Iron ore mine and underground tour.

I'm traveling with my parents for a few days.  We drove up to Hinckley Minnesota yesterday and spent the night at a camp I used to work at.  We continued north to Soudan, Tower, and Hibbing. We looked at and toured an underground iron ore mine and looked at an active iron ore pit mine.  Tomorrow we will stop and see my uncle who lives in the area then head toward Fargo.

Air compressor for running the drills and equipment underground.

Motor to drive the winch for lifting people and ore out of the mine.

 Controls and winch drum.  Drum holds 3000 feet of cable.  Mine is about 1/2 mile deep.

 Depth/position of the west cage in the mine,  Each number is a different level.

 Processed ore comes out here and loads onto trains or is stockpiled.

 Train in the mine

 Here is where ore is dropped down to the ore cars below.

 Drill

 Ore loader

 Cages/elevator in and out

 Train

 These are the cages you or the ore rides in.  Normally they are vertical and the track runs down the side of the shaft to guide them down.

 Winch house

 Drill sharpening tools

 Ore crusher

                                        
 The original open pit.  Got to deep so they switched to underground mining.