Ore milestone Dock ships 400 millionth ton
Ore milestone Dock ships 400 millionth ton
| Dust rises as men load the Michipicoten with iron ore in October 2004. The freighter took on the 400 millionth ton of iron ore shipped from the Upper Harbor ore dock Saturday. (Journal file photo by Andy Nelson-Zaleski) |
MARQUETTE — The ore dock in Marquette’s Upper Harbor marked a milestone Saturday when the 400 millionth ton of iron ore was loaded from the 94-year-old dock.
“This is quite an accomplishment for the dock, and its 94 years of operation and for all the employees who have worked to load ore onto Great Lakes freighters there,” Clifford Smith, general manager of Cleveland-Cliffs Michigan operations, stated in a press release. Cliffs Transportation Division operates the dock.
An ore dock was originally constructed in the Presque Isle Harbor in 1896, but by 1910, storms had made it obsolete and expensive to repair. Construction on the current dock began in 1911 and was completed in 1912. In the dock’s first year of operation, more than 2.22 million tons of lump ore was loaded compared to about 7.86 tons of pellets loaded in 2005.
This year, the dock received a significant upgrade when pocket doors were converted from manual operation to an automatic air-operated system. The new door system allows for remote opening and closing of the doors and eliminates the original system that was in place since the dock was constructed.
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“To have the dock remaining in operation 94 years after construction speaks well of how management and employees have adapted over the years to changes that have taken place in mining, processing and shipping iron ore,” Smith said. “It’s particularly remarkable when you consider that the size and capacity of freighters loaded today are much different than those in use when the dock was constructed.”
As an example, the pride of the Cleveland-Cliffs’ shipping fleet at the time the ore dock was constructed was the Steamer William G. Mather with a capacity of 10,200 tons. Today, the Michipicoten, which was loaded Saturday, is able to take on a total of 17,567 tons and the dock can accommodate the larger 1,000-foot vessels that have a capacity in excess of 50,000 tons.
Other recent improvements to the dock include security updates as recommended by the U.S. Coast Guard to bring the dock and adjacent facilities into compliance with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security requirements. Updates include new fencing, a new security building and a monitoring system, all of which were necessary to limit access to the dock and ore carriers.
The 400-million-ton total includes both the direct shipping lump ores that were mined on the Marquette Iron Range in the earlier years of mining and iron ore pellets, which have been produced in Michigan since 1956.
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