The idled KeeTac production line that is getting a $300 million makeover, courtesy of U.S. Steel, is expected to be up and running 36 months after environmental permits are in hand, officials announced Friday at Keewatin City Hall.
The revived production line, down since 1980, is part of the existing KeeTac plant, where about 6 million tons of taconite pellets are made each year.
With the expansion, Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel will install new emission controls, energy-efficient technologies and equipment that will boost KeeTac's taconite-pellet production by a third. It will also create 75 full-time jobs and 500 construction jobs. The expansion will increase KeeTac's taconite pellet production by 3.6 million tons to 9.6 million a year, U.S. Steel CEO John Surma said.
Gov. Tim Pawlenty and U.S. Sens. Norm Coleman and Amy Klobuchar were present Friday and welcomed the news as a boost for the Iron Range, which has suffered a series of mine bankruptcies and plant shutdowns in recent years.
"This is an exciting day for the Iron Range," said Klobuchar, whose grandfather worked in the Zenith Mine in Ely. "Over the decades, this area has seen more than its fair share of ups and downs. But we've always known that we were in it for the distance. ... This new investment offers the promise of new economic development, new jobs and new opportunities for the people of this region. It also shows that iron mining continues to be a big part of the economic future of northeastern Minnesota."
Because of a spike in global demand for iron and steel and even copper and nickel, Minnesota's Iron Range is back on the map.
Several big mining and production projects are in the planning or development process.
U.S. Steel spokesman John Armstrong said the extra taconite produced at the Keewatin plant will help feed the company's two newly acquired Stelco plants in Ontario.
