"We have customers in Canada, Niger, Namibia. We just sent stuff to Argentina," said Dan Madigan, President Feeco International, Inc. "We'd love to have something right in our backyard. The opportunity to bid on something in our backyard," he added.

That remains a real possibility as lawmakers look at revising regulations for a proposed open pit iron mine near Ashland. Gogebic Taconite would spend up to one-billion dollars on the project, which Madigan says would help more than just his business. Feeco's purchase of new equipment from a Milwaukee manufacture is one example of that impact.

"If we weren't doing the mining equipment for the past four-years, we wouldn't have been buying that burn table and those jobs wouldn't have been added," Madigan said. "The trucking company that'll be here to pick up the stuff and haul it out of the state to a port overseas. That trucking company is from Wisconsin," he added.

Balancing such economic possibilities with environmental concerns is now in the hands of lawmakers.

Local 5's Terry Kovarik has the story.