MOUNTAIN IRON â Jay Sanders likes his new digs.
Sanders, a fourth-generation miner from Hibbing, deftly dug into the side of a huge overburden wall at United States Steel Corp. s Minntac Mine at the controls of one the taconite plant s newly-refurbished electric shovels.
âI think it s positive,â Sanders, a United Steelworkers member said as the P&H shovel s huge 41-yard bucket scooped up another load of overburden. âAnytime the company invests in the place you are working is good.â
U.S. Steel on Wednesday took the wraps off the sixth giant electric shovel to be rebuilt in the last few years at its mine and iron ore pellet processing plant in Mountain Iron.
WDIO Created: July 14, 2021 06:41 AM
A $110 million dollar investment in the future of Minntac is now complete, and already helping make pellets.
A multi-year project included six shovel rebuilds and two brand new shovel builds.
Jay Sanders, who s known as Colonel around the mine, was in shovel 9 on Wednesday, which is one of the rebuilds. Anytime the company invests, is a good sign, he told us.
Minntac celebrated their shovel rebuild project on Wednesday, with the final shovel ready to start work on Friday.
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Mike Bakk, the Reliability Director for U.S. Steel Minnesota Ore Operations, said the rebuilds will add 15+ years to the life of the shovels. We re very excited to see this happen. They did add things to improve safety for the operators and the maintenance folks. Plus they re more productive and more reliable now.