Eastern Railroad Discussion > Taconite by rail updates this week

For any who may have interest, some good news about taconite moves by rail were items this week:

Locals may have already seen them but since USS Granite City Works restarted the B blast furnace a few days ago the regular rail moves have resumed, something many thought would not happen a few years ago. These pellet moves are pretty rare in this country these days outside of the iron range...

And speaking of the iron range, Mesabi Metallics announced this week they have completed financing arrangements to stay on pace for a fall '26 startup, meaning a new rail movement on the iron range (or further) will begin at the same time. Their plant site is near Nashwauk, MN, and is nearly complete, the first new iron ore mine in nearly 50 years. They hope to ship up to 7 million tons per year of DR-grade pellets to steel producers by way of rail or water shipments. Not quite sure, but isn't CN the closest road to this site? Should be interesting since Essar has already spent $2.2 billion dollars to develop this operation and is looking to ship to the ever-growing EAF steel sector in the US, which could mean more all-rail moves to some locations as well as the obvious moves to the lakefront. Keep in mind that the 2 big integrated producers in the US (USS and Cliffs) already own their own mines and produce their own high-grade pellets, and that the majority of EAFs are not on the Great Lakes or near any navigable water source...

JG



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 04/03/26 19:08 by jgilmore.

For those who are interested Essar is an India based firm with about 14 billion a year in sales.  The plant will produce some form of Directly Reduced Iron (DRI) which can be used in electric arc furnaces similar to how scrap is used.  It is not taconite, but a high-purity iron product.  Since the big EAF firms such as Nucor and Steel Dynamics already produce their own DRI, I would assume the product would be going to smaller steel produces without their own DRI plants.  This will influence the rail movements and could result in some interesting trains.

Jeff N
Olathe, KS

Thanks for mentioning this.  Essar, an Indian firm, has invested more than $2.5 billion in the US project. There's a picture of the plant in the yahoo press release.  Hundreds of good, long term jobs created in addition to 750 construction jobs.

https://finance.yahoo.com/sectors/energy/articles/mesabi-metallics-secures-520-million-222000537.html

sfn2633 Wrote:
--------------

> [DRI] is not taconite, but a high-purity iron product.

What percent Fe?

>  Since the big EAF firms such as Nucor and Steel
> Dynamics already produce their own DRI ...

How? From what?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/04/26 06:59 by timz.

jgilmore Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> And speaking of the iron range, Mesabi Metallics . . .
> plant site is near Nashwauk, MN, and is
> nearly complete, the first new iron ore mine in
> nearly 50 years. They hope to ship up to 7 million
> tons per year of DR-grade pellets to steel
> producers by way of rail or water shipments. Not
> quite sure, but isn't CN the closest road to this
> site? 
>
> JG

Nashwauk is on BNSF a little ways west of Kelly Lake.  CN (DM&IR) has certain rights in that area, but I'm not sure if that would include serving Mesabi Metallics.
Gordon

Does adding a second railroad to serve a new plant ever come up in negotiations over a new site? The shipper would seem to hold a lot of high cards

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