March 2009 - KSDK News Channel 5 in St. Louis, MO reports 'Crystal City iron smelter project moves ahead. Click Here for the full story.
Feb 2009 - WINGS - CRYSTAL CITY PROJECT WILL ADD 1,000 PERMANENT JOBS IN MISSOURI - Wings Enterprises has taken an important step forward in its plan to resume operation at the Pea Ridge iron ore mine in Sullivan, MO, and develop both a bulk shipping barge/rail facility and a pig iron pellet processing plant in Crystal City, MO on the site of the vacant Pittsburgh Plate Glass facility. Wings, has selected one of the nation’s leading construction services firms, Missouri-based Alberici Constructors, as construction manager; and PSI, Inc as the process integration engineer.
Alberici has already mobilized onto the Pea Ridge site and applied for a Conditional Use Permit from Crystal City. Permitting and construction of the overall operation for full production is expected to take 4 years. However, early completion of barge and rail facilities will allow bulk shipment of iron ore from Crystal City in approximately 2 years, while the pellet refinement plant is finished.
The combined employment at the Sullivan mine operation and the Crystal City facilities will be approximately 1,000 direct, full time, full benefit jobs.
The magnetite iron ore in the Pea Ridge mine is the only known deposit in North America with the unique chemistry for a number of applications. Wings will produce the only domestic source of chemical quality iron ore oxides used to produce safe drinking water. These oxides are also used as catalyst for many pollution control reduction technologies. Wings will also produce pig iron pellets, necessary for the production of high quality steels from recycled materials.
Concentrated ore will be transported from the Pea Ridge mine to the Crystal City location via an underground pipeline where it will be further refined into pure iron pellets for bulk shipment via rail and barge to customers. The Crystal City location is uniquely suited because of on-site access to the Mississippi River , and to both the Union Pacific and BNSF rail systems.
The completed operation will use the most environmentally safe and energy efficient processes available. The refinement process will not require combustion-type heating sources and will not produce “smoke stack” emissions. The non-iron by-product of the process is in demand as a key ingredient in the manufacture of cement, so there will be no waste steam from the process. This “green” project will also be registered for review as a LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) Certified facility.
The two facilities will offset about $1 billion per year in imported raw materials into the United States. The project will not result in any job losses anywhere in the United States.
Proposed pig iron pellet facility and barge & rail interchange on the former PPG site featured above
