Thread: Pure iron ore found in Wisconsin!

A couple of interesting related links.

Hematite: A primary ore of iron and a pigment mineral

Minnesota-MInes

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

There was once a thriving iron industry in the Mesabi range in Minnesota. Hematite, and then when that played out the industry died until they found a way to process the tailings from the hematite, producing taconite pellets. I worked up there in the '70s.

Taconite - Digging into MN Minerals: Minnesota DNR

I don't think they changed the tailings into Taconite. Hematite is iron oxide Fe2O3 and Taconite is iron silicate. They are two totally different minerals and not associated with each other. When they first started mining ore in that area they got the easy stuff first and when that played out they went after the Taconite which is a low content iron ore probably less than 30% while hematite is around 60%. The shaft mine was for Magnetite which can be up to 90% iron and is Fe3O4.

Usually when they reprocess the tailings it's because they have a newer process which can reclaim what they couldn't originally get or they discover the tailings contain something they didn't realize. A classic example of that was up in Alaska when they discovered gold they couldn't process it because the mercury process wouldn't work because of some black sand that fouled up the works. They had to come up with another process to separate it it from the gold. Once they did they threw it away. They later realized the "junk" was platinum. Then they went back to extract the platinum from the dumps. They do that a lot with precious metal ores.

Originally Posted by Steel

as I was poking around the internet I found this study that was done in 1912 on the iron ore of Lake Superior and more specifically Wisconsin. My only point is that we all know the old straights made in the USA were made from very high quality of steel. For those who love the American blades this just seems to support that it was indeed a high quality steel. Of course we knew that already.

The State of Wisconsin - Google Books

High quality iron ore is found throughout the U.S. Just north of New York City are a bunch of old abandoned iron mines that date back to the 1700s and produced Magnetite (the purest ore there is). The iron that clad "old ironsides" came from the Tilly Foster Mine which was an open pit. Also in Franklin N.J the mineral Franklinite which is a high Iron content ore with Manganese was mined in the early 1800s. Steel made from that ore was superior because of the Manganese content.

You can find iron producing areas all over the country. The U.S was famous for iron production. it's what fueled the steel mills. Historically the U.S never imported iron we always exported it.

Unfortunately and as usual there is an environmental downside to this mining activity. If you scroll down to the "Taconite and Human Health" section here Taconite - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia you can see there was an expensive clean up effort.

Bob

Originally Posted by Steel

I might just have to look into Tim Z.'s razors. I had no idea he collected the iron ore himself!!

Just to be clear, Tim has done that with a few special project razors, not his usual production stuff AFAIK. Matter of fact he has made at least two razors partially, if not completely, out of steel accessed from meteorites. I wanted one but the price was ....... out of this world ! ........

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

Just to be clear, Tim has done that with a few special project razors, not his usual production stuff AFAIK. Matter of fact he has made at least two razors partially, if not completely, out of steel accessed from meteorites. I wanted one but the price was ....... out of this world ! ........

Thanks for clarifying that.

There's a thread on here somewhere with his process for turning black lake Superior beach sand into steel, super interesting read and if I remember right, quite a few pictures.

If anyone is passing by Two Harbors Minnesota stop in and go to the RR museum at the waterfront to take a look at a monster steam locomotive that was used to haul iron ore Lake County Historical Society . Near by are also a lighthouse and massive operating ore docks. It is worth the detour to take it in.

Bob

Originally Posted by BobH

If anyone is passing by Two Harbors Minnesota stop in and go to the RR museum at the waterfront to take a look at a monster steam locomotive that was used to haul iron ore Lake County Historical Society . Near by are also a lighthouse and massive operating ore docks. It is worth the detour to take it in.

Bob

And be careful if ice fishing around the ore docks! The Taconite pellets dull your auger!

Originally Posted by 32t

And be careful if ice fishing around the ore docks! The Taconite pellets dull your auger!

Speaking of ice fishing, did you hear the one about the fella that had a very successful day ice fishin? Apparently his wife drowned trying to cook it.

Bob