Don’t try this at home kids. Ernesto Vivas is a trained Hexagon Mining professional.
Hexagon Mining serves clients all over the world. In October, Senior MineSight Specialist, Ernesto Vivas, visited Essar Steel in Hibbing, Minnesota. Here’s his report.
It’s fair to say they know how to mine iron ore in Hibbing. Located on the Mesabi Range in northern Minnesota, the area has been home to mining since 1866. Today, Essar Steel runs a state-of-the-art open pit mine and greenfield pellet plant project. And every iron ore pellet starts with a good mine plan!
That’s why Essar turned to Hexagon Mining and its mine planning software, MineSight. Senior MineSight Specialist Ernesto Vivas visited the mine Oct. 5-14 to train three Essar employees in the following topics:
- General MineSight 3D (MS3D)
- MineSight Economic Planner for pit optimization
- Pit expansion/MS3D tools for pit, dump, road design
- MineSight Haulage
- MineSight Schedule Optimizer (MSSO) for long, medium and short-range planning with blending
- MineSight Planner for short-range planning with MSSO integration
From left to right are engineers Paul Buchanan, Chris Droste, and geologist, Anya Kircher, of Essar Steel.
“During the first week the training was conducted with our standard training data set,” said Ernesto. “However, during the second week we were able to incorporate their data set into the training, which greatly enriched the class.
“All three were very proficient with their use of our tools for mine planning and we did plenty of practical exercises until they mastered their own data.”
MineSight specialists have also conducted drill and blast training for the mine, which is located across 19,000 acres. Essar’s project involves the construction and commissioning of an iron ore pellet plant with a total production capacity of 7.0 MTPA of iron ore pellets.
The Hull Rust-Mahoning mine, once the world’s largest iron ore mine, is hard to miss from land or air.
Hibbing is home to the Hull Rust-Mahoning mine, which was once the largest iron ore mine in the world. It combines more than nine open pits with a footprint of 1.5 by 3.5 miles.
Taconite is mined in the region. For many years, taconite was considered waste rock until Dr. E.W. Davis at the University of Minnesota developed a way to extract iron ore. A process has since been developed to create taconite pellets, thereby saving Minnesota’s iron ore mining industry.
Not only did the founders of bus line Greyhound call Hibbing home, so too did Bob Dylan! Ernesto spent the weekend exploring the Minnesota Museum of Mining in Chisholm and the Minnesota Discovery Center. He followed the iron ore trail from mine to port, taking him from Hibbing to Duluth in Lake Superior.
Yes, the times, they are a changing!
And ever committed to shaping smart change, Ernesto recreated the Hexagon corporate flag at the end of the trail; right on the railroad street where iron ore travels most days.
