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Hitting the Mineral Mine: Amptek’s specialized work in the Iron Range has unique requirements and opportunities

By Susan Bloom | Jan 15, 2025
Hitting the Mineral Mine: Amptek’s specialized work in the Iron Range has unique requirements and opportunities
According to the U.S. Energy Act of 2020, a critical mineral is defined as a nonfuel mineral or mineral material that’s instrumental in the manufacturing of a product essential to America’s economic or national security and that has a supply chain vulnerable to disruption. 

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According to the U.S. Energy Act of 2020, a critical mineral is defined as a nonfuel mineral or mineral material that’s instrumental in the manufacturing of a product essential to America’s economic or national security and that has a supply chain vulnerable to disruption. Critical minerals are used in a range of manufactured products, and their absence was particularly hard-felt (and the nation’s vulnerability made especially clear) during the supply chain shortages and shipping delays associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.

The U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) most recent list of critical minerals from 2022 includes the following:

  • Arsenic: used in semiconductors
  • Lithium: used for rechargeable batteries
  • Cerium: used in catalytic converters, ceramics, glass, metallurgy and polishing compounds
  • Fluorspar: used in the manufacture of aluminum, cement, steel, gasoline and fluorine chemicals
  • Gadolinium: used in medical imaging, permanent magnets and steelmaking
  • Holmium: used in permanent magnets, nuclear control rods and lasers
  • Rubidium: used for research and development in electronics
  • Tellurium: used in solar cells, thermoelectric devices and as an alloying additive
  • Titanium: used as a white pigment and for metal alloys
  • Zinc: primarily used in metallurgy to produce galvanized steel

“Critical minerals play a significant role in our national security, economy, renewable energy development and infrastructure,” said Tanya Trujillo, assistant secretary of the Interior for Water and Science.

The USGS 2022 list of critical minerals also added nickel, which is used to make stainless steel, superalloys and rechargeable batteries;  it is known for its resistance to corrosion. Alongside lithium, zinc, cobalt and aluminum, nickel is among the top five critical minerals considered essential in the transition to a green economy that promotes the use of renewable energy, according to the USGS.

In the following interview, Lance Johnson, founder and president of electrical contracting firm Amptek Inc., Aurora, Minn.—located in the region’s famed “Iron Range,” which contains one of the largest nickel and copper deposits in the country—discusses his firm’s niche specialty supporting the critical mineral mining effort. He also shares insights into the challenges and opportunities associated with serving that industry, which has recently been held up by regulatory delays. Regardless, it has tremendous potential as the nation becomes increasingly reliant on renewable energy sources.

Amptek crew members laying a duct bank for the Mesabi Metallics iron mining and processing project in northeastern Minnesota

Please share a bit about your company.

I founded Amptek in 2010, and we currently have 45 employees. When I started the company, we were almost exclusively focused on mining; today, we’re still heavy in the mining industry, but we’ve since branched out to also focus on water/wastewater, rail, port and other industrial projects. We had to diversify based on delays in mining projects, the cyclical nature of commodities and permitting difficulties.

What and where is the Iron Range?

While Wisconsin and Michigan have smaller iron ranges, the official Iron Range is located in northeastern Minnesota, which supplies 85%–90% of the nation’s domestic iron ore. The ancient seabed caused the oxidation of iron ore deposits, and the area has been a mining district for 150 years. Towns developed following iron ore development, and Aurora itself sprung up around three small mining operations in the late 1800s. Those mining towns grew over time and their heyday was in the 1970s, after which the industry experienced a slow decline due to waning demand and a large influx of foreign steel imports. Today, the population in the area is sparse. While the vast majority of what we currently mine in the area is iron ore, northeastern Minnesota now also has the largest undeveloped copper and nickel reserves in the world, which are critical to the expansion of green energy in the form of solar and battery storage technology, and that presents a tremendous opportunity.

Amptek crew members help power a 60-ton crane used to mine and process iron on the Mesabi Metallics job site.

In what ways do you find it unique to serve the mineral mining industry as an electrical contractor?

Setting up the electrical requirements for companies in that heavy industrial line of work is unique. There are two pieces to the mining process that involve us—the mining piece itself (e.g., actual extraction) and the processing piece. Bigger mining operations use large shovels, drills and other equipment that run on 7,200V power systems to remove the raw ore. They then transport the raw ore to a processing facility, which takes the raw ore and crushes it down from car-sized rocks to talcum powder consistency. 

The flotation, high-density and magnetic separation of waste products from usable minerals involves many different buildings, processes and pieces of equipment. For example, newly extracted iron product isn’t shippable; you have to add a clay binder and other products back in and heat them in a 2,000°F furnace to bake them into iron pellets of about a half inch in diameter to make the product shippable and suitable for loading into steel-producing blast furnaces. Otherwise, the former talc consistency would blow away in the wind on rail and ship methods of transportation. 

One other unique aspect of the mining industry is that it has its own federal safety entity dedicated solely to mining called the Mine Safety and Health Administration, which has a continuous presence on mining sites once a mine is operating.

What are some of the biggest challenges to serving the mineral mining industry?

Many mining projects get held up in the permitting process for long periods of time. When you submit an environmental review for a project, there’s often no finite time within which you’ll get an answer—every step is open-ended—so there needs to be permitting reform to help ensure a clear procedure with set, definitive timelines and expectations. Trying to ready your company to pursue project opportunities in this field is very difficult—how do you prepare for a project that could start anywhere from 24 months to 24 years from now?  

Amptek crew members on the Mesabi Metallics iron mining and processing project in northeastern Minnesota

Along with the many stakeholders in these projects [e.g., state and federal agencies, the Army Corps of Engineers, tribal governments, the local business community, etc.], there are also many environmental issues involved in mining, such as all of the measures that need to be taken to protect our area’s beautiful pine forests, pure lakes and pristine landscape. Then, at the next level, proper reclamation needs to be undertaken once a mine is closed. The deep pits of many former mining operations have become crystal clear lakes that contain multiple species of trout and are popular recreation spots.

Weather in our area, especially in the winter, is also a fair challenge. These projects typically involve multiple structures in various stages of construction, some of which have direct outdoor exposure. It’s not uncommon for temperatures to hit 40°F below zero without the wind chill (and though I wasn’t at work at the time, I once experienced temperatures of 61°F below zero without the wind chill). We utilize enclosures with heat whenever possible and take more frequent breaks in those conditions.

What are some recent projects?

We’re actively supporting an iron mining and processing project called Mesabi Metallics, which involves extensive medium-­voltage power distribution and controls for the plant processing equipment used in the various stages of production. We have about 30 guys on it now, which may eventually expand to 150 guys, and completion is scheduled for 2026.

We’ve been involved in several smaller copper/nickel projects at the permitting stage and just assisted in the evaluation of a helium deposit discovery by energizing their testing and evaluation equipment. A few other large and prominent copper/nickel projects near us are in the process of exploration, but several are being held up at the permitting stage. Others are in earlier stages of development.

Amptek’s installation of cable tray helps support the Mesabi Metallics iron mining and processing project.

What’s your hope for this industry in your area?

The first aspect is supporting our projects and workforce as an industry. I sit on a local apprenticeship committee and it’s difficult to establish targets for union journeyman electricians available in our area. Mining projects move at a much slower pace than more conventional contracting jobs, and there’s a limited baseline of work. But we need to react to large projects when they come up, which is hard for firms like ours and [for] apprenticeship programs, too.

I think that our nation needs to have an honest conversation about green energy, batteries, solar, etc., and the need to reconcile demand and supply. People think that these end-use products just appear in a store, and they don’t realize that the minerals involved in their manufacture are often coming from places around the world. Our environmental and labor standards are among the best in the world, but Americans don’t necessarily want mining happening close to where they live. We haven’t tapped into our domestic resources and are relying on others to supply the critical minerals we need to fuel our society.

Anything else you would like to share about mineral mining in the Iron Range?

I love this type of industrial work. Three generations of my family before me—my father, grandfather and great-grandfather—all had jobs connected to mining, and I grew up in a mining area, so I can’t help but become an advocate for the industry as long as it’s being done responsibly. There’s overwhelming local support for mining projects in our area and tremendous opportunities for growth—truly the possibility of literally billions of dollars of economic development—in a rural, resource-based economy like ours. 

Our area could offer a secure domestic source of minerals like nickel and, for national defense reasons, it’s in our best interest to have some minimal capacity. But development of a skilled workforce and a facility to produce these critical minerals here doesn’t happen overnight; we need to get it going now so that we can ramp it up when the need arises.

stock.adobe.com / DGIM studio // Amptek Inc.

About The Author

BLOOM is a 25-year veteran of the lighting and electrical products industry. Reach her at [email protected].

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