A Roanoke, Va., multimillionaire who made his fortune in health care and has recently purchased coal mines wants to buy the bankrupt Magnetation LLC operations on Minnesota’s Iron Range and put laid-off employees back to work.

That’s the plan of Tom Clarke, owner of ERP Compliant Fuels and now ERP Iron Ore, who has brokered a deal to acquire Magnetation’s now-idled plants in Keewatin, Bovey and Grand Rapids that turn leftover mining waste into valuable iron ore concentrate.

“What a fantastic environmental sustainability story, to be able to make this high-grade product out of what had been a waste stream,” Clarke said of Magnetation’s technology. “There are piles of waste ore all around the world. We already know this can make a high grade product that makes great steel.”