We strive to be a leader in the iron ore mining industry
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Overview / Introduction
Magnetation is a natural resource and iron ore mining company. Our process recovers high-quality iron ore concentrate from previously abandoned waste stockpiles and tailings basins.
We operate two iron ore concentrate plants located in Bovey, MN and Grand Rapids, MN, and an iron ore pellet plant located in Reynolds, IN. The iron ore we produce supplies North American steel mills with the primary raw material used in the steel making process.”
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Our Vision
Our vision is to increase our production and become a leading producer of iron ore in the American market.
Our Mission
The mission of Magnetation is to produce iron ore minerals using safe processes that minimize impact on the environment. We ensure that steel manufacturers in local markets have access to sufficient iron supplies.
About
What We Do
We mine iron ore for manufacturing steel.
Steel is a type of processed pig iron without all kinds of impurities such as phosphorous, silicon, and sulfur. It’s also low in carbon content.
Steel is a versatile metal. Cast iron (another type of pig iron) and wrought iron (low in carbon) have essential markets. Corrugated iron is a structural steel sheet with ridges and furrows that run parallel to each other.
Henry Robinson Palmer invented this type of the iron in 1828 in London. It quickly gained popularity in constructing farm buildings and roofing. Some iron compounds are smelted to produce iron metal. When concentrated in large economic proportions, they’re known as “iron ore”.
The iron ore we mine is mainly used to produce iron, which is a major ingredient when making steel. On the other hand, steel is used to make locomotives, automobiles, paper clips, furniture, tools, construction beams, ships, bicycles, and rods for reinforcing concrete, among other things.
Iron is the most versatile and commonly used metal in terms of application and tonnage. Iron compounds also find use in the following cases:
- Nitrate and iron chloride used in manufacturing different ink types as industrial reagents and mordents.
- Iron sulfate is used as fungicide, iron oxalate in photographic processing, goethite, limonite, hematite as abrasives and pigments, magnetite in industrial electrodes manufacturing, and washing coal.
- Micaceous hematite to protective steel superstructures in the form of paint.
Concentrates – Upgrading
Iron ore is smelted using crushing and screening mechanical operations. However, some ores need upgrading before they can be smelted.
Concentration allows us to produce ore fractions that contain more iron and less silica than the initial rock. Our processes mostly depend on differences in density to separate heavier minerals from their lighter counterparts.
We crush the ore and then subject it to grinding. This process releases ore minerals from the rest of the gangue. Our company also uses magnetic techniques to do this separation.
Concentrate (the upgraded iron ore) is a fine powder, meaning it isn’t suitable for use in a blast furnace. Unlike ore fines, its particle size is smaller and hence sintering can’t agglomerate it.
Therefore, we pelletize concentrates to agglomerate them. Although this process was deployed in the 1940s, it was first used between 1912 and 1913 in Germany and Sweden. It was adapted to process low-grade taconite ores that were mined in the Mesabi Range of Minnesota, U.S.
Pelletizing
We moisten concentrate before feeding it to an inclined disc or a rotating drum. The tumbling action processes the concentrate into soft, spherical agglomerates.
Available as “green” balls, they’re fired in air to high temperatures ranging from 2,3000 to 2,4400 F (1,2500 to 1,3400 C) to dry and harden them. When done, we cool them slowly.
The resulting products are known as pellets. They’re round with 10-15mm diameters, hence suitable for blast furnaces.
Initially, we used shaft furnaces as our firing equipment, followed by the traveling grate and grate-kiln. The latter two account for over 90% of pellet-count globally.
Shaft furnaces use gravity to move charges down, and counter-flow of hot burning gases supports heating. The grate-kiln uses a combination of a rotating kiln attached to a horizontal traveling grate and a cooler. This ensures that firing, drying and cooling processes occur separately.
Pellets are charged at a single end of the traveling grate. They’re then pre-heated, dried, fired and cooled as they move across different parts of the equipment prior to exiting the other end of the grate.
Grate kilns and traveling grates enable us to produce up to 5 million tons of pellets in a single unit every year. They also have the same capacities.
Iron ore is a rock with minerals. Metallic iron is economically extracted from iron ores, which contain high iron oxide content. The oxides range in color from rusty red to bright yellow, dark grey, or deep purple.
Iron exists in iron ores as magnetite, hematite, limotite, goethite, and siderite.
“Direct shipping ore” or “natural ore” contains over 60% iron. They’re rich in high magnetite and hematite quantities. The ores are fed directly into blast furnaces for making iron.
Pig iron is made from iron ore as a raw material. And, 98% of mined iron is also used to make steel.
Iron ore, according to 2011 Financial Times, is more critical to the world’s economy than other commodities except iron. It’s an important part of the iron and steel industries worldwide.
Over 50 countries worldwide mine iron ore. However, Brazil and Australia dominate the exports market share.
Minnesota and Michigan mines contribute the highest percentage of iron ore production in the United States of America. Mines in the U.S. produced over 48 million metric tons of iron ore. Whereas Brazil had 480 million tons of iron ore, Australia produced 930 million tons in 2019.
Additionally, the international iron ore prices averaged $112.15 ores per ton. This was about 21% increase from 93% per ton in 2018. By March 2020, the prices had dropped to $88 per ton.
What Is An Iron Ore
Iron ore is the earth’s third most common substance or element. As mentioned before, magnetite and hematite are the major iron ore components. The low-grade iron ore is known as taconite.
However, it isn’t strong enough to support construction and other uses. Therefore, iron is mixed with other elements such as manganese, vanadium, nickel, tungsten, and chromium to form alloys.
Steel made from iron is used in automobile manufacturing, construction and other industrial applications. The U.S. alone has 110 billion tons of iron. This represents 27 billion tons of iron. Taconite makes a good share of Michigan’s district of Lake Superior.
Team Members
As the CEO of Magnetation, Jane Paul is responsible for running all facets of the business. We strive to be a leader in the iron ore mining.
As the COO of Magnetation, Steve Waller led the transformation into an enterprise-focused company while growing sales 50% year over year.
As the CTO of Magnetation, Jordan Wayne led all product development and product marketing functions for the company’s first release.