Looks like there’s no illusions on this thread.
Mining in the USA is dead. point in fact: Upper Wisconsin, where jobs are few and far and pay is low, has iron sands. A company proposed to mine it, and pay high wages at the time: like $15-30 hr. when most jobs up there were paying minimum wage ($7.28hr.), if you could find one.
The process would have worked like this - the surface sand would have been scooped up and fed into a hopper and on to a a station were magnets would remove the iron particles, and the sand returned - sort of environmental reclamation on the go.
The Wackos threatened people lives, vandalized the companies fences and survey shacks, ran to the legislature and after a huge battle, stopped it cold.
As a consequence Upper WI has not changed a wit: jobs are few and far and pay is low, if you can find one.