Mesabi Metallics picks Iowa for $15 billion steel complex

The mine's further along than the mill. Mesabi says it's the first new iron ore mine built in the United States in 50 years, with close to $3 billion already in it. The company says more than 1,500 construction workers are on site, plus more than 200 full-time staff, and it expects 350 permanent jobs once the mine's fully running. It'll make what Mesabi calls Patriot Pellet, a high-grade pellet built for direct-reduction steelmaking.

"With the new steel complex in Iowa, we will complete the fully integrated American supply chain, from mine to mill," Mesabi's chair, Rewant Ruia, said, according to Iowa Public Radio. "American ore carried on American railroads to an American steel plant powered by American energy, built and operated by an incredibly hardworking and talented American workforce."

How the plant will make steel

The Iowa complex won't use an old-style blast furnace. It'll use direct-reduced iron, or DRI, and electric arc furnaces. In the DRI step, the oxygen gets stripped out of the ore at temperatures below its melting point. What's left is solid metallic iron. That iron goes into the electric furnaces while it's still hot, mixed with scrap steel, so it takes less energy to melt.

Mesabi says the method uses less energy and puts out fewer emissions than blast furnaces. "This is a major moment for U.S. made steel," chief executive Joe Broking said in the company's release. He pointed to the pairing of Minnesota pellets with "the most advanced DRI to EAF steelmaking technology in Iowa."

The numbers are big. According to CNBC, the White House says the first phase will make about 7.5 million tons of steel a year, roughly 6.8 million tonnes. Over time that's meant to climb to 10 million tons, about 9.1 million tonnes. Mesabi says the build will create more than 6,000 construction jobs. It also estimates $95 billion in total economic output over construction and the first ten years of operation. That's the company's own projection, not an independent one.

Iowa's welcome

Iowa's leaders were clearly happy. "Really, what this does is it changes the economic trajectory for this region," Governor Kim Reynolds said in the Oval Office, according to Iowa Public Radio. "It's one of the most depressed regions of Iowa." In Mesabi's release she said she was "thrilled to welcome Mesabi Metallics to Iowa."

Iowa Senate Majority Leader Mike Klimesh called it "the largest private investment in Iowa history" in a statement. Democrats sounded open to it, but they wanted detail. Iowa Senate Democratic Leader Janice Weiner called the announcement "compelling" and said she'd "love to see the creation of good-paying jobs for hardworking Iowans," but said the Statehouse hadn't seen any details of a possible incentive package.

That package is the next step. Northern News Now reported on Wednesday that the Iowa Legislature was due to meet on Friday to consider incentives. White House officials said the project doesn't hinge on local incentives, and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick didn't leave any wiggle room. "I think this deal is done," he said.

The tariff argument and the track record

Trump tied the plant to his trade policy. "Soon after my inauguration, I imposed powerful 50% tariffs on all foreign steel, and now our steel industry is roaring back to life," he said. CNBC reported that steel trade groups wrote to him the Friday before the announcement, crediting the tariffs with $47 billion in "announced and underway investment." Critics say those same tariffs have helped push US steel prices to multi-year highs.

There's some history here, and it's worth knowing. Mesabi is part of India's Essar Group, and Essar's earlier Minnesota project hit trouble. According to Northern News Now, the original plan two decades ago included a steel mill in Nashwauk. It was dropped in 2015 amid construction delays and the bankruptcy of Essar's Minnesota operations. CNBC reported that the mine was meant to be finished by 2016, and that Essar Steel Minnesota filed for bankruptcy that year.

That history has some Iowans asking questions. Representative Ashley Hinson, who's running for the US Senate, isn't one of them. "I have zero concerns, and when you look at what they were up against in Minnesota, they were up against people who didn't want to let them mine and do their job," she said, according to Northern News Now. Her Democratic opponent, state Representative Josh Turek, said he looked forward "to seeing the details on the planned steel mill in southeast Iowa," and added, "We need jobs more than ever."

In Minnesota, people have mixed feelings. The Iron Range keeps the mine and its jobs, but not the mill. "Building this facility in Iowa is a missed opportunity for Northern Minnesota," Republican Representative Pete Stauber said, according to Northern News Now. He blamed Minnesota's state government for losing it. He also said he was "proud that Mesabi Metallics recently opened their new mine" in his district, and that Iron Range taconite would "play a vital role" in the national steel push.

His Democratic challenger, Trina Swanson, blamed the companies and Washington instead. She argued that big corporations were going around union labour. Swanson also pointed to what she described as $10 billion in federal financing for the project through the Export-Import Bank. The bank's chairman, John Jovanovic, was in the Oval Office for the announcement. Mesabi's own announcement doesn't mention federal financing, though.

What comes next

The near-term milestones are the Iowa incentive talks, the mine reaching full production in Minnesota, and then site work in Lee County. Production's targeted for 2030.

The plant also fits a wider push on heavy industry and power that's run right through this year, from the White House's 2026 Economic Report to new energy projects. Essar has posted the full White House announcement on its official channel.