Magnetation Iron Ore Tailings Reprocessing

I saw a westbound unit train in Downers Grove that consisted of low rotary gondolas. That means that they carry something that is heavier than coal because coal is shipped in high rotary gondolas. Fortunately, Michael Matalis caught the same train and not only took better pictures, he identified it as a Magnetation ore train. In his Facebook posting in the "BNSF Racetrack" I wrote a comment asking why it had Norfolk Southern power given that the destination, Reynolds, IN, is on CSX/Monon tracks. The answers were:

• Michael Matalis For the same reason that the NS Virginian heritage unit came into town trailing on a CSX oil train yesterday; nowadays power is assigned to trains not on the basis of the originating railroad, but on the basis of what's available. A good example is the Virginian heritage unit that went west on an NS oil train a week or so ago, got assigned out of the power pool to a train heading back to the CSX, and is now back on the BNSF heading west for the oil fields. The railroads do keep track of how much their units spend off line, and if there is an imbalance they will either demand payment or the use of offending railroads's locomotives to make up the deficit.

  
  
• Andrew Shafer A big reason some of the oil trains come back as CSX or NS trains is because the shippers can change the destination of the train, whether enroute or while its loading.

In a posting asking about iron ore trains, Michael answered:

Those are the Magnetation ore trains that originate in Grand Rapids MN up on the Iron Range. Magnetation specializes in reprocessing mine tailings, which are then shipped to their pellet plant in Reynolds IN on CSX. The train are interchanged in Chicago.

Magnetation has plants in Minnesota that mine the tailings of open-pit iron ore mines using a patented Rev3 Separator technology. The separator concentrates the 25% iron tailings into 65% concentrated ore. That ore is shipped in the trains we see going through Downers Grove to their palatalization plant in Reynolds. They save costs compared to original mines because most of the size reduction (grinding) has already been done and they don't have to strip any ground. But they have the cost disadvantage of smaller haul trucks. About five of their conventional 40-ton trucks would fit in the bed of a mining truck. But they don't explain why they use small trucks. Below is "Slide 5" from one of the videos I got the above information from.

Magnetation Presentation at Duluth SME -2013 in videos

Their fourth concentration plant is designed to use output of an open pit mine after they are done processing all of the existing tailings.

The palatalization plant was built at the site of a defunct ethanol plant that already had much of the needed infrastructure including a 6-layer loop track. The plant combines the iron ore with limestone, coke breeze, and all of the other materials needed to feed a blast furnace, and it started producing pellets in September, 2014. One of their main customers is AK Steel's blast furnace operations in Middletown, OH, and Ashland, KY. (Update: the blast furnace in Ashland was shut down in 2015.)

Update:

Michael Matalis posted
Dust free! Westbound Magnetation empties.
[The reason for Mike's "dust free" comment is that some of his pictures have shown a cloud of iron ore dust coming from the empty cars. He has sent t hem into the company to let them see the pollution they were generating. We are happy to see that the company has evidently done something to reduce the dust pollution.]

Michael Matalis posted

I understand that China has been dumping steel in America because its own economy has weekend so much that their demand for steel is less than their production capacity. This reduces the price of steel in America because the China government is helping to pay for the steel production. This is good news for the American consumer, but bad news for the American steel industry.  Magnetation appears to be another victim of plunging steel prices.        More on their bankruptcy.

From another article about the shutdown

Magnetation Finds Buyer for Assets

At Rochelle's Railfan park, I was able to get a glimpse of the product in the gondolas. The reporting mark, MGPX +MAG PELLET LLC, indicates they own their own cars. Probably because a low-height gondola car does not have a rotary-dump coupler.

20150913,16 4703

A Republic Steel blast furnace is being restarted to use at least some of the pellets produced by the Reynolds plant.


Dennis DeBruler shared the article "Reynolds iron ore plant may move to Mexico in pieces" with the comment: "There used to be daily BNSF unit trains through Downers Grove in each direction to serve this plant. I understand they were mining the tailing piles in the northern iron ore region and concentrating it before shipping it to this plant."
Lukas Irons There goes ore shipments to Lorain lol
David Jordan TP&W delivered bentonite to a transloader at the Co-Alliance elevator on Reynolds' west side. Route was BNSF-Peoria-TPW. 

At least I caught a loaded ore pellet train from there once. CSX symbol K502 to Middletown, Ohio had just left the plant around midday, Sunday, June 26, 2016. It was literally crawling through Reynolds, but took off like a rocket south of town, where I shot video (camera was new, and I had to adjust to its 40x zoom!). CSX 5226-243-7877 have 125 cars. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwXXf-ENsnM

REYNOLDS — The Mexican firm that bought the closed iron ore plant outside Reynolds is apparently preparing to dismantle it and move it to Mexico.
White County Commissioner Dave Diener confirmed that Altos Hornos de Mexico, a Mexico-based steel manufacturer, received permission from the District of Minnesota United State Bankruptcy Court to buy the plant.
“Everything other than the ground” goes to Altos Hornos for the $15 million it paid for the plant, he said.
There’s been no official word to county representatives whether the plant will go, but Altos Hornos didn’t buy the ground, said County Commissioner John Heimlich.
“That was our fear. We haven’t heard anything,” Heimlich said.
He added that nothing has been taken out yet, although the county is watching the site and vehicles have been on it.
Those may be security, he said.
Altos Hornos first attempted to buy the building last fall.
However, the Oct. 24 finalization was delayed into November because of objections made by entities to which ERP Iron Ore owed money.
Diener said White County was one of the entities that contested the plant’s sale on the basis of the definitions of real versus personal property.
White County has financial interests in back taxes owed by the plant.
In April, ERP’s owner Tom Clarke missed a mandatory tax payment on the Reynolds plant, the Herald Journal reported.
He owed White County $517,646 for real property taxes and $5.6 million for personal property taxes.
The Minnesota-based ERP purchased the plant in January 2017 from the original builder, Magnetation, and was working with White County to assume the economic agreements the county had with Magnetation.
[Herald Journal]

Dennis DeBruler commented on his share
I found my photo that I took of the gondola cars at Rochelle's Rail Park. This allowed me to be high enough to see how full they were. They did a better job of dust control for full loads than they did for empties. Note that the height of the gondolas is between regular gondola cars and coal cars.https://industrialscenery.blogspot.com/.../magnetation...

May 2022: safe_image for Idled Iron Range iron unit plant to re-start