Tag: Nashwauk

  • Scenic Range NewsForum expands web presence

    Scenic Range NewsForum expands web presence

    The Scenic Range NewsForum on the western Mesabi Iron Range recently launched its new website, a mobile-optimized site that tosses aside its clunky PDF reader-style predecessor. Along with this comes news that the Scenic snatched the low bid for becoming Itasca County’s newspaper of record, leaving the Grand Rapids Herald-Review to this painfully defensive story. As…

  • Essar plans for Iron Range pellets in 2017

    Essar plans for Iron Range pellets in 2017

    This month another flurry of activity kicked up on the site of Essar Steel Minnesota’s new taconite plant near Nashwauk, Minnesota. But questions remain as to how quickly Essar plans to integrate the Nashwauk plant into its North American steel operations. This long-awaited, heavily state-subsidized, “might-make-steel-someday-but-probably-not” project has been a major curiosity for residents of…

  • Star Tribune: Essar’s Iron Range project delayed a year

    Star Tribune: Essar’s Iron Range project delayed a year

    Dee DePass of the Star Tribune reports that Essar Steel Minnesota’s project in Nashwauk has experienced the financing delays local observers have long suspected. Essar is set back a year. Essar Steel Minnesota will delay the opening of its Nashwauk taconite plant until the second half of 2014, officials confirmed Thursday. The plant, 90 miles…

  • Iron ore price dip a cause for (measured) concern

    Iron ore price dip a cause for (measured) concern

    BusinessNorth‘s Ron Brochu has a fascinating story on the recent downturn in iron ore prices. Though no major production slowdowns are currently slated for the iron mines here in northern Minnesota, several future projects are facing some serious headwind, according to this story. I wrote about the slow progress at Essar Steel in Nashwauk earlier…

  • Construction continues at Essar Steel

    Construction continues at Essar Steel

    A source with knowledge of the proceedings of the Itasca County Railroad Authority told me about an update on the construction of Essar Steel near Nashwauk, which was shared at a recent meeting of the authority. Essar has increased their staff to about 100 people, on its way to about 325 permanent personnel to run…

  • Cliffs to provide iron ore to Essar through 2024

    Cliffs to provide iron ore to Essar through 2024

    Here’s an interesting item. Cliffs Natural Resources today announced that it has signed an extension of an existing iron ore contract to provide taconite pellets to Essar Steel’s Algoma steel mill in Ontario through 2024. They had already been providing ore to Algoma, India-based Essar’s foothold in the North American steel industry, while Essar completes…

  • Lines, roads and tracks CHECK! Now Essar can build

    Lines, roads and tracks CHECK! Now Essar can build

    Construction of Essar Steel Minnesota’s major project northwest of Nashwauk continues to make spurts of progress. This week, Minnesota Power announced that the electrical infrastructure is now complete, meaning that we now have power lines, new roads and fresh railroad spurs leading to a big brown field adorned with massive concrete footings. Nearly all of…

  • Essar names buyer for pellets at new taconite plant

    Essar names buyer for pellets at new taconite plant

    Essar Steel Minnesota has announced a purchase agreement with Arcelor Mittal for the taconite pellets it plans to produce early next year. The new Essar plant is now under construction near Nashwauk on Minnesota’s western Mesabi Iron Range. A press release was sent out earlier today, compiled here in the Hibbing Daily Tribune. Related posts:…

  • Essar loan extended, company in talks to bring steel plant to Range

    Essar loan extended, company in talks to bring steel plant to Range

    Essar Steel, an Indian company planning to open a new taconite plant near Nashwauk next year, is talking to another company about bringing an historic steel plant to northern Minnesota’s Iron Range. This according to reports from yesterday’s meeting of the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board in Eveleth. Essar also got their $6.7 million…

  • Essar affirms plans for 2013 Iron Range taconite production

    Essar affirms plans for 2013 Iron Range taconite production

    Essar Steel Minnesota is still eying 2013 taconite production on the Iron Range and will work through the winter on construction of its plant near Nashwauk. I spoke with Essar spokesman Kevin Kangas today after my post last night about the Anacostia and Pacific Railroad’s decision to pursue other options for the engines it had…

  • Iron Range’s Essar project ‘on track’ but needs trains

    Iron Range’s Essar project ‘on track’ but needs trains

    (This post now contains some additions and a correction from Essar, which are indicated in italics below) Someone call Sir Topham Hatt on the Island of Sodor. A new Iron Range mining project is in great need of some “really useful engines.” At a recent meeting of the Itasca County Regional Rail Authority, officials revealed…

  • First mining equipment arrives at Essar’s Nashwauk site

    First mining equipment arrives at Essar’s Nashwauk site

    Since news a couple weeks ago that Essar Steel was slowing construction at its Nashwauk taconite plant site the company has been working hard to convey the notion that the slowdown is only temporary. Today, the company announced that its first piece of mining equipment, the pictured drill, has arrived on site. Essar Steel Minnesota…