by hausen » December 22, 2011, 1:57 pm
Guest wrote:When taconite appeared on the scene it was in a powdered, rather than pellets. Is there a substantial difference, other than appearance, in the two products? When we hauled the first cargo of the dust, we had to clean the holds the same as if we were going from regular iron ore to coal or to grain. Is the powdered form still present?
It's possible you loaded powdered iron ore (taconite) concentrate. That material would be something like 90% - 99% iron, but as you likely noted while carrying it, it's not the simplest cargo to handle. Taconite pellets consist of iron concentrate rolled into a ball and mixed with a binder (usually bentonite clay) to hold it together and sometimes also a flux (limestone) which is an ingredient in the mixture that goes into a blast furnace. Taconite pellets are typically about 65% iron and are a lot easier to handle on hopper railcars, stockpile conveyors, loading docks, and ships than iron concentrate.
[quote="Guest"]When taconite appeared on the scene it was in a powdered, rather than pellets. Is there a substantial difference, other than appearance, in the two products? When we hauled the first cargo of the dust, we had to clean the holds the same as if we were going from regular iron ore to coal or to grain. Is the powdered form still present?[/quote]
It's possible you loaded powdered iron ore (taconite) concentrate. That material would be something like 90% - 99% iron, but as you likely noted while carrying it, it's not the simplest cargo to handle. Taconite pellets consist of iron concentrate rolled into a ball and mixed with a binder (usually bentonite clay) to hold it together and sometimes also a flux (limestone) which is an ingredient in the mixture that goes into a blast furnace. Taconite pellets are typically about 65% iron and are a lot easier to handle on hopper railcars, stockpile conveyors, loading docks, and ships than iron concentrate.