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Essar restarts construction of new west Range mine
Essar Steel has restarted construction on its new taconite mine and processing plant near Nashwauk, Minnesota. This according to a Saturday, Oct. 25, 2014 story in the Hibbing Daily Tribune. What’s not known is who is financing the India-based company’s sometimes beleaguered Iron Range project, or if the financing package will ultimately include another partner.…
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Essar claims financing; Magnetation rolls pellets
It’s been a big week of economic news on the western Mesabi Iron Range. Late last week, Magnetation LLC, announced it was producing taconite pellets at its Indiana processing plant using iron ore concentrate recovered from Itasca County pits. “This first production marks another significant milestone in Magnetation’s history,” said Larry Lehtinen, CEO of Magnetation.…
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Iron Range GOP candidate facing lawsuit for garage chop
Nearly a year and a half ago, the small band of daily commuters on Itasca County Highway 8 noticed that this happened. I posted the picture to social media with a silly Paul Bunyan joke. What we hadn’t realized at the time was that this garage-halving operation was part of a looney, decades-old family property…
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Essar financing appears to fall apart … again
The financing necessary to resume construction at the Essar Steel Minnesota taconite plant in Nashwauk is now in question, according to a Ron Brochu report that ran in the Scenic Range News Forum and Business North. For five years, India-based Essar Steel has been building a new iron mine near where the former Butler Taconite…
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Financing trips up Range mine projects
Sometimes it feels like the entire leadership structure of the Iron Range is standing outside the offices of environmental regulators, waiting for a Willy Wonka-type figure to emerge, do a little flip, and announce whether or not we get to come inside where they keep the permits. But two recent stories about Range mine projects…
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Company: Essar Steel Minnesota not for sale
Essar Steel Minnesota isn’t for sale. That according to the India-based steelmaker seeking to build a new taconite plant on the western Mesabi Iron Range. Earlier reports had indicated that the company might be packaging its new plant for sale once its completed in 2015, but Essar says those reports were speculative and incorrect. Given the…
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Range students build working hovercraft
Students in an engineering class at Nashwauk-Keewatin High School recently demonstrated their year-end project: a working hovercraft that can fly over water, snow and land. WDIO has the story, and video: The hovercraft uses a snowmobile engine and is built from a design the students drafted in class. Related posts: No related posts.
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Essar Steel secures funds to finish Nashwauk project
This item is cross-posted with my Up North Report blog at StarTribune.com. The Star Tribune’s Dee Depass reports that Essar Steel has secured $450 million in new private financing, and is injecting $300 million of its own money into finishing its long-awaited Nashwauk taconite plant. Here on the ground north of Nashwauk, the project has…
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Uneasy feelings at Saturday’s #MN08 DFL convention
This story is cross-posted with my Up North Report blog at the Minneapolis Star Tribune. This Saturday at 9 a.m., DFL delegates from Minnesota’s Eight Congressional District will hold their biannual convention at the Nashwauk Rec Center on the western Mesabi Iron Range. U.S. Rep. Rick Nolan (DFL-MN8) is unopposed in seeking endorsement for re-election.…
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Husk of Nashwauk gas station finally to be razed
More than eight years after the fire that charred and closed a downtown Nashwauk gas station, city officials expect the building to be razed this Wednesday, April 30. The owner of the building has fought for those years to keep the city from doing so, but never presented a plan or funds to repair the…
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Man vs. Moose: nature’s fury in northern Minnesota
Greg Clusiau’s Iron Range fishing report is usually the place you find out where the crappies are biting, but this week the Itasca County fishing guide’s weekly newspaper column instead recounted memorable mammalian news. In a March 3 item published in the Scenic Range News Forum and elsewhere, Clusiau describes Nashwauk-area trapper Donny Newman’s encounter…
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Up to $12 million owed at Essar site
Northland NewsCenter jumps in with its own report about the work stoppage and financing issues at Essar Steel’s construction site near Nashwauk, Minnesota. The headline: Up to $12 million is owed Iron Range contractors for work already completed at Essar’s planned taconite mine. Oh, and I’m in this one, saying pretty much the things I…
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Contractor files lien on Essar; millions unpaid
More details about the shaky financial situation at the Essar Steel construction site near Nashwauk, Minnesota are coming to light: Nobody is working at the Nashwauk site now. Millions are owed to construction contractors and laborers. At least one contractor has filed a lien on the project. Essar says it hopes to have its financing…
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Metrodome pitcher, bullpen mounds head to the Range
I’ve been following this in conversations at my day job (instructor at Hibbing Community College) but today it’s official: the pitcher’s mound and bullpen mound from the Metrodome are headed to northern Minnesota’s Iron Range. From the employee newsletter this morning: There are no stadium seats for sale, but HCC baseball coach Dave Bevacqua bid…
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Workers pulled off Essar site; more financing woes
WDIO reports that union officials say many workers are being pulled off the Essar Steel Minnesota site near Nashwauk, Minnesota, as the company continues to search for financing to finish the long-awaited project. Rumors that contractors are owed large sums of money seem to be confirmed with news that many workers are not reporting for…