Tilden Mine

Useful Information

Location:	Ishpeming, Marqutte County, MI. Marquette Iron Range, Upper Peninsula. The bus departs the Marquette office.
Open:	End JUN to end AUG, Tue-Sat at 12. [2003]
Fee:
Classification:	Iron Mine
Light:	Incandescent Electric Light System
Dimension:
Guided tours:	L=1,600 m.
Photography:
Accessibility:
Bibliography:
Address:	Tilden Mine, MI, Tel: +1-888-578-6489, +1-906-226-6591 or +1-906-486-4841.
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

1970	mining operations started.
1974	first pellets shipped, producing up to 4 Mio. tons per year.
1979	expanded doubling the production.
1987	production of innovative fluxed pellets started.
1989	mining and processing of magnetite ore started.

Description

Tilden Mine is a still operating opencast iron mine, which can be visited. The Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company, which operates the mine, offers this trips together with the Lake Superior Community Partnership. The tours start only once a day and reservations are highly recommended. The tickets are sold on a space available basis.

The tour starts at Marquette at the office of the mining company. A bus takes the visitors to the U.S. National Ski Hall of Fame in Ishpeming. Here the participants meet their tour guide. They get a short orientation, watch a video, and get the mandatory safety equipment: helmets and safety glasses.

The tour shows the opencast at Tilden, mining equipment and machinery, and the produced iron ore pellets. The tour involves some walking on open steel grating, but there are no stairs.

Tilden is the only iron ore processing facility in the world with the capacity to produce both hematite and magnetite iron ore pellets. The mine is very innovative and was the first to produce fluxed pellets in 1987. At the moment the production capacity is 7.8 million tons of pellets every year. At this production rate, the identified ore reserves will last until 2041.

Tilden is an important employer in this area, with a work force of 804 employees, and an annual payroll of USD 124.6 million. The Tilden Mining Company L.C. is owned by the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company (85%) and Stelco Inc. (15%).