GOP prospects in Michigan are rarely very good due to large minority and strong union voting blocs. However, following Jennifer Granholm’s driving of the state into the ground, the bankruptcy of the auto companies and Mitt Romney’s family ties to the states, the GOP began re-evaluating its chances. The state, however, has polled stubbornly well in favor of the Democrats and the lapdog media regularly sites President Obama’s bailout of the auto companies (complete with one of the worst abrogations of justice in the country’s history) as well as the “success” of General Motors specifically for the improving climate in Michigan. Considering bailouts are still fairly unpopular and General Motor’s “success” since becoming publicly traded again makes the Facebook IPO look like a winner, something else must clearly be at play. Enter a revival of the mining industry in the state’s upper peninsula:

This remote area of Michigan, long ago left for dead, is rediscovering its mining roots — raising hopes here and across much of the Lake Superior region that a mining revival is in the making. With copper and other metals trading on commodities markets at consistently high prices, companies are digging into long-neglected deposits for metals that could be worth billions of dollars. Rio Tinto, the world’s largest mining company after BHP Billiton, is working on a $469 million mine that will produce nickel and copper. Hudbay Minerals, a public mining company, is leading an expected $225 million project to mine precious and heavy metals, including gold, silver, zinc and copper. Orvana has received approval to mine chalcocite, a mineral that is primarily copper, in a project here that the company says will create $2 billion in economic activity over 20 years. Smaller exploration firms are joining the rush too, searching for new ore deposits and studying known ones. One of them, Highland Resources of Vancouver, British Columbia, is spending $11.5 million to explore and develop potential mines, including two copper mines near Calumet, Mich.

Evidence of the new mining activity is already visible. East of here, in Marquette County, towns like Big Bay have seen an increase in construction and temporary workers renting hotel rooms and homes. In Marquette — the largest city in the Upper Peninsula, with 21,000 residents — the Border Grill restaurant owner Dan Torres estimates that the Rio Tinto mine is increasing monthly sales by $500 to $1,000. Rio Tinto will make its first tax payment this July and is expected to pay $4.3 million to local authorities.

Marquette County, in addition to the Rio Tinto mine, is buoyed by Northern Michigan University and two surviving iron ore mines, among other things, so it does not share the unemployment problems of Gogebic County. But other erstwhile mining counties are in even worse shape. In April, the unemployment rate in Ontonagon County was 13.9 percent, in Keweenaw 12.9 percent and in Baraga 16.3 percent. By comparison, the statewide rate was 8.3 percent.

Economic revival through private enterprise, not government sponsored bail-outs — that’s why Michigan is experiencing a change (however slight) to its financial fortunes. And Wisconsin’s loss is Michigan’s gain:

Just over the state line in Wisconsin, Gogebic Taconite dropped a proposed $1.5 billion, open-pit iron ore project after lawmakers failed to adopt a bill that critics say would have relaxed environmental regulations and limited public input in the permitting process. Gogebic Taconite is now drilling for iron in Michigan.