TOWER (AP) - Tests conducted by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources indicate there could be gold in bedrock on the Iron Range.

The tests of soil near Tower and Soudan in northeastern Minnesota contained an encouraging number of tiny gold grains that are rough, likely from a nearby source.

Don Elsenheimer, an economic geologist with the Department of Natural Resources, says finding the gold grains is a long way from finding gold deposits. He says the results are "great," but that there's still work to be done to determine "if there's something to come from this."

Elsenheimer says the bedrock in northern Minnesota is the same bedrock units found across the border in Ontario. He says there are dozens of active and past-producing gold mines on the Canadian side.

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