Essar Steel Minnesota: A Billion Dollar Project

Construction Continues on New Taconite Plant on the Range

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Essar Steel Minnesota a $1.9-billion project is in the midst of construction on the Iron Range.

The taconite mining company began construction in 2008 but halted in 2012 due to a lack of funding.

Just last October they started building again but it comes during a questionable time for the steel industry.

Although the steel industry has hit a bump in the road Director of Government and Public Relations with Essar Steel Minnesota Mitch Brunfelt says the company is optimistic by the time the plant is completed the price of steel will be on the rise.

Essar Steel Minnesota sits on the outskirts of Nashwauk.

Fox 21 was lucky enough to tour the facility and see where they will start mining ore, and the process that follows before it’s turned into taconite pellets.

“When we are fully operational will have the ability to produce 7-million tons of taconite annually,” said Brunfelt.

It’s a big operation that will call for big equipment.

Imagine the Tonka Toys from your youth, except on steroids, as 240 ton trucks will haul the blasted rock during operations.

“(From the blasting zone) it’s hauled to the primary crusher and that crusher is where we start the process,” said Brunfelt.

The trucks will dump their loads in a building that goes 9-stories below ground.

As the rock goes down the flights it will continue to crushed before being transferred on a conveyer belt to another unit known as, The Grizzly.

The Grizzly is a machine that sorts the rocks by size.

Any rock that is eight inches is send to a holding bin the smaller rock is crushed again before being mixed back in with the larger rock, for a final crush.

“They go into the next mill. It’s called the ball mill a bunch of steel balls and then rocks will whip around with the steel balls and crush it down to a powder consistency,” explained Brunfelt.

Before the powder is sent to the pellet plant magnetic separators will isolate bits of iron from tailings.

The bits of iron are sent to the plant to be turned into taconite pellets like the ones you see on rail cars.

During the peak times of construction this summer more than 600 workers will be on-site.
The project is set to employ more than 300 full-time employees when it begins operations in June 2016.