Using Minnesota's clean energy, iron resources and technology to manufacture climate solutions that benefit communities and the environment.
Since 2019 our small volunteer group has focused on advocating for the development of decarbonized iron and steel manufacturing in Northern Minnesota, in addition to other clean energy opportunities, offering economic sustainability and environmental benefits to our regional communities.
The traditional technology used by Minnesota's iron mining facilities which produce taconite as a feedstock for the US domestic "primary" (virgin) high-quality iron and steel industry has been in use since the 1950's. This carbon-intensive process using Minnesota's iron ore transfers a majority of the economic benefits from our communities to other states hosting iron and steel manufacturing facilities.
America's iron and steel companies originally located their major infrastructure investments near geologic coal and gas resources used to power blast furnaces to make iron and basic oxygen furnaces to make steel. These were generational investments made in the 1950's that now average 70 years old, and are approaching the end of their physical infrastructure lifetimes. These steel companies are now faced with the decision to refurbish these outdated manufacturing facilities, or build new ones that don't rely on fossil fuels; either choice involves multi-billion dollar investments in infrastructure intended to last for another 70 years. These choices will also determine the future viability and success of these companies in competitive global markets.
Historically, domestic steel companies have manufactured an important value-added commodity from Minnesota's iron ore; supporting steel manufacturing communities economically, but also subjecting them to the hazards of major fossil fuel air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). Traditional iron and steel manufacturing produces two tons of GHG for every one ton of steel manufactured. More advanced technologies used by many US companies employ electric arc furnaces (EAFs) to recycle steel and produce lower-quality "secondary" steel; this EAF process still uses vast amounts of fossil fuels, but overall our domestic manufacturing of iron and steel is significantly "greener" than many competitor countries with larger steel production.
Global iron and steel manufacturing is responsible for roughly 10% of all GHG emissions, representing both a major challenge and an incredible opportunity to address climate change The international race is on to develop cost-efficient, scalable, green iron and steel manufacturing using renewable energy and electrification to eliminate fossil fuels from the process; decarbonizing this major industry and eliminating the air pollution and GHG that has been a costly legacy of this industry.
Focusing on Clean Energy Opportunities to Achieve Economic Development and Environmental Benefits.
Achieving these goals on the Iron Range requires Beneficial Electrification of our iron mining and iron and steel production industries. This change will depend upon the unified support of our political leaders, industrial and utility stakeholders, community members and our colleagues in environmental advocacy groups. Beneficial Electrification relies on increasing access to clean energy resources as well as the electrification of our existing major energy users; IN Minnesota this is primarily the iron mining and taconite processing industries of the Iron Range, consuming approximately 30% of all of Minnesota's total energy used in 2022 (1).
Our group advocates for increased accessibility to clean energy through increased connection to extra-regional renewable energy, and accelerated deployment of utility-based and distributed clean energy resources in Northern Minnesota. Our existing grid infrastructure provides an important foundation to expand clean energy use in our region, e.g. the potential clean energy generation and utility-scale storage transformation of Minnesota Power's Clay Boswell Energy Center, currently providing approximately 64% of the electricity used in Minnesota's mining industry (2). Transforming the Clay Boswell Energy Center to renewables and storage represents a great opportunity to decarbonize the massive total energy used by these six heavy industrial facilities, soon to be seven with Mesabi Metallics coming online in 2026.
We advocate for combining our clean energy resources and vast iron deposits with major investments in available decarbonization technologies to transform Minnesota's iron mining industry into a global leadership position in producing sustainable green iron which benefits our communities and the environment. These resources also offer the opportunity for new green steel manufacturing in our Northland, redirecting the economic benefits of steel manufacturing to our region. Green steel is a critically important commodity needed for building the major clean energy grid infrastructure to meet our Minnesota 100% clean energy by 2040 goals. Regardless of the Trump administration's attempt to discourage renewables, our national grid investments in new wind and solar, transmission and utility-scale storage will continue to grow and this should all be built with domestically manufactured green iron and steel.
Addressing sulfate pollution of water with cost-effective, nature-based technology.
Our group also recognizes the urgent problem of sulfate pollution and impairment of our regional watersheds, along with iron mining-related mercury emissions, as important concerns for the environmentally beneficial success of this transformation. We are advocating for new, cost-effective technology based on natural bacterial sequestration of sulfate being developed by Clearwater BioLogic of Babbitt, MN (https://clearwaterbiologic.com).
The Clearwater BioLogic technology is designed to cost-effectively and efficiently address the sulfate water impairment created by iron mining with generation of a safe byproduct, iron sulfide, that can then be used as an important soil amendment (3) and which also has potential as a safe material to reduce mercury air pollution from iron ore processing (4).
Our group's potential membership in the Minnesota Environmental Partnership would allow us the opportunity to share this information more effectively with other MEP members and to develop collaborations that would help protect our air, water and ecosystems while benefiting the communities of Northern Minnesota.
Working collaboratively with the environmental community to develop climate and environmental solutions benefiting Northern Minnesota.
We believe that clean energy, combined with Minnesota's iron resources, offers an environmentally safe, sustainable economic development opportunity for Northern Minnesota through the manufacturing of important climate solutions that do not rely on controversial mineral extraction or geopolitically sensitive supply chains. Importantly, these are opportunities that can unite Minnesotans around Jobs For Communities AND the Environment; allowing environmental groups to collectively advocate for climate solutions that benefit people and nature.