From taconite to tractor

Trains hauling iron ore are an intractable part of the landscape on Minnesota's Iron Range, but delays in hauling other cargo across the Upper Midwest has forced many iron mines to stockpile pellets, waiting for their trains to arrive. (PHOTO: Jerry Huddleston, Creative Commons)

Trains hauling iron ore are an intractable part of the landscape on Minnesota’s Iron Range. (PHOTO: Jerry Huddleston, Creative Commons)

It’s pretty well established that a tractor is made of steel. Iron Rangers generally understand that the trucks hauling iron ore on the edge of town have something to do with making that steel.

Nevertheless it can be difficult to understand exactly how ore goes from rock to machine. So much of the process happens outside our view.

The Kinze 3600 planting implement is made of steel that used iron ore from the Mesabi Iron Range, as detailed in an ongoing series in the Cedar Rapids Gazette.

The Kinze 3600 planting implement is made of steel that used iron ore from the Mesabi Iron Range, as detailed in an ongoing series in the Cedar Rapids Gazette. (PHOTO: Kinze)

The (Cedar Rapids, Iowa) Gazette is running a four-part series exploring how farming equipment used in local agriculture comes to be. The first part, written by B.A. Morelli, is dedicated entirely to iron ore.

Morelli traveled to the Iron Range earlier this month and spent time at ArcelorMittal’s Minorca Mine in Virginia. The result is a detailed look at how rocks from the Mesabi Iron Range become a useful iron product on its way to a steel mill in Indiana.

Future stories will show how steel is made and how that steel is fabricated into products, such as the Kinze 3600 planter.

Monelli’s story about the Minorca Mine won’t necessarily tell locals anything new, but it’s a good example of how a new set of eyes can give valuable perspective.

For instance, this excerpt from Monelli’s story gives a hint as to the complicated nature of Minnesota’s iron ore industry right now.

Minorca is unique because it produces flux pellets, in which iron is mixed with limestone and dolomite, which typically is added during the steelmaking process at the mill to remove impurities. This process produces a very consistent pellet in size and composition.

It contains no more than 3 percent silicate and 67 or 68 percent iron. Flux pellet burns more efficiently and has become a niche for ArcelorMittal.

ArcelorMittal has 357 staff members and has avoided layoffs in the recent downturn. It has only one shut down, in 2009, since converting to a flux pellet in 1987. Holmes attributes the focus on the flux pellet for the stability.

A flux pellet is a lower-grade version of a value-added iron ore product. Minorca’s endurance through the recent iron ore downturn has been remarkable. Why the success? Small scale production of a specific, marketable value-added product.

It’s a sign of a set of mixed realities for Iron Range mining. One, mining will continue for decades due to domestic demand. Two, mining will employ fewer people in fewer plants on the Iron Range. Three, private investment in expanding the value-added iron ore product line is the only way to stanch (not stop) the bleeding.

 

The Gazette series will detail the entire supply train from Minnesota iron ore to a completed Kinze 3600 planter in an Iowa field. It’s a great idea showing just how much goes into the products we use everyday, usually without us knowing. I look forward to the next installment.

 

Comments

  1. It’s really unfortunate that most of the steel in that planter is now probably made from scrap steel, not iron ore pellets. Same thing for structural steel, bridge steel, railroad rail, concrete rebar, and most other products except some pipe, appliances, and car bodies.

    That’s a bigger problem for our mines in the long term than imports.

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