But the news for Mesabi Nugget got better. The plant shut down entirely for four weeks earlier this year so major changes in the process of turning concentrate into pure iron nuggets could be made, company officials said Tuesday. Test trials after those changes, especially to the rotary hearth furnace, show promise. “The trials resulted in encouraging results related to improvement in yield, quality, volume and raw material input costs, resulting in a potential cost structure that we believe is competitive,” the company’s second quarter statement noted. Meanwhile, the Iron Range plant continues to face questions over wastewater emissions, which are released into a now flooded former open pit iron ore mine. The federal Environmental Protection Agency earlier this summer revoked an earlier variance that allowed Mesabi Nugget to exceed some emissions limits at certain times of the year. Environmental groups and the Fond du Lac Band of Ojibwe filed a lawsuit last year challenging the EPA’s 2012 decision to grant the variance, saying it improperly allowed the plant to exceed state standards for discharges of bicarbonates, conductivity, hardness and total dissolved solids.
Posted on: Wed, 23 Jul 2014 10:46:04 +0000
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