Minnesota is a state rich in minerals. Northern Minnesota is well-known for more than a century of iron ore mining — and more recently, high-profile proposals to mine for copper, nickel and precious metals, have stirred controversy near the Boundary Waters and elsewhere.

Now, there’s a renewed effort to extract another precious metal that is in high demand — manganese, which is deep underground in the Brainerd Lakes area. But that mining push, too, is being met with resistance.

On the outskirts of the tiny town of Emily, a company called North Star Manganese has drilled more than two dozen holes, hundreds of feet below the surface. Geologists have spent the past five years studying the rock and mapping the mineral deposit deep underground.

The results, they say, are incredibly promising

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