Steel Dynamics, Inc. Mesabi Nugget (Hoyt Lakes, Minnesota)

USA / Minnesota / Hoyt Lakes / Hoyt Lakes, Minnesota
 industrial area, mining
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Mesabi Nugget is building a new plant that uses a rotary hearth furnace to turn iron ore and pulverized coal into iron nuggets that are of similar quality as blast furnace pig iron (97% iron content). The new ironmaking technology will be able to effect reduction, melting and slag removal in only about 10 minutes.

See: www.midrex.com/handler.cfm?cat_id=46

This is a huge revolution in ironmaking technology, as it is a very simple and highly efficient process. By developing this one-step furnace operation, it does away with the need for taconite plant, blast furnace, and coke ovens. It is environmentally superior to conventional ironmaking processes, as it can reduce energy consumption by 30% and CO2 emissions by 21%. And, since the product is 97% iron compared with the 66% iron in taconite pellets, it reduces the amount of material that must be transported to the steel plants. As a result, a high quality, higher value iron product is produced at a substantially lower cost.

Less energy, less capital and operating costs, higher value, and less environmental impact, sounds like an excellent idea!
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   47°35'15"N   92°10'53"W

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This article was last modified 9 years ago