EVENTS
Wednesday, April 1st, 2026, 10am CT
Zoom Community Meeting
Real Story of Taconite SO4 Legacy
by The Mining Guys - Chris Baldwin, Mike Maleska, and Andy Baldwin
The bioaccumulation effects of 50 + years of taconite mining is clearly visible in brown vegetation seen in the aerial photographs taken last June, of all the taconite tailings piles and indicate many years of 'underflow' seepage. The long term 'wishful thinking' policy of sulfate containment and remediation is that there is 'not enough to worry about.' Yet, scientific examination of public sampling data collected monthly for fifty years indicates there is reason to advocate for a moratorium on new mining permits and reexamination of the 1979 regional study.
Chris Baldwin, a retired Mine Engineer, graduate of Colorado School of Mines and currently residing in Hibbing, MN. He was a Mine Manager and engineer for 20 years at Keewatin Taconite, and 4 years at Minorca, and recently, 7 years as Technical Services Superintendent at Haile Gold Mine, a sulfide mine, in South Carolina. He has designed and constructed in both underground and surface mines and helped permit and start up a sulfide gold mine. Now, he makes hand drums and provide drum making workshops to promote community building and water quality awareness in wild rice waters in Minnesota.
Michael Maleska, retired taconite miner, lifelong resident of the rural Hibbing area of NE Minnesota. In 1977 he hired-on at Eveleth Taconite Company as a laborer. He became a member of the United Steelworkers of America, eventually elected to the office of Local Union President - overseeing all union/company activities, retiring in November of 1979. His family has always been very outdoors-oriented: BWCA, harvesting wild rice, fishing, camping, hunting, and planting 10's of 1,000's of trees.
Andy Baldwin, Chris's son grew up in Hibbing, Minnesota. He has an undergrad degree in biology from Montana State University, and a master's in secondary science education from the University of Washington in Tacoma. He's not currently teaching in the classroom, but enjoys teaching guitar lessons and volunteering as a math tutor. Science communication has been his long term passion, and lately that has become more and more important as he applys what he knows about classroom teaching to public outreach in Northern Minnesota.
Register for the meeting to receive the Zoom link at https://tamarackwateralliance.org/php/eventreg.php?eid=16 or Contact Us.