MARQUETTE -- Rio Tinto representatives shared their community scorecard Thursday morning at Northern Michigan University.

About 100 people attended the breakfast presentation. Through a quick polling system, the audience rated the Eagle Mine's performance in five key areas. Those include environmental performance, safety, local hiring, transparency/communication, and a category called "leave more wood on the woodpile."

One attendee was especially impressed with the project's safety record.

"Seeing the fact that how much mining has changed technology-wise, that they're able to operate underground one of the most dangerous jobs in history, one or two injuries since they opened," said entrepreneur Jesse Schramm.

The Superior Watershed Partnership to conduct independent air and water quality tests at the Eagle Mine and Humboldt Mill. The community scorecard will be updated every six months, and results will be published in print, on-line and at Rio Tinto's information center.

Rio Tinto officials say they received overwhelmingly positive feedback on the community scorecard Thursday morning.