$31 million capital investment touted as future of North Dakota’s mining industry

Middle, N.D. — BNI Coal, a subsidiary of ALLETE Inc., on Monday commissioned a

new 11-million-pound dragline, an excavator utilized in floor mining, at its Middle Mine that’s being touted as the important thing to conserving the lignite mine working effectively for the foreseeable future.

The commissioning ceremony of the aptly named, ‘Legacy,’ is the fruits of a venture that started in the course of the second quarter of 2021 after the acquisition of the excavator from Mississippi Energy Co. The excavator arrived in Middle, N.D. in particular person parts, after having been disassembled into items sufficiently small to be transported by truck to North Dakota.

Greater than a yr later, after being reassembled on-site piece-by-piece, BNI introduced that the $31 million venture changed the older dragline that was slated for retirement.

The newer mannequin’s buy was, based on BNI, a more cost effective answer as an alternative of making an attempt to refit and improve to the older excavator.
“The commissioning of Legacy builds on BNI’s practically 100-year historical past in North Dakota as a big employer with a dedication to environmental stewardship,” Mike Hegar, BNI common supervisor stated. “What you see here’s a $31 million capital funding in the way forward for North Dakota’s lignite business and our dedication to offering a dependable and reasonably priced vitality useful resource.”

Lignite, sometimes called brown coal, is a flamable sediment fashioned naturally by means of the compression of peat. With a carbon content material under 40%, it produces a comparatively low warmth content material in comparison with different types of coal.

The brand new excavator, Legacy, will be part of a equally sized dragline named Liberty, which was positioned into service on the Middle Mine 18-years in the past. The 2 excavators act as the first earth-movers on the mine, which supplies its lignite to Minnkota Energy Cooperative’s Milton R. Younger Producing Station. The 2 producing stations comprising the Younger station have era capacities of 250 MW and 455 MW.

ALLETE Vice President and Company Treasurer Pat Cutshall stated he believes that the brand new addition and commissioning are vital milestones for BNI.

The method of transferring the brand new dragline to North Dakota required greater than 200 truck deliveries, and mixed mileage may have circled the globe 12 instances. The 120,000 hours of labor wanted to finish the venture is among the many largest within the firm’s historical past.

“It will maintain and improve not solely jobs, but additionally the native, regional and North Dakota economies,” stated Cutshall.

Company on the commissioning included Randy Christmann, North Dakota Public Service Commissioner; U.S. Rep. Kelly Armstrong; and U.S. Sen. Kevin Cramer.

Cramer praised BNI’s land reclamation efforts, noting that the prairie attracts and woods left behind are much more spectacular than the situation earlier than BNI’s work started.

The brand new excavator, Legacy, is anticipated to be in operation inside six weeks.