Jill Schramm/MDN Jim Bougalis, founder and CEO of North American Iron, addresses the Economic Development Association of North Dakota’s fall conference in The Regency in Minot Wednesday, Oct. 8.

When the founder of North American Iron learned about North Dakota’s natural gas potential, the state bumped to the top of the company’s list of places to do business.

North American Iron has plans to construct a 730-acre pig ore processing plant in Minot’s industrial park, with a potential opening in late 2029.

Jim Bougalis, founder and CEO, spoke at the Economic Development Association of North Dakota’s fall conference in Minot Wednesday, Oct. 8.

Because of Minnesota’s regulatory environment and distance from natural gas sources, he said, he had been visiting a number of steel industry states, from Indiana to West Virginia, to find a location to turn Minnesota iron ore into pig iron for the manufacturing of steel. Then he heard about Talon Metals coming to Beulah to develop a minerals processing facility and decided he needed to check out Minnesota’s neighboring state, too.

He left a message with the North Dakota governor’s office, and less than 24 hours later, he was on the phone with the Commerce Department, hearing about the state’s excess natural gas, which his company needs in large volumes to process iron ore. Drawn by North Dakota’s proximity and the opportunity to obtain relatively inexpensive and abundant natural gas, Bougalis was soon talking with Minot Area Chamber EDC. WBI Energy has plans to construct a pipeline to bring Bakken natural gas to MACEDC’s industrial park by late 2029.

Bougalis outlined the state of the steel manufacturing industry, which is dominated by imported ore. The purest and most desirable ore is pig iron, and the U.S. supply comes entirely from other countries, he said.

“We’re competing with countries like Russia and Brazil, who have very cheap natural gas,” Bougalis said. “We’re going to have the cheapest pig iron in the world, landed here on U.S. soil, and that is a huge plus for the country, for North Dakota, for Minnesota. But it’s also a big attraction to the U.S. steel industry.”

North American Iron’s sister company, Calumet Reclamation, will be reclaiming iron ore piles from mining activity that once took place around Calumet from 1913 to 1978.

The company will ship about 4 million to 5 million tons of minimally processed iron ore to Minot to make 2 million tons of pig iron a year using proven, clean processing technologies that include a carbon sequestration process that produces 96% less carbon emissions than imported pig iron, Bougalis said.

“This was built on efficiency and profitability. It just so happens to be 96% less carbon emissions. We couldn’t do it anywhere else but North Dakota because North Dakota allows us to sequester that CO2,” he said.

The project also will bring 650 jobs to North Dakota and 150 jobs to Minnesota.

The plant will generate its own power using 250,000 decatherms of natural gas a day. The iron ore will arrive by rail eight months of the year. About 250 rail cars per day will bring iron ore to Minot and take pig iron out, Bougalis said.

“We’ll be the first and only merchant pig iron producer in the United States,” he said. “It’s a much needed product that we’re after here, that we’re producing for the U.S., for national security, for our communities.”

He noted pig iron is used by steelmakers, foundries, infrastructure contractors and in the defense industry.

He said he started North American Iron in 2021 in response to the steel industry stepping up to invest more than $20 billion into increasing domestic production. The industry’s action was prompted by the Trump administration’s 2017 tariffs on steel and aluminum. The Russia-Ukraine conflict has only increased the intensity.

“As we were increasing our steel production by 25 million tons, our feedstock dropped by 60%. Russia-Ukraine was feeding the country 60% of the pig iron. That shut off like a faucet in 2022. So, it really exacerbated the problem, which really boosted our project. You can imagine the need of the steel industry and the support from the steel industry to keep moving forward on the project,” Bougalis said.

Involving North Dakota also has helped bring the steel industry on board.

“They know it’s going to get permitted, and they know it’s going to be in a state that is open for business,” Bougalis said.

In addition to pig iron, byproducts from the proposed processing include an aggregate rock used in the concrete or aggregate industry and a sand that can be used for fill but also is being explored by the company and the University of North Dakota as a potential fertilizer, he said.

“Our goal, ultimately, is to utilize every ton of product we have on site in one shape or form,” he said.

North American Iron selected its Minot site last year and initiated its permit process. Engineering designs are on schedule and by 2027, the project should be in full construction mode, Bougalis said.

“It’s a multi-billion project,” he said. “It’s going to be a massive undertaking.”