UPDATED: Wednesday, February 29, 2012 --- 4:02p.m.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- The state senator who holds the key swing vote on a bill that would overhaul Wisconsin's iron mine permitting process has rejected a compromise measure from his fellow Republicans. Assembly Republicans have passed a bill overhauling the process in January to help jumpstart a northwestern Wisconsin iron mine. The measure has stalled in the Senate, though. Republicans hold only a one-vote majority and Sen. Dale Schultz, a Richland Center Republican, says he won't vote for the bill.

Assembly Republicans offered Schultz more than a dozen changes to the original legislation on Wednesday. But Schultz called a press conference to say he can't support them either.

It's unclear whether the mining proposal is dead. The legislative session ends in mid-March, but Schultz said he's still willing to talk with Assembly Republicans.

Copyright 2012. The Associated Press.

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UPDATED Wednesday, February 15, 2012 --- 11:22 a.m.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- Competing Republican bills to jumpstart a northwestern Wisconsin iron mine have emerged in the state Senate, jeopardizing the chances of anything passing before the legislative session ends next month.

Sen. Neal Kedzie has been leading a committee studying mining issues for the last few months. The committee finally released a bill to streamline the state's permitting process Monday.

Assembly Republicans, meanwhile, passed their own mining bill last month. Now a group of Senate Republicans, including Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, want to drop Kedzie's bill and pass the Assembly's version.

Fitzgerald and his group wrote in a memo to their colleagues Wednesday that the Assembly version has been carefully vetted and the time has come to move forward.

A message left at Kedzie's office Wednesday morning wasn't immediately returned.

Copyright 2012. The Associated Press.

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Posted Monday, February 13, 2012 ---- 5:05 p.m.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- Republicans in the state Senate have released their version of a bill to help a Florida company open a mine in far northwestern Wisconsin.

Gogebic Taconite wants to dig a huge open-pit iron mine just south of Lake Superior. The company wants lawmakers to streamline the state's complex permitting process before it moves forward, however.

Assembly Republicans passed a bill last month that calls for state regulators to issue a permit within a year of receiving an application, wipes out contested case hearings and blocks citizen lawsuits.

The Senate bill keeps the year timeline but allows contested case hearings. The Senate's mining committee plans to hold a public hearing on the measure at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville on Friday.

Copyright 2012. The Associated Press.