Gogebis Taconite ore samples contain: "a highly concentrated form of asbestos fibers...it is the most dangerous."

It's almost too shocking a story to tell, but here goes...from WPT Here and Now's reporter Mike Simonson:

Gogebic Taconite (GTAC), the company behind the proposed iron ore mine in the Penokee Hills, says it won’t take rock samples from an area where asbestos-like fibers were found.

Maybe our Republican mining experts in Madison's nanny state Capitol will make that decision for our bumbling geoscientists.

The revised plan scales back the number of sampling sites from five to three, bypassing the site where asbestos-form fibers were found by the DNR and a Northland College geoscientist. The fibers are in grunerite deposits, but in a letter last week to the DNR, GTAC continues to deny its existence, saying: “Our position remains that asbestos form material is unlikely to be present in the reserve.”

DNR Waste Management Director Ann Coakley says there is no doubt asbestos-like fibers exist … “We know that there are because we ourselves collected a sample and have the results back.

What I gleefully can't help but notice is how Republicans attached their jobs wagon to this disaster.