For more than a century, huge iron-ore reserves in this remote region have provided the raw material to make steel in blast furnaces that have populated the industrial heartland between Pittsburgh and Chicago.
Last year, Minnesota and Michigan produced 99% of all U.S. iron ore, shipping out $5 billion of steel’s main ingredient. Three-quarters of that ore went to American mills, which continue to make millions of tons of steel a year for car makers and gas drillers.
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