歪歪漫画

For 130 years, workers excavated vast wealth from the Mesabi Iron Range for big companies out East. Today, that could change.

It might go west instead.

An entrepreneur plans to reclaim century-old iron ore waste from the Mesabi Iron Range for an innovative 鈥� though still aspirational 鈥� pig iron plant in west-central North Dakota.

The proposal would require the de-commissioning of the mining-themed Hill-Annex Mine State Park in Calumet, Minnesota, but also turn waste dumps across the Range into available land for forest regeneration or development.

It鈥檚 part of a surprisingly unheralded surge of new iron mining across a hotly-contested checkerboard of previously abandoned west Range properties. Once emptied of its ore, this land could become an enormous canyon, later a massive lake.

This means jobs and new prospects for declining mining towns, but also more of the economic volatility that defines life on the Iron Range: High prices for iron and steel fuel a race for valuable untapped ore 鈥� before the bottom drops out yet again.

Jim Bougalis introduced the Calumet Reclamation Company at the March 14 meeting of the Western Mesabi Mine Planning Board at the Marble Community Center. Bougalis is the scion of a family-run Hibbing construction and scrap metal business that鈥檚 been operating for 70 years.

The Western Mesabi Mine Planning Board includes Itasca County cities and townships with ties to historic mining activity. Founded in 1990 to reclaim the region鈥檚 abandoned iron mining sites, it now coordinates local interests in transportation, land use and a new generation of mining projects.

Bougalis said Calumet Reclamation is fully funded, would create 150 high-paying union jobs on the western Mesabi, and will ship material by 2025.

鈥淭he intent is for us to clean up these waste stockpiles to free up land and the wealth that we鈥檙e surrounded by,鈥� Bougalis said. 鈥淲e want to try to use that wealth in a positive way.鈥�

Scram mining, a form of mining that collects previously extracted ore from waste materials left above ground, in Minnesota is hardly new. It鈥檚 been happening for a century, most recently with a company called Magnetation, which sought to mine in the same area.

Magnetation went bankrupt in 2015 after iron ore prices collapsed. But today, iron ore prices are soaring to record highs, spurring a feeding frenzy over waste material that鈥檚 been part of local scenery since the Hoover administration.

Bougalis said Calumet Reclamation will move 9 million tons of material per year. This will process down to about 4.5 million tons of commercial iron ore, roughly equivalent to the production totals of existing mines like Keetac in Keewatin or United Taconite in Eveleth.

News of Bougalis鈥檚 project first reached the Iron Range after the North Dakota Monitor reported almost $10 million in two North Dakota state grants awarded to Bougalis鈥檚 North American Iron, part of Scranton Holding Co. The company plans a $2 billion pig iron plant 50 miles north of Bismarck near Underwood, North Dakota. Ore shipped by train from Calumet would produce pig iron used in a variety of steel products.

Pig iron and direct-reduced iron, or DRI, are key components in more efficient, less carbon-intensive forms of steelmaking. Electric arc furnaces now dominate new steel mills across the world. These smaller furnaces use scrap steel, pig iron and DRI instead of lower grade ores like taconite. Taconite feeds older blast furnaces still used by American companies like Cleveland-Cliffs and U.S. Steel.

Minnesota鈥檚 iron industry, which mostly produces taconite pellets, hungers to incorporate Mesabi ore into DRI and other value-added products.

The Range has instead been served a steady diet of disappointment.

Thirty years ago, planning began for a DRI plant with an electric arc furnace steel mill in Nashwauk, about five miles east of Calumet. In 2009, Essar Steel of India bought the project. But after a flurry of construction activity in 2015, the company went bankrupt and the project stalled.

Other companies made failed attempts to relaunch the project until a group backed by a reorganized Essar Steel regained control of what鈥檚 now called Mesabi Metallics. Now, Mesabi Metallics seeks to self-finance the remaining $650 million to finish its production plant and begin mining by 2026, according to company officials.

During Essar鈥檚 dormancy, Cleveland-Cliffs sought the Nashwauk-area mineral leases, promising a DRI plant in Minnesota. Cliffs is now the largest integrated steelmaker in America. When the state didn鈥檛 release the leases fast enough, Cliffs built its first DRI plant in Toledo, Ohio. Then, last year, Cliffs acquired the leases anyway 鈥� the same ones Essar鈥檚 subsidiary wants back today. Cliffs and Mesabi Metallics remain locked in legal conflict.

Two Iron Range taconite mines 鈥� U.S. Steel鈥檚 Keewatin Taconite and Cliffs鈥� Minorca Mine 鈥� produce direct-reduced grade pellets. These are slightly higher-grade iron pellets configured for DRI plants. It鈥檚 a step toward DRI production on the Range, but far from the final one.

Today, the newly emergent Calumet Reclamation Company cites logistical concerns as a key reason for shipping material to North Dakota. Once again, hopes of a value-added iron evolution on the Mesabi fall victim to industry prerogative.

At a public hearing in North Dakota, Bougalis said his decision to locate the DRI plant in North Dakota was because 鈥渞egulation has run rampant in Minnesota.鈥� Last week, he clarified that the reasons were more complicated than that.

鈥淲e鈥檝e adjusted our project to Minnesota regulations,鈥� said Bougalis.

He said the North Dakota site is drier, which helps stave off water pollution. It allows below-ground carbon sequestration. He said the site also has more 鈥渞obust鈥� access to utilities.

Bougalis is eyeing a site conveniently nestled between the 1.2 gigawatt Rainbow Energy Center鈥檚 Coal Creek Station and direct access to a rail line. One day soon, Bougalis hopes to connect that rail line to a depot at Calumet.

Rail will be important to the project. In addition to sending iron ore to North Dakota, an internal rail network and a series of mechanical conveyance systems will move material around the Hill-Annex pit. This is unlike taconite mines, which rely on massive diesel-electric haul trucks to move raw ore.

Calumet Reclamation currently holds mineral leases for about 150 million tons of iron-rich waste material within 20 square miles of the Hill-Annex Mine State Park.

鈥淲e鈥檝e got 15 years of production, but we plan to go much longer than that,鈥� said Bougalis. 鈥淭here are 800 million tons of available material off of existing mining property.鈥�

This story was originally published on MinnesotaReformer.com.