Steel Product Producers

Essar's long-delayed Mesabi iron ore project shows signs of life

Written by Laura Miller

January 28, 2025

Nearly 20 years in the making, a new iron ore project on the Mesabi Iron Range in northern Minnesota is showing new signs of life.

In an interview last week, Essar Group Director Prashant Ruia told India’s Business Standard newspaper that the company is finalizing an additional $650 million investment for a 7-million-metric-ton-per-year iron ore mining and pelletizing facility in Nashwauk, Minn.

The DR-grade iron ore project has been a long time coming. India’s Essar Steel broke ground in 2008. Still, little progress was made over the years, leading to Essar Steel Minnesota’s bankruptcy in 2016. That and other issues are well documented by retired SMU reporter Sandy Williams in this 2021 article.

Some $1.7 billion has already been invested in the project, which now operates as Mesabi Metallics, a subsidiary of Essar Global. The project has 1.3 billion mt of high-grade ore reserves. If completed, it would be the first new mine and pellet plant in Minnesota in 50 years.

“The US is a crucial market for us, and our investments reflect our long-term commitment to the region,” Ruia told the Standard. He added that the project would also play a key part in the American industry’s transition to low-carbon steel production.

The company is “on track to start commercial operations in the first quarter of 2026,” Mesabi Metallics’ President and CEO Joe Broking said in November.

As of mid-January, the company had about 400 building trade union workers and employees on site working to complete the project. It plans to create 350 full-time jobs and more than 600 construction jobs.

A post on X by the company shows the construction project’s progress over the course of 2024.

Source: Mesabi Metallics
Source: Mesabi Metallics

Broking told the Minnesota Reformer news outlet last year that, in the long term, the company plans to construct up to two DRI plants and, eventually, a steel mill.

Mesabi Metallics had not responded to a request for more information as of this story’s publication.

Essar recently touted Mesabi Metallics’ fifth consecutive year of making grant repayments to the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED).

DEED had provided a ~$64 million grant to Itasca County for infrastructure development related to the project, meant to support investment and jobs on the Mesabi Iron Range. After coming out of bankruptcy and failing to reach certain milestones, Mesabi Metallics agreed in 2020 to repay $70 million to Itasca County.

Mesabi Metallics repaid $7.25 million at the end of 2024, bringing its total grant repayment to $42 million.

Laura Miller

Laura Miller is a reporter and editor for Steel Market Update. She has held a variety of positions within the steel industry since 2007, including reporting and editing for Steel Business Briefing/Platts, the Association for Iron and Steel Technology, and Kallanish Commodities, as well as marketing for what was then known as ThyssenKrupp Steel USA (now AM/NS Calvert). After a five-year hiatus working across other industries, she returned to steel in 2021 and has covered the flat rolled, tubular, and trade areas of the industry. She is a member of the Association of Women in the Metal Industries and a past-president of the AWMI Pittsburgh Chapter. She holds a BA in Latin American Studies from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. She can be reached at laura@steelmarketupdate.com or 724-759-7869.

Read more from Laura Miller

Latest in Steel Product Producers