KeeTac Tailings Basin, Minnesota

Tailings basins often cover more ground than the open pit and processing operation they are associated with, as is the case here at the KeeTac basin. The basin (also known as a tailings impoundment) takes the waste (tailings) from US Steel’s KeeTac taconite plant, two miles north. Tailings are usually delivered in a liquid slurry, and can lead to high concentrations of toxic material entering local groundwater. The Keewatin Mine and plant has been operated by several entities over its many decades of production, including the National Steel Pellet Company, and the tailings operation is sometimes referred to as the NSPC Tailings Basin.