New company plans to mine old Iron Range tailings dumps
June 12, 08 by TheFleetIf you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Peter Passi | Source: Duluth News Tribune
Six investors, all with ties to mining, have combined resources to launch Magnetation Inc., a Nashwauk-based company that aims to reclaim iron from the tailing basins of long-retired natural ore mines.
Tailings are the processed rock byproduct of mine operations, and natural ore mines are the operations that fed the nation’s steel industry through the 1950s until they were replaced by taconite plants capable of handling lower-grade ore.
It’s common for the tailings from natural ore mines on the Range to have an iron content of 30 percent to 45 percent, said Larry Lehtinen, Magnetation’s chairman.
Lehtinen hopes to have the permits in hand by July and aims to begin processing tailings south of Keewatin in August. The proposed initial processing operation would have an annual production capacity of about 200,000 metric tons and probably would create about 20 seasonal jobs, probably April through October.
Because Magnetation will be handling preground materials, Lehtinen said it will require far less energy than conventional mine operations and should leave a relatively small carbon footprint. Waste from the plant — primarily silica removed from the tailings — will be returned to the basin in a terraced fashion.
“We plan to leave behind wetlands that will be valuable in their own right,” Lehtinen said.
Magnetation expects to produce a fine-grained concentrate with an iron content of about 65 percent — roughly the same as a taconite pellet. This concentrate could be turned into pellets, used to produce iron nuggets or sold as sinter feed for steelmakers’ blast furnaces. Lehtinen pointed out that several mills on the Great Lakes use sinter to produce steel, and they could be supplied by freighters.
Magnetation believes it is ready to launch its first commercial operation on the site of the Mesabi Chief No. 3 tailings basin, just south of Keewatin.
