Boatnerd Discussion Forum

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.

When working at P & C dock in the 80's the Hullets unloaded a couple loads of red mud ore. It didn't give them too much trouble, but the reclaim wheels had a heck of a time picking it back up.

The other bulk or loose ore we saw was Quebec or "Q" ore which was high quality and concentrated ore. Very heavy. The boats would come in with 4 or 5 small piles of the ore in the holds and drawing 29' of water. Hullets had to take small bites because it was so heavy.

I believe we hauled some of that natural ore on the Elton Hoyt 2nd in the early 80's. I remember loading at a chute dock and having trouble with the material flowing down the chutes into the trunk hatches.

I believe taconite has been shaped as pellets since day 1.

Sounds like you're thinking of natural iron ore which is much higher quality than taconite. Reserves of that started to disappear in the years following WWII. Not sure if there are any significant amounts of it shipped anymore.

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?