page_title: Iron Range
section_title: The Iron Range and its economy
hierarchical_section_title: Iron Range / The Iron Range and its economy
caption_attribution_description: w:Iron Range, Minnesota
context_page_description: The term Iron Range refers collectively or individually to a number of elongated iron-ore mining districts around Lake Superior in the United States and Canada. Despite the word "range", the iron ranges are not mountain chains, but outcrops of Precambrian sedimentary formations containing high percentages of iron. These cherty iron ore deposits are Precambrian in age for the Vermilion Range, while middle Precambrian in age for the Mesabi and Cuyuna ranges, all in Minnesota. The Gogebic Range in Wisconsin and the Marquette Iron Range and Menominee Range in Michigan have similar characteristics and are of similar age. Natural ores and concentrates were produced from 1848 until the mid 1950s, when taconites and jaspers were concentrated and pelletized, and started to become the major source of iron production.
  The far eastern area, containing the Duluth Complex along the shore of Lake Superior, and the far northern area, along the Canada–US border, of the region are not associated with iron ore mining. Due to its shape, the area is collectively referred to as the Arrowhead region of Minnesota.
context_section_description: From a geological perspective, the Iron Range in Minnesota includes these four major iron deposits:
  Mesabi Range, the largest iron range, largely within Itasca and Saint Louis counties;
  Vermilion Range, northeast of the Mesabi, in Saint Louis and Lake counties;
  Gunflint Range is in the extreme northern portion of Cook County and extends into Canada; and
  Cuyuna Range, southwest of the Mesabi, largely within Crow Wing County.
  Within Minnesota, "The Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation is a State Department, established by the legislature of 1941 to render public service through research and the actual development of all the state's resources both natural and human."
  The Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board (IRRRB), known simply as "the I-triple-R-B" or Iron Range Resources, is an economic development agency funded partly by taxes levied by the state on taconite-producing companies and charged with creating jobs.
caption: Iron ore
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