New Mesabi Mill - In Iowa

[Darryl1]

Per Guest's comment...

It appears to be reminiscent of the Fox chip factory promo that was to built in Wisconsin.

With so much capacity available at existing steel mills, and the propensity of the industry to bring in foreign steel, even for high profile projects, there is reasons to wonder about this.

But, time will tell.

[Guest]

I'd be very surprised if this mill ever gets built.

[Guest]

I do recall that in the early-1990s iron ore pellets from the Mesabi Range were railed to Geneva Steel in Utah by Southern Pacific via the former Rock Island Spine Line, without any movement by self-unloaders for part of the trip. I would think that the new mill steel mill in Iowa will use a similar all-rail movement.

[Guest]

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.

IMO you are correct -
year around shipping - no need to stockpile
Only handle the nugget once limiting damage
With coal disappearing, railroads will love a new cargo

[Guest]

It’s operating and producing nuggets

[Guest Paul A]

I haven't heard for a long time of any news of what's going on with the HBI plant in Toledo. Any info?

[Pat]

The story says they plan to expand the DRI plant in Minnesota to produce HBI products. I would assume that is what will feed the mill.

[William Lafferty]

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.

[Mr Link]

I'm confused. In the Minnesota Public Radio story (referenced on the Boatnerd news page) it mentions hot briquetted iron (HBI). Is that what they plan to use as feedstock for the proposed Iowa mill, or is that an independent proposal? The reason I ask is that a lot less HBI (by volume) would need to be shipped than if they plan to ship pellets. HBI is typically 90 to 94% iron while pellets are usually in the 60% range. That greatly affects the volume (and tonnage) to be shipped and may sway the decision as to what mode of transit is used.

[Under_Pressure]

You'd have to think rail is the plan. BNSF runs pretty much door-to-door from the iron range to southeast Iowa as long as they have the capacity. Or maybe have a trans load facility direct from BNSF to barges on the upper Mississippi if rail capacity is an issue south of Minneapolis.

[Guest]

An interesting news story hit this morning of a new Mesabi Metallics mill opening in Iowa. It is noted "It's location near the Mississippi River would allow Mesabi to ship iron ore from its Minnesota Mine to the Iowa facility." Assuming that would be by rail or is there profit in running shuttle runs down to Gary or other, then barging down the river? https://www.newsmax.com/us/donald-trump ... d/1270912/

I tend to believe that the ore will go by rail to the mill and will bypass any movement on the Great Lakes. I don't foresee any possibility of shipping the ore from the mine to a loading port on Lake Superior to be moved down to lower Lake Michigan and then transported back across land by rail over to Iowa. This would seem to be an overly complex and inefficient method of moving the ore more directly from upper Minnesota to eastern Iowa but I don't know much about how the rail lines are able to handle the volume of 10 millions tons of annual steel production. But as I live in the region, I'm also unsure of how the current infrastructure will handle this as it is.

[Ohio Bob]

An interesting news story hit this morning of a new Mesabi Metallics mill opening in Iowa. It is noted "It's location near the Mississippi River would allow Mesabi to ship iron ore from its Minnesota Mine to the Iowa facility." Assuming that would be by rail or is there profit in running shuttle runs down to Gary or other, then barging down the river? https://www.newsmax.com/us/donald-trump ... d/1270912/