City and county leaders met at Nashwauk City Hall Wednesday.

According to Nashwauk’s mayor, the embattled mining company Mesabi Metallics owes the city just over a million dollars in delinquent property taxes from the last three years.

Mesabi Metallics owned the former Essar site in Nashwauk, where they were hoping to mine iron ore. The company had been working to get the site up and running for years.

But that came to a halt a year ago, when the Minnesota DNR terminated the company’s state mineral leases due to certain requirements not being met.

Along with a judge ordering Mesabi Metallics to pay the state the $17 million it owes them, Mesabi Metallics also owes Itasca County and Nashwauk for unpaid taxes.

Mayor Calvin Saari said back in January, he asked Mesabi Metallics leaders to pay them. According to Saari, after that, Mesabi Metallics told the city they’d write a check for the unpaid taxes by Feb. 4.

He said the company made a payment in February for $443,365 and has also made some payments since then, but they still owe more.

According to the mayor, the amount owed to the city makes up about 60% of their operating budget for the year.

“You know that $1,029,000 for the city of Nashwauk, without that, we’re going to be in dire need when we start our budgeting process. It isn’t going to be pretty,” Mayor Saari said.

According to Saari, the company’s missing tax payments have shuttered his community. The city’s financial advisers have suggested not moving forward with any projects or major repairs until they receive the money they’re owed.

On Tuesday, July 19, 2022, Itasca County leaders received a payment of $500,000 from Mesabi Metallics. Nashwauk’s mayor said the city expects to receive about $90,000 from that.

We reached out to Mesabi Metallics for comment, but have not heard back by the time of publication.

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