COLERAINE — The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency is seeking public comment on a draft air permit for MagIron LLC in Coleraine.
The permit will require a Fugitive Dust Control Plan, intended to help reduce dust emissions from roads, storage, stockpiles and exposed mining areas.
MagIron is the new owner of the former Prairie River Minerals Demonstration Plant, the former Mag Mining LLC Plant 4, and Jessie Loadout, all located west of Coleraine. With MagIron's purchases, the facilities are under common control and are considered a single stationary source for the air permit.
Although MagIron will produce iron concentrate at its facility, it is not a taconite ore processing plant because it will not produce taconite pellets. The site includes two scram mining operations and a rail loadout facility.
Scram mining is a process by which ore is recovered from waste piles left behind from previous mining operations. The area hasn’t been mined since the 1980s.
The PCA is now accepting public comments on the permit, and an in-person public meeting will take place at 6 p.m. Monday, Aug. 19, at the Nyberg Community Center in Coleraine.
The state issued an industrial wastewater permit to the company last month. That permit requires the installation of four more groundwater monitoring wells to detect potential contamination. It also requires monitoring for aluminum in all its groundwater wells and in the site’s pond.
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