The beautiful James R. Barker, loaded with coal, cleared Duluth’s Aerial Bridge on March 17, 2001. Its destination was Marquette, Michigan, another Lake Superior port, since the Sault Ste. Marie locks had not yet opened for the season. As it cleared the piers, the fact that it was less than fully loaded was evident to those of us accustomed to seeing the boats lower in the water.

We who live in the Lake Superior region deal with many changing surroundings, but iron ore, coal and shipping have long been a constant.

As the freighters prepared to launch another season this spring, at least two major factors demanded consideration. First, their fuels were significantly more expensive, in some cases almost twice the historical average. Second, the level of Lake Superior was at an incredible low, matching lows last seen in 1926. It may continue to be low throughout the summer.

I’m well aware that you are not reading this magazine to add to your already adequate supply of things to be concerned about. And I don’t deal in negatives well, except to explore for hidden values often cleverly concealed. But if you’ll follow along a bit farther, my cause for optimism will be revealed.

The taconite pellets we’ve all known for so many years, created in plants on Minnesota’s Iron Range, have been a major flow of our area’s lifeblood for almost 50 years. They feed giant blast furnaces scattered from near Chicago to Ohio and Pennsylvania.

The U.S. steel industry is among the world’s best, but finds itself in an unfairly competitive situation. Almost all developing nations begin some form of iron or steel industry to put their people to work. When they can’t consume all of their production, they offer it for export at “attractive” prices. You can easily guess where much of it winds up.

Blast furnaces - which each represent about a $100 million investment and have a 10-year lifespan - are almost an “endangered species.” They do make steel, but they also smoke, require coke-type coal and attract regulators of all types. The days of the blast furnace are definitely numbered. As they die, so does the market for our taconite. The recent closing of some taconite operations attests to that. OK, still not a very nice picture, is it?

Now for the good news. Some smart folks are finding new ways to use old resources and thus add value and longevity to our northern industries. This innovation comes from a special group of University of Minnesota researchers, working in Duluth’s old air defense building. Working within UMD’s Natural Resources Research Institute, researchers try to find better ways to use, produce or improve products from our region’s natural assets.

Institute director Mike Lalich ably runs this whole operation and has attracted some of the best in their fields by carefully maintaining a positive atmosphere at NRRI that the staff finds attractive and productive. 

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Shiploads of these small taconite pellets have fueled industries in the region, nation and world, but a new process may produce higher-quality iron nuggets that bring more money per load. PHOTO DULUTH SEAWAY PORT AUTHORITY

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In cooperation with Michigan Technological University in Houghton and other sites around Lake Superior, the NRRI has focused intensively on the iron ore industry. The goal is to improve taconite, which is about 64 percent iron, into some form of an almost pure-iron nugget with the silica removed and essentially 100 percent iron.

Such a nugget has uses beyond the fading blast furnaces. It works for electric and other types of  “mini mill” furnaces and can replace lower-quality scrap metal. Plus, it still works in blast furnaces.

But purifying the taconite is not the only concern. Others, succeeding in reaching 98 percent or better purity, failed to address related problems. The resulting porous pellet from the old process allowed air to introduce oxidation, so the pellets rusted during shipping or storage and were hard to handle.

A team under Donald Fosnacht, NRRI’s director of applied research, examined many processes developed worldwide. They are in the final phase of what may well be an incredible rebirth of optimism for regional ore industries.

In simple terms as explained by NRRI researcher, Iwao “Pete” Iwasaki, pulverized coal char is added to powdered taconite. Then some 2,700 degrees of heat are applied. The result is the formation of nodules that are essentially pure iron. The nuggets aren’t porous and don’t have the rust problems. They are strong and stable. They can be shipped by rail, boat or truck. And they could be just about five times more valuable than the current taconite pellets.

Another process that can produce iron pellets is being seriously considered by Cleveland Cliff’s Northshore Mining Company in Silver Bay, Minnesota, with assistance from several potential partners.

And Cominco American Inc., a major Canadian metal processing company, is seeking leases on copper nickel properties on the Minnesota Iron Range. They seek a 600-ton initial sample to confirm values, which could be followed by a pilot operation employing 200 people. This operation might be located on the LTV Steel property near Hoyt Lakes, Minnesota, and, if it leads to open-pit mining, employment could reach 1,000.

Pure iron is more valuable than almost all scrap steel. Thus our existing fleets can easily haul cargoes that are several times more valuable to the lower lakes, which could put Minnesota and Michigan’s iron ore products back in first place.

Lower lake levels would be less of a problem when each trip is more profitable and productive. Lake Superior’s people would have a secure future. (We have, as you might know, almost 200 years of good taconite left to mine and ship.)

As Congressman Jim Oberstar says: “It can mean more production, more jobs and, ultimately, more economic development.”

Granted, I might be a little ahead of things, but I’m excited by a recent announcement of a $1.2 million grant for the NRRI’s Coleraine Minerals Research Laboratory to create a pilot-scale project to test several processes for reducing taconite to a purer iron.

This will take a few years, but knowing the NRRI staff, it will happen!

A selection of Jim Marshall’s columns of lake lore and his inland sea voyages has been published as Lake Superior Journal: Views from the Bridge by Lake Superior Port Cities Inc. Follow this link for more information.

Feedback: jrm@lakesuperior.com