iron nuggets

[garbear]

I noticed in Duluth Shipping News the tug Defiance/Ashtabula will be loading iron nuggets at Hallett 5 after it's done off-loading its current cargo.
Are the nuggets produced at Steel Dynamics? I'll assume they go to S.Chicago or Burns Harbor are unloaded, then loaded onto a unit train and then go to one of Steel Dynamics plants in Indiana? Thanks for the info.

Last night's WDIO-TV News here in Duluth had a good story from Renee Passal, 5 p.m. Anchor/Mining reporter on the iron nuggets. Some great shots of the nuggets being loaded onto the Defiance/Ashtabula in the video: http://www.wdio.com/article/stories/s3571606.shtml

[Guest]

There's a good story in the latest North Star Port magazine from Duluth's port authority about shipping iron nuggets by boat. Sounds like the dock handling the cargo is expecting about one load a month. You read it on page 12 of http://www.duluthport.com/uploads/2014_ ... LO_WEB.pdf

[JFB]

Mesabi Nugget LLC is the company producing the Iron Nuggets on the Range. The company has experienced problems scaling up the production facilities from demonstration size to production sized. The finished product has been leaving the plant mostly as a handful of Gondolas transported by the local freight train rather than a unit train as production has been at best a few hundred tons per day, sometimes much less. More recently the production has been small enough to be trucked to Hallet Dock and it has taken several months to accumulate a boat sized shipment. Before the development of the pellets the raw ore had the consistency of dirt or clay. The percentage of Iron in the shipped product hasn't changed much since the beginning. The pellets improve the Smelting process in the Blast Furnace as the round shape allows the Blast Oxygen to pass through the charge more easily.

To the poster suggesting it would be more efficient to refine the Ore to a higher percentage before shipping, if they did that they would need a lot less Lakers to transport it. Even better would be to turn it into finished Steel right at the mine site, greatly reducing the need to ship anything whatsoever.

[Guest]

Cleveland-Cliffs built a Direct-Reduced Iron (DRI) facility in Trinidad in the mid-90s. I have no idea if it is still in operation.

The North American steel industry is moving away from blast furnaces to electric-arc, which has been ongoing since the early 80s. Blast furnaces probably represent 40% of steel making capacity, versus electric arc. If DRI products can be shipped on the lakes to customers, and at a lower cost, than that is a market with potential for shipping.

[ed]

I have often wondered how the boats can haul a cargo of pellets that are only 65 % iron ( and 35 % ) scrap and be efficient. It would be a lot better to refine the pellets ( to reduce scrap ) before they are shipped.

[Al]

Iron nuggets are a relatively new product with high iron content being produced to make Minnesota taconite useable in electric furnaces. The product was developed with an eye toward the future -- serious questions exist about the future of blast furnaces (which can use taconite pellets) while the number of electric-arc furnaces (which cannot use pellets but can use the new nuggets) is growing. As nugget production increases, the question lingering over the industry is whether it's best to move the nuggets by rail or by boat. The fact that the first waterborne shipments are being made through Duluth begs for a good news story about who's doing it, what problems and advantages they may encounter, whether water can win out over rail, and whether it can become a source of cargo (and jobs) for Duluth and Great Lakes shipping. That's why I think it's pathetic the newspaper is either unaware of the matter or ignoring it. Most of its mining industry and shipping coverage now seems to be based on news releases or media events. The paper also has largely ignored Canadian National's notion of expanding the area near the Duluth ore dock to directly receive limestone from self-unloaders to free the dock for more shipments of taconite pellets. (Warning: Mouth-foaming rant starts here:) I'm sure there are people at the paper who think the opening of new coffee shops is the kind of business news that "normal" people care about, and I know there's a faction there that thinks the building of a new Minneapolis-style Dinkytown around the university is the great marvel of the age, but Duluth's waterfront and rail industries and the businesses that are located there because of the transportation facilities produce a lot of good-paying jobs and the newspaper is foolish to ignore them. The lowest ebb I've witnessed occurred last spring when one of the newspaper's reporters noted that he or she had checked the Duluth Shipping News website to determine whether a certain vessel had arrived in port. It's the epitome of laziness when a reporter can't simply look out the newsroom window or make a single phone call to get some facts. Unfortunately, that seems to reflect the newspaper's overall attitude toward its port.

[Guest]

Self unloaders can handle them fine.

[wlbblw]

Interesting, thanks for the link. Seems to be a new iron product made through a new direct reduction process. No blast furnace, more of a "coking" type of baking out the impurities instead of melting. I wonder how well (or not) that the self-unloaders can handle the product in their systems? I also wonder if this stuff will grow in usage with other end users in the future.

[garbear]

Pretty sad that the Duluth newspaper hasn't covered what could become a major cargo for its port. On the other hand, it was all over the opening of that new Qdoba.

I was surprised today's DNT had an article about Algoma Harvester. I do believe it was just a copy of Algoma's press release from the christening ceremony.

[garbear]

What's an "iron nugget"? I've heard of taconite pellets & cast iron pigs, but not nuggets.

Go to http://steeldynamics.com click on "products" scroll down then click on "iron nuggets", and that should tell you what you want to know.

[wlbblw]

What's an "iron nugget"? I've heard of taconite pellets & cast iron pigs, but not nuggets.

[Al]

Pretty sad that the Duluth newspaper hasn't covered what could become a major cargo for its port. On the other hand, it was all over the opening of that new Qdoba.

[Mr Link]

The Duluth Shipping News also mentions they loaded nuggets on June 13th. AIS tracking sites, and the ship weather report archive, seem to indicate that the June load was taken to the Toledo Port Authority docks.

These are the first two loads of iron ore nuggets that I am aware of. Ever since production was ramped up a few years ago, most, or all of the nugget tonnage seems to be going via all rail routes.

[garbear]

I noticed in Duluth Shipping News the tug Defiance/Ashtabula will be loading iron nuggets at Hallett 5 after it's done off-loading its current cargo.
Are the nuggets produced at Steel Dynamics? I'll assume they go to S.Chicago or Burns Harbor are unloaded, then loaded onto a unit train and then go to one of Steel Dynamics plants in Indiana? Thanks for the info.