AURORA — The second of three hearings on the proposed PolyMet copper-nickel mine drew hundreds of supporters who hope the project returns jobs and needed revenue to the Iron Range in northeastern Minnesota.

About 650 people showed up Wednesday to Mesabi East High School in Aurora, some wearing “We Support Mining” stickers or carrying signs with the same slogan. Aurora is on the edge of the Iron Range, where many residents used to work at the LTV Steel taconite plant that shut down in 2001.

PolyMet Mining Corp. has proposed a mine near Babbitt and a processing plant near Hoyt Lakes.

“It’s time to do this project right, it’s time to do this project now, and it’s time to do this project here,” Hoyt Lakes mayor Mark Skelton said. He cited the hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars in tax money the mine could bring to the area.

Minnesota Department of Natural Resources released a nearly 2,200-page draft environmental review last month, and the meetings are meant to help the public learn about and comment on the project’s environmental effects. The one held last week in Duluth attracted about 1,300 people, with about 500 of them bused in from the Iron Range.

Opponents say the environmental impact statement predicts long-term water treatment will be needed.

“Who will pay this?” asked Susan Schurke of Ely at the Aurora meeting. “What is the amount that could possibly be put forward to replace something that can never be replaced, our clean water that we desperately need?”

The last public hearing will be held next week in St. Paul.