by William Lafferty » September 29, 2026, 1:59 pm
The plant is to be in Lee County, and I assume in the northern portion along the Mississippi since that is where more open land is available. The mine is at Nashwuk, near Hibbing. A water route to the plant would necessitate rail to Superior (Canadian National?) for loading on self unloaders. These would unload, ship-to-barge behind the breakwater at South Chicago or a dedicated facility on the Calumet River for eventual transshipment to barge. Barges would then have to traverse the Cal-Sag to Lemont to join the Illinois and on to the Mississippi, involving assembling a new tow at Joliet since the Cal-Sag can only handle at most a few barges at a time with small towboats. That tow would proceed to the Mississippi but be very far south from Lee County, about 200 miles, since the confluence of the illinois and Mississippi is at Grafton, Illinois, in essence St. Louis. Another water route would be the pellets taken by rail to St. Paul for loading and a straight shot down the Mississippi by barge. I'm too lazy to investigate rail connections between Hibbing and St. Paul but I assume BNSF would be used or a combination of roads. As already discussed, though, BNSF is a straight shot following the Mississippi from St. Paul to Iowa, running in virtually all weather, so this seems like a much more likely route, which would please Warren Buffet in his retirement.
The plant is to be in Lee County, and I assume in the northern portion along the Mississippi since that is where more open land is available. The mine is at Nashwuk, near Hibbing. A water route to the plant would necessitate rail to Superior (Canadian National?) for loading on self unloaders. These would unload, ship-to-barge behind the breakwater at South Chicago or a dedicated facility on the Calumet River for eventual transshipment to barge. Barges would then have to traverse the Cal-Sag to Lemont to join the Illinois and on to the Mississippi, involving assembling a new tow at Joliet since the Cal-Sag can only handle at most a few barges at a time with small towboats. That tow would proceed to the Mississippi but be very far south from Lee County, about 200 miles, since the confluence of the illinois and Mississippi is at Grafton, Illinois, in essence St. Louis. Another water route would be the pellets taken by rail to St. Paul for loading and a straight shot down the Mississippi by barge. I'm too lazy to investigate rail connections between Hibbing and St. Paul but I assume BNSF would be used or a combination of roads. As already discussed, though, BNSF is a straight shot following the Mississippi from St. Paul to Iowa, running in virtually all weather, so this seems like a much more likely route, which would please Warren Buffet in his retirement.