It's shortly after 0800 on a Wednesday morning and the crew on board GMTX 413 (which is leased to Northern Plains railroad) have departed the yard at Gunn with a string of empties and headed down the rarely used western end of the BNSF Casco Sub to be loaded at the former Magnetation Jessie Loadout Facility location in Coleraine by new mining company Prairie River Minerals (PRM). Some info on that operation--Prairie River Minerals. L.L.C. (PRM) is a new and innovative Iron Range iron ore mining company. Created in early 2019, PRM will harvest and reprocess previously mined hematite located along the Western Mesabi in legacy stockpiles.
With the special efforts of community partners, The Blandin Foundation and Itasca Economic Development Corporation (IEDC), the University of Minnesota Natural Resources Research Institute Coleraine facility has completed an extensive pilot plant test of the iron ore quality and the ore processing technology that will be utilized.
The reprocessed hematite ores will allow PRM to produce products for the steel, cement and aggregate industries.
PRM will utilize Dense Media Separation (DMS) technology in its plant. It should be emphasized that this new process enables the harvesting and processing of legacy hematite iron units in a manner that is respectful to the environment and has no water discharge.
PRM was recently awarded title to former ERP properties, Plant 1 at Keewatin and the rail asset at the Jessie Load out in Coleraine. These properties will be re-purposed and re-utilized.
