MagIron reported that high-grade Direct Reduction pellets were produced in a university lab process using concentrate from materials representative of iron-ore stockpiles and tailings basins controlled by MagIron in the Canisteo mining area of Minnesota. (Photo: MagIron)
MagIron LLC recently announced that it produced, in laboratory testing, Direct Reduction (DR) grade iron-ore pellets made from Minnesota hematite and goethite mineral resources.
The pellets were produced in a mini-pot tester at the Natural Resources Research Institute of the University of Minnesota from iron-ore concentrate made using legacy iron-bearing materials representative of stockpiles and tailings basins controlled by MagIron in the Canisteo mining area of Itasca County, Minnesota. The company noted that these DR pellets were produced using biochar, rather than the traditional coke breeze or other coals, creating a green credentialed DR grade iron-ore pellet useful for natural gas or hydrogen furnaces that produce DR iron, a critical enabler to decarbonize steel production.
These results, according to Mag-
Iron, build on test work completed over 20 months aimed at demonstrating that MagIron concentrate will produce pellets with excellent iron-making characteristics. The pellet test work was performed under MagIron’s direction by independent personnel at the NRRI.
MagIron said it is focused on the restart of Plant 4, a past-producing iron-ore concentrator that, as E&MJ reported in June 2022, was originally built by Magnetation LLC, which filed for bankruptcy in 2015. ERP Iron Ore then acquired the facility and also went bankrupt. MagIron subsequently bought the plant for $20 million.
Plant 4, said the company, is designed to process previously discarded waste materials from historical mining operations and convert these feed materials into high grade, low impurity iron-ore concentrate. The plant previously operated at an annualized run-rate of approximately 2 million mt per year of BF grade concentrate and was designed for expedient expansion to 3 million mt/y, according to MagIron CEO Larry Lehtinen.
