What It’s Really Like Inside Minnesota’s Biggest Iron Mine

Earlier this week, I had the chance to tour US Steel's Minntac Mine. It was really interesting to see the complex process that it takes to extract iron from our rich deposits. I've driven by mines before, but never actually inside them. I was shocked at how big everything is. It's like everything has been supersized because of the equipment needed to haul this heavy rock.

One of the first things I noticed is how the haul road is built like a freeway or an airstrip. It's massive. You could easily land a plane on it, or turn it into a four-lane highway. The material used to build the haul road and maintain other roads is actually from the waste discarded from the plant.

We loaded a bus from the parking area and then entered the mine with a security truck escorting us. After we entered the facility, we turned left to go to the West Pit at Minntac.

I saw these huge tanker trucks spraying water all over the road. They call them water buffalo, and they can hold 50,000 gallons of water. It's sprayed on the roads to keep the dust down. Dust must be a real problem if they have these trucks running all of the time.

Ken Hayes

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Minntac processes up to 150,000 tons of material each day, and at the end of the process produces about 43,000 tons of iron ore pellets each day. Those are then shipped off by rail to Duluth, where they're loaded on ore boats and sent off to steel mills.

From there, we got to tour large mine vehicles like trucks, loaders, and fire equipment. We even got to tour the concentrator, which is where they extract the iron from the crushed and ground rock.

Ken Hayes

It was a great tour, and if you ever get the chance to take it, I highly recommend.