IMA to Serve on MITI Community Advisory Board

Minnesota’s iron mining industry is part of our state’s past, an important component of our current economy, and now, with several key projects underway to explore sustainable strategies for producing Direct Reduced Iron (DRI), it’s an essential part of our state’s future.

Kristen Vake, Executive Director of the Iron Mining Association, will be participating on a Community Advisory Panel for the Midwest Industrial Transformation Initiative (MITI), a nationally unique collaboration of research institutions, industry partners, state leaders, and communities working to accelerate the transition of bedrock American industries to a new era of global leadership, competitiveness, & reduced carbon emissions.

“This is an exciting opportunity for IMA and its members to have a voice in the efforts to explore the future of responsible, sustainable industrial development in Minnesota,” said Vake. “Iron mining continues to play an essential role in the clean energy transition, and we look forward to learning more about the future-focused research and work happening on the Iron Range.”

Coordinated by the Natural Resources Research Institute (NRRI), the Great Plains Institute (GPI), the West Central Research and Outreach Center (WCROC), and governmental partners like the National Renewable Energy Lab, MITI aims to provide a national and global model of industrial decarbonization across four critical sectors which, when combined, contribute a total of about 30% of global carbon emissions:

• Iron and Steel
• Cement and Concrete
• Ammonia Fertilizers
• Renewable Fuels and Carbon Products

As part of the Community Advisory Panel, Vake will provide insight into next-generation domestic iron and steel production as it is explored through the lenses of industry reinvention, national security, environment, energy security and sovereignty, and economic development.

For more information about MITI, its research-focused approach, and the projects to be explored (including the construction of a hydrogen-based DRI plant in northern Minnesota), please visit https://nrri.umn.edu/research/projects/miti.