Great Lakes navigation season opener a reminder of Minnesota iron’s regional impact

The Soo Locks, which serve as Lake Superior’s gateway, will open March 25 at 12:01 a.m. Eastern Time, signaling the seasonal start of commercial shipping on the Great Lakes

As is typically the case, iron ore from Minnesota will be the initial downbound cargo through the locks, as the Burns Harbor and American Century are expected to begin loading overnight at ore docks in the Port of Duluth- Superior. Those vessels will then transport the iron ore across Lake Superior and through the Soo Locks en route to steel mills on the lower Great Lakes.

Two upbound vessels are currently queued at the Soo Locks awaiting their opening, the Edgar B. Speer and the Edwin H. Gott, and both are expected to load iron ore in Two Harbors, Minnesota.

“We are excited to salute the first ships loading at the Head of the Lakes, and also to welcome the season’s first inbound vessels to our Lake Superior ports,” said Kelsey Johnson, president of the Iron Mining Association of Minnesota. “We have iron ore ready and waiting at each of the docks, thanks to another winter of steady Iron Range pellet production.”

Minnesota’s iron ore helps produce 80 percent of the nation’s first-pour steel. Carried by rail to terminals in the Port of Duluth- Superior, Two Harbors and Silver Bay, it’s then loaded on lake freighters, some reaching up to 1,013 feet in length, which carry the precious cargo across Lake Superior and through the Soo Locks, primarily to destination ports in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. There, the ore is transformed into American steel.

These ore ships can carry approximately 70,000 tons of iron ore pellets, equating to $7.7 million in ore value. The Port of Duluth-Superior alone transported 20.4 million short tons of iron ore last season, the most of any North American port.

“Each ton of iron ore generates $24,000 in economic activity from iron mines to the automobiles we drive to the appliances we use daily,” said Johnson. “Each shipping season, we are reminded of the interconnectedness of mining in our daily lives and its regional economic benefits. The opening of the Soo Locks is a great day for Minnesota iron, American steel, and all our regional ports.”