This Building Was The Largest Structure In MN Until The MOA Was Built

I grew up on the Iron Range, and I've had generations of family members work in the mines. In fact, my great-grandpa was the last superintendent at the Tower-Soudan underground mine before it closed. I've toured that mine several times, but yesterday was my first time touring an active iron ore mine.

US Steel Employee Appreciation Day + Tours

US Steel puts on an employee appreciation day each year. They invite employees and their families for tours of the Minntac facility near Virginia, Minnesota. This was my last chance to go, as my stepfather, who works at Minntac, will be retiring later this year. So I wanted to see this, as it may be my last chance. I had no idea what a huge facility this was. I also had no idea how huge the buildings were!

Ken Hayes

We learned the process of mining with so many interesting facts; I'm sure I'm going to forget some. These enormous machines shovel out blasted rocks and load them into giant haulers. Then, the material is dumped into a crushing facility. From there, it goes into the concentrator, which is how they extract the iron from the crushed rock.

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Most of the mine is pretty dangerous and dirty for the public to be around. But there is a section they have in the concentrator where you can walk in and experience just how enormous this operation is.

The Concentrator where they extract the iron is enormous.

The crushed rock gets fed into the Concentrator. This building is 7 football fields long. It's 260 feet wide and 155 feet high. That adds up to nearly 2 million square feet.

Ken Hayes

Grinding balls are used in the mills to grind up the material into fine powder. From there, it goes into magnetic separators, which pull the iron out and discharge the waste material. The waste material is used on the plant for haul roads and other uses.

This building is so big that it once was the largest structure in Minnesota. That was until the Mall of America opened in the 90s.

I can honestly say I've never been in a building where I could look that far down and still be in the same structure. It was massive.

It was really cool to learn about the mining process, and thanks to US Steel for putting this on. They even had food trucks serving up free food in the equipment viewing area. It was awesome!