SME Promotional Video Shoot

On Monday Jan. 20^th, 2014 three IRE students (who are also SME members), voluntarily attended a SME promotional video shoot at the United Taconite Forbes, MN facility. This video shoot was essentially a video recorded interview of knowledgeable college students answering questions regarding the mining process. Ultimately the video was designed to be informative for younger students interested in mining or mining based careers.

Each student was interviewed individually for about a half an hour, from a pool of questions (as well as unplanned questions) according to their knowledge base.  Some examples of questions asked are listed below:

1. Describe the overall goal of ore processing and how that relates (helps) to steel makers downstream.

2. In a few sentences describe the extraction of Taconite and Hematite.

3. Walk us quickly through the order of operations from crushing onward.

4. Tell us about the magnetic separators (general purpose)

5. What are some amazing facts/statistics about the mags?

6. What are the stages which happen after the mags (in chronological order) leading to pelletization and shipment?

7. Why is iron pelletized? (mobility)

8. What happens to the ore from a molecular standpoint during processing/beneficiation (this content will be useful to HS chemistry teachers, so mentioning of basic chemistry terms is great.) (diagrams will be created to illustrate the behavior of ore molecules and atoms as you speak)

9. Why is iron special and important to the world? (make sure to mention that it is the 2nd largest commodity in the world after oil)

10. Do you know what percent of iron production is used in: structural steel production, electrical purposes, other major uses?

11. Would you like to make any comments on geology? Why the Mesabi Range is special?

12. What are some cool things about working in iron mining? (possibly mention design/operation of immense machines, interesting problem solving (engineering), working in areas with great outdoor recreation nearby)

13. Define 'Gangue', what are the impurities left behind during the mag separation process and flotation process.

The YouTube video has not been made public yet, but should be available within a month. Please search “Iron in our electrical world” if you are interested in watching it.

Reviewed by Kody Kamunen