Steel Dynamics of Fort WayneIt was announced today that Steel Dynamics of Fort Wayne is buying the plant of Mesabi Nuggets in Minnesota. The project of building a plant that could produce high concentration iron pellets for use in mini-mills in Indiana looked liked it might not happen last fall.
Steel Dynamics move puts the plant back on track. Steel Dynamics had announced in November, 2006, that it was suspending its participation with several other companies in the development of the plant.
Marcia Oddi of the Indiana Law Blog has been covering the story since 2004. Steel Dynamics had indicated in March of that year that slow development of the plant in Minnesota would lead it to construct a processing plant to produce the nuggets in Indiana. In May of 2004, Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty signed legislation to ease the Minnesota regulatory structure so as to pave the way for the plant to be built in that state.
Ms. Oddi noted at that time:
The "iron nuggets plant" issue - whether a plant to process iron ore into nuggets, which can be used in mini-mills, will be built in Indiana (where the mill is and where the environmental permit process is said to be quicker) or in Minnesota (where the ore is) - [is] an ongoing story that has been covered in detail here in the Indiana Law Blog, but not, as far as I've seen, in any of the Indiana papers...
Photograph of the Mesabi Nuggets site is from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.
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