18 March 2009Major excavation underway at Essar Steel Minnesota
With the passing of winter, excavation and site preparation for Phase One of the Essar Steel Minnesota mining project near Nashwauk, has kicked into high gear.
Take a look at the attached video and you’ll see that contractors are using large earthmoving equipment to prepare plant sites for Essar Steel Minnesota’s crusher, concentrator and pellet plant.
A rail corridor that will run from the crusher, concentrator and pellet plant sites to the facility’s direct-reduced iron and steelmaking plants is also being shaped.
De-watering of Pit No. 5, a massive mine pit once used by Butler Taconite Company, began in December.
The Essar Steel Minnesota facility - which includes an iron ore pellet plant, direct-reduced iron facility and steel slab plant - has a capital cost of $1.65 billion.
Approximately 2,000 construction workers will be needed to build the facility. When complete, the plant will employ 500 permanent workers.
Essar Steel Minnesota officials say the project remains on schedule to produce iron ore pellets in 2011.