Ishpeming, Mich. – The Empire Mine is big and deep, spanning a mile across and plunging 1,200 feet to its lowest point.
Trucks that carry rock from the depths of the iron ore mine are the size of two-story houses and burn 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel a day.
The electric bill from this massive mining complex in the Upper Peninsula is bigger than the Milwaukee Brewers’ 2011 payroll.
“It’s all about scale in the iron ore business,” observed Terry S. Reynolds, a historian at Michigan Tech and an expert on the state’s iron ore industry.
As Wisconsin debates a return to iron ore mining for the first time in nearly 30 years, the Empire and adjacent Tilden mines offer a window into how the industry operates today.
The high-grade iron ore that drew immigrants to this region in the mid- to late 1800s played out long ago.
“There are probably still people who think we are out here with picks and shovels and mules and wooden carts,” said Dale Hemmila, the manager of corporate affairs in North America for Cliffs Natural Resources, based in Cleveland and the principal owner of the mine.
“But the fact of the matter is, this is a very, very sophisticated operation,” he said.
Now, iron ore mines need to be enormous to justify the expense of excavating and processing mountains of low-grade rock.
Empire and Tilden operations employ 1,800 workers and produce about 13 million tons of iron ore a year at full capacity. After separating the waste rock, it takes 3 tons of iron ore to produce 1 ton of ore pellets – the staple of making steel.
“To make a profit, any mine has to be able to handle very large volumes,” said Reynolds, the co-author of “Iron Will: Cleveland-Cliffs and the Mining of Iron Ore, 1847-2006.”
In Wisconsin, Gogebic Taconite has proposed a $1.5 billion mine along state Highway 77 in an undeveloped area that would straddle Iron and Ashland counties.
But in June the company said it was putting those plans on hold until legislators rewrite mining laws that would ease regulations. Environmentalists worry about a rollback in safeguards and fear that Gogebic’s deep pit and processing will harm air and water resources.
Proponents say there would be no weakening of environmental regulations.
If built, Gogebic, too, would be huge.
One wall of the mine would drop nearly 1,000 feet from the top of a forested ridge known as the Penokee Range; the other wall would drop about 700 feet.
The bottom of the mine would narrow to the length of a football field. Miners would follow the iron ore deposits, and over the planned first phase of about 35 years, the pit would run about 4 miles.
The site would also include a processing plant to manufacture iron ore pellets, said Bill Williams, president of Gogebic Taconite, a unit of Cline Group, a privately held coal mining company based in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.
The company estimates the mine will employ about 700 people.
“It would definitely be a different land use,” said Williams, who previously worked at mines in Spain, Minnesota and Michigan.
Ore is processed
At Empire and Tilden, rock with 35% iron ore is turned into a marble-sized product containing 65% iron ore.
It all starts deep in the pit where rock is drilled, sampled and filled with explosives. Ore deposits have been cataloged in databases, and engineers decide where crews should excavate on any given day.
In a control room, operators use a bank of computers to track and dispatch equipment to ensure a steady flow of ore feeds the plants.
Some of the heaviest work is carried out with the aid of $20 million P&H Mining Equipment electric shovels, built in Milwaukee. The custom-built shovels can scoop 70 tons of rock at a time.
The mine’s largest dump trucks have the capacity to transport 320 tons on a single trip. The pit’s steep network of gravel roads is carefully manicured to help drivers avoid blowouts. A replacement tire costs $52,000.
The processing of the rock takes place in sprawling factories caked in ore dust. Tilden’s plant is more than 10 stories high and would cover 14 football fields.
A combination of heat, chemistry and brute force produces pellets bound for steel mills in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, and suburban Detroit, eventually supplying the automobile and appliance industries.
The work goes on 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The region’s annual snowfall of 141 inches – three times as much as Milwaukee’s – is merely a speed bump in daily operations, mining officials say.
It’s also hugely energy-intensive.
Empire and Tilden are the largest customers of Milwaukee-based We Energies. The company’s 2011 bill is expected to cost about $110 million, according to the utility.
Base salaries start at $23 an hour – nearly $48,000 a year, the company says. Equipment operators, mechanics and other skilled positions are paid more.
“It’s given all my family jobs,” said Janice Krook, 62, a retired licensed practical nurse.
Her great-grandfather settled here from England and went to work underground. Her father, uncle, brother and husband all have worked in mining.
Her son, now a heavy equipment operator in construction, is on the shortlist for a job.
“You’re lucky to be hired,” Krook said from her yard in National Mine, an unincorporated community outside the mines.
“It’s a huge economic driver here,” said Amy Clickner, chief executive officer of the Lake Superior Community Partnership, the local economic development corporation.
The loss of the K.I. Sawyer Air Force base in 1995 was devastating to the area. Since the base closing, the economy revolves around health care, higher education, tourism and, of course, mining.
Future in doubt
The future of the Empire Mine, which opened in 1963, also is in doubt. It will stay open until 2014 or 2015, but Hemmila said that Cliffs and its minority partner, steel and mining company Arcelor Mittal, must soon decide whether to commit funds to keep Empire operating into the next decade.
The Tilden Mine has an estimated life span of about 30 more years, according to the company.
With Empire’s days waning, local officials pushed hard to support Kennecott Minerals’ proposed construction of an underground nickel and copper mine on Michigan’s Yellow Dog Plains, northwest of the mines.
Construction has started, but the project has been a flash point of controversy, with opponents fearing that the nickel and copper, locked in sulfide rock, will leach sulfuric acid when it becomes exposed to the elements.
Unlike the controversy over mining legislation and construction in Wisconsin, the Empire and Tilden mines haven’t invited objections, in part because of their long tenure and because iron ore mining is seen as potentially less destructive than sulfide mining.
“Different kettle of fish – different kind of mining,” said Kristi Mills, director of Save the Wild U.P. “We have never taken a stand on the iron ore mines.”
But Empire and Tilden have had environmental problems.
Cliffs agreed to pay more than $55,000 in a civil fine and related costs and was ordered to conduct a cleanup after unauthorized discharges of tailings in 2008 and 2009.
The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality said in 2010 the company spent $8.4 million to remove tailings deposits and replace pipelines to prevent future discharges.
The mines also are the source of a fish consumption advisory for selenium in surrounding water bodies after elevated levels were detected in 2008, according to the Michigan DEQ.
Steve Casey, a supervisor for the Michigan DEQ, said Cliffs continues to cut selenium discharges. The company says it’s cooperating with authorities.”We can’t do what we’re doing without some disturbance to the landscape,” Hemmila said.
11-5-11
By Lee Bergquist of the Journal Sentinel http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/133308968.html