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Place Name
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Mesabi Iron Range
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Pronunciation
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muh-SAH-bee
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Place Status (Type)
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mountain range
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Location
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Minnesota, United States, North America
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Latitude
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unknown
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Longitude
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unknown
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Mesabi Iron Range
(muh-SAH-bee), range of low hills, in
iron-mining dist., St. Louis and Itasca cos., NE Minn. The ores were
found in a belt c.110 mi/177 km long and
1 mi/1.6 km-3 mi/4.8 km
wide, bet. Babbitt and Grand Rapids, occurring in horizontal layers (up
to 500 ft/152 m thick) near the surface and
mined by the open pit method (Mesaba open-pit mine,
5 mi/8 km ENE of Aurora). Reserves of
high-grade hematite iron are now exhausted, and lower-grade taconite
deposits are being worked. The taconite contains mostly chert and
magnetite (an iron-bearing mineral) and must undergo a costly and
complex beneficiation process before being shipped in the form of
pellets containing c.60% iron. Mining centers include communities of
Babbitt, Aurora, Biwabik, Gilbert, Virginia (VA), Mountain Iron, Buhl,
Chisholm, Hibbing, Marble, and Coleraine. Most of the ore found is
shipped by company RRs to Duluth, Taconite Harbor, Silver Bay, and Two
Harbors. The Mesabi iron ore deposits were 1st discovered in 1887 by
Leonidas Merritt and his brothers, who organized the Mountain Iron
Company in 1890 to mine the ore; John D. Rockefeller gained control of
the company in the Panic of 1893. Productivity has declined due to
dwindling reserves and environmental restrictions. Vermilion Iron Range
parallels Mesabi Range, c.10 mi/16 km to
N.
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