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    June 14, 2017

    Essar Steel Minnesota Sale Approved

    Written by Sandy Williams

    Mesabi Metallics, the former Essar Steel Minnesota, emerged from 11 months of bankruptcy on Tuesday with a new owner, Chippewa Capital Partners.

    Chippewa Capital is a joint venture of London-based GFG Alliance and billionaire Tom Clarke. Clarke is also the owner of Magnetation and hopes to use the taconite ore from both facilities to produce hot briquetted iron, or HBI, at a direct reduced iron (DRI) plant to be built at the Mesabi Metallics site in Nashwauk. Annual iron ore production is expected to top 8 million tons with 7 million tons from Mesabi Metallics and 1 million tons from Magnetation. HBI is a premium form of DRI that is used to make steel at electric arc furnace minimills. For the time being, ore from the two mines will feed Clarke’s existing pellet plant in Reynolds, Ind.

    Sandy Williams

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