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DNR accepting comments on US Steel's Keetac tailings storage project

KAXE
Published September 25, 2025 at 5:29 PM CDT
An aerial view of U.S. Steel's Keetac Mine in Virginia.
Contributed
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U.S. Steel via MPCA
An aerial view of U.S. Steel's Keetac Mine in Virginia.

Comments on the environmental assessment worksheet related to the Keetac Tailings Storage Facility Project can be submitted by mail or email.

VIRGINIA — The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is accepting comments through Oct. 2 on U.S. Steel's proposed modifications for its tailings storage facility at its Keetac taconite mining operation.

The proposal includes raising existing dams and dikes and extending them beyond the current tailings storage facility's footprint.

The project would also include constructing a new access road, a new industrial building and infrastructure for tailings separation and tailings dewatering. Tailings are discharged from mines, containing water, crushed rock, minerals, and chemical byproducts used in mineral extraction.
Mike Bakk, senior director of mining operations - Minnesota ore for U.S. Steel, asks Minnesota Pollution Control Agency staff a question at the Sept. 3, 2025, public meeting about Keetac's draft wastewater permits at the Iron Trail Motors Event Center in Virginia.
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"The infrastructure would produce coarse tailings for use in dam and dike construction and thickened fine tailings for discharge to the tailings storage facility. The project proposes revisions to the existing tailings basin, but there are no proposed revisions to mining activities or taconite processing facilities," stated the DNR news release.

Comments on the environmental assessment worksheet must be submitted by 4:30 p.m. Oct. 2.

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Local News MiningWater QualityIron RangeKeewatinArrowheadKAXE
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