IRRRB 50th Anniversary video

The Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board (IRRRB) has been central to Iron Range development in northern Minnesota. It is located in Eveleth, Minnesota. Since 1941, the IRRRB has sought to diversify the Iron Range economy and communities. The agency, which has a $37 million annual budget, is funded by taconite taxes paid by Iron Range mining companies in lieu of property taxes.

The IRRRB's makeup was designed by state law. Minnesota Statute 298.22, subdivision 2 reads: "There is hereby created the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board, consisting of 11 members, five of whom are state senators appointed by the subcommittee on committees of the rules committee of the Senate, and five of whom are representatives, appointed by the speaker of the House of Representatives. The members shall be appointed in January of every odd-numbered year. The 11th member of the board is the commissioner of natural resources. Vacancies on the board shall be filled in the same manner as the original members were chosen. At least a majority of the legislative members of the board shall be elected from state senatorial or legislative districts in which over 50 percent of the residents reside within a tax relief area defined in section 273.134…

The service area of the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board is defined by Minnesota Statute 273.1341 as the Taconite Assistance Area. The law further defines the agency's service area as the geographic area that falls within the boundaries of a school district that contains: (1) A municipality in which the assessed valuation of unmined iron ore on May 1, 1941, was not less than 40 percent of the assessed valuation of all real property; or (2) A municipality in which on January 1, 1977, or the applicable assessment date, there is a taconite concentrating plant or where taconite is mined or quarried or where there is located an electric generating plant which qualifies as a taconite facility.

The IRRRB has helped fund community-development projects across the Taconite Tax Relief Area, provided low-interest loans and grants to Northeastern Minnesota's seven taconite companies and created thousands of new jobs through its economic development division. It also oversees reclamation of abandoned minelands, grooms snowmobile trails, demolishes dilapidated buildings and promotes tourism throughout Northeastern Minnesota. The agency operated Ironworld Discovery Center at Chisholm, Minnesota and Giants Ridge Golf and Ski Resort near Biwabik, Minnesota.

The publication Range View, a serial, was initiated in 1991. The most current issues are online at the IRRRB’s website. IRRRB name was changed in 2004 to IRR Iron Range Resources, but was changed back to IRRRB in 2011. When the acronym is spoken it is I Triple R B.