Hi from England, was watching a programme on the Discovery Channel about an Iron Ore open cast mine in Minnesota. it said they made the ore in Taconite pellets that were shipped to China and I was wondering how that was shipped?
Is it shipped from a local port or shipped by train to the west coast and if so, what port would the pellets be transfered onto a ship.
Any info would be of great help.
Coburn35 lives in Duluth, Minnesota, where taconite pellets are loaded on ships for sailing down the Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway to the Atlantic. He might be able to provide more info. I believe, that taconite pellets would go west by BNSF or CN to Pacific ports for shipment.
Depending on where they are headed, they will either be loaded onto ships from the CN (former DMIR) Duluth or Two Harbors docks. For movement to China, the BNSF and UP run ALL RAIL ORE trains interchanged with CN. Although the DMIR did ship a few trains of chromium ore to China through our docks.
I am very tired right now so excuse these lazy answers. Feel free to contact me.
Thanks guys, I wondered if the pellets had been moved to Pacific ports because I believe (correct me if i’m wrong) that the great lakes are quite shallow and not suitable for large ocean going bulk carriers.
Not at all. The Great Lakes are just fine for iron ore shipping. They don’t call them the Great Lakes for nothing. Ever heard of the Edmund Fitzgerald?
The trains are hauling to the Pacific, because China is much further sailing to the east.
There are usually “salties” at Duluth loading grain for shipment out to the Atlantic and beyond. The lakes are big and deep. Some of the channels connecting them are tight.
You also might want to take a look at the DMIR’s website at http://www.CN.ca/customer_centre/services_support/glt/dm_ir/en_index.shtml
The Lake Superior & Ishpeming Railroad (http://www.Cleveland-Cliffs.com/mining/cmmc/) of Marquette, Michigan, also has a similar operation to the DMIR, albeit with siginifcantly less trackage involved.
Additionally, information of Great Lakes maritime traffic can be found at http://www.LCAShips.com/ [:)]
I heard pellets don’t actualy go to China but to Hamilton Ontario buy boat from Duluth. China does buy the pellets from Minnesota but for operating conveneince ships the pellets to a shorter destination and China actualy receives pelets from a more convinient mine somewhere else. The prices and costs are traded off somehow.
But a small percentage of the pellets bought by China do phisicaly travel to China by CN rail. to the west coast of Canada and then by boat to China.
I’m not an expert but I have heard that this is how they do it.
Yes, alot of the pellets from our docks go somewhere in Canada, then it is shipped out to Canada. In about a month, the BNSF and UP will start running their All Rail ore trains. That lasts about 2-3 months and brings pellets out west.
Yes i’ve heard of the Edmund Fitzgerald (it sank in a storm) but I had heard that the great lakes are shallow in regard to being no more than 200ft deep so ships have to have a shallow draft and most importantly, large ocean going bulk carriers have difficulty getting through the locks to access the St Lawrence river.
When BNSF and UP start running the bulk ore trains to the west, where is there final destination and is it a similar operation to what the WC and SP started in the early to mid 90’s.
Well, I cant talk about the others, but Lake Superior is plenty deep for ships and boats (a true ship person would know the difference,lol) and we get alot of ocean going ships.
Some pellets were shipped by rail to Prince Rupert on Canada’s west coast for transhipment to China, and earlier this year several boatloads were sent east from Two Harbors, Minnesota for transshipment to a steel mill in Serbia.
The two western most Great Lakes, Huron and Superior, are both deep. Huron gets over 400 ft deep and Superior is over 600 ft. deep. The canals on the St. Lawrence Seaway limit the size of ships that can enter the Great Lakes, but the locks at the Soo are bigger and there are lakers that are Panamax sized, but they are captive to the four upper Great Lakes. On the night that the Edmund Fitzgerald went down there was a Dutch freighter sheltering in a bay along the Canadian shoreline whose Captain overruled the Great Lakes pilot and took his ship out into the storm only to return a few hours later saying he had never experienced a storm that bad in all his years sailing the North Atlantic. Over the years Lakes Superior and Huron have claimed their share of Oceangoing ships as victims. Their location near the center of the continental landmass and shapes cause intense storms to form over them.
Right now two of the ships that delivered Class 66 locomotives to the UK are in Duluth having unloaded huge refinery components for transfer to rail. The Fairlane just finished unloading Monday and the Stellaprima finished today.
You know what we Duluthians say, “Superior likes to take lives, but not give them back”
Thanks guys, well i’m suitably informed lol and I must admit I was hoping that the pellet trains would be heading down to the LA area but I suppose BC is closer to China.
Thanks again for all your help.
All of the Great Lakes are quite deep except for Lake Erie. Lake Superior is over 1000 feet deep in places and Lake Michigan reaches a maximum depth of 923 feet. The constraints on size are due to the locks at the Soo and Welland Canals. The Soo locks between Lake Superior and Lake Huron allow a maximum length of 1000 feet while the Welland Canal locks bypassing Niagara Falls and the St. Lawrence Seaway locks allow a maximum length of 730 feet. Prior to the building of the Seaway in 1954, the St. Lawrence River locks restricted ships to a length of 254 feet.
My father in law works at the Tilden mine near Ishpeming, MI. Really neat operation, but ore trains aren’t very exciting. I do like to go to Marqutte and watch the ops at the ore dock.
Really? I find mine operations very interesting. What does he do exactly?