University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD) researchers are in the process of asking for funding for a project that could eventually lead to titanium mining on the Iron Range. The Iron Range refers to numerous iron-producing ranges embraced within the Lake Superior Region.
UMD’s Natural Resources Research Institute is seeking USD $300,000 from the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board (IRRRB) to demonstrate the viability of a new technology for processing a mineral called ilmenite. That’s an iron-titanium compound that’s found in several deposits in northeast Minnesota, including a site known as the Longnose Deposit a few miles northeast of Hoyt Lakes, very near the proposed PolyMet copper nickel mine.
The technology developed in tandem with a Canadian company, Process Research Ortech, has produced at laboratory scale a pure titanium dioxide product that can be used directly as a high value pigment in paints or other products, or as feedstock for titanium metal production.
Titanium is used mostly in jet engines, airframes and space and missile applications, according to the IRRRB. “Successful development of this resource could diversify Minnesota’s mining industry to deliver high value products and position Minnesota as a strategic supplier to new markets,” wrote IRRRB Commissioner Mark Phillips in a recent memo to the IRRRB Board.