A Preliminary Economic Analysis Of The Underground Mining Of Minnesota Taconite

During the past ten years, the trend on the Mesabi Range has been toward the establishment of integrated operations which mine, concentrate, and pelletize the large reserves of magnetic taconite. However, since the supply of open-pit ores of acceptable quality is by no means inexhaustible, it has been proposed that it be supplemented by developing the magnetic taconites that extend down dip past the economic limits for open-pit methods. In Phase I of a long range study, Pfleider and Yardley1 collected information on the general character of the Mesabi iron formation at depth and proposed that an underground lane-and-pillar mining system be considered to extract those high grade layers where they might exist over a considerably areal extent. An approximate cost estimate was included initially, with the thought of later developing a feasibility study as time permitted.