all of the wetlands that will be impacted as well as creating significant amount of wetlands at closure."

Another issue raised at tonight's meeting was not about the environment, but about jobs.

"Taconite industry is booming. I don't know where there're going to find the workers. There're not going to find the local workers for all these jobs in metallic sulfite mining."

Gietzen says Polymet is not concerned about meeting staffing needs.

"We get people calling all the time. We don't believe we're going to have problems hiring. I'm a 4th generation iron miner. I would love to have some of the people I went to school with to move back and have good high paying jobs on the Iron Range."

Trevor Roy The Northlands Newscenter.

Polymet is in the first stage of an Environmental Impact Statement.
If Polymet passes the study, the second stage is citizen input and after that Polymet could start applying for permits within six months.
Polymet officials say they hope to be mining within a year.