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Taconite
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<p>Taconite is a variety of <a href="/facts/Banded_iron_formation/b1eA2yAk">banded iron formation</a>, an <a href="/facts/Iron/QK1JYy8E">iron</a>-bearing (over 15% iron) <a href="/facts/Sedimentary_rock/HQDCjrco">sedimentary rock</a>, in which the iron minerals are interlayered with <a href="/facts/Quartz/4n86tE2G">quartz</a>, <a href="/facts/Chert/pmvbVy6U">chert</a>, or <a href="/facts/Carbonate/FES1QHkN">carbonate</a>. The name <i>taconyte</i> was coined by Horace Vaughn Winchell (1865–1923) – son of <a href="/facts/Newton_Horace_Winchell/SNd1AlEd">Newton Horace Winchell</a>, the <a href="/facts/Minnesota/ncgVuC4Q">Minnesota</a> state geologist – during their pioneering investigations of the <a href="/facts/Precambrian/zjF3N3Rx">Precambrian</a> <a href="/facts/Mesabi_Range/IIM4D9IP">Biwabik Iron Formation</a> of northeastern Minnesota. He believed the sedimentary rock sequence hosting the iron-formation was correlative with the <a href="/facts/Taconic_orogeny/lazhUYNL">Taconic orogeny</a> of New England, and referred to the unfamiliar and as-yet-unnamed iron-bearing rock as the 'taconic rock' or <i>taconyte</i>. </p><p>Following development of high grade direct shipping <a href="/facts/Iron_ore/rQMEvgMh">iron ore</a> deposits on the <a href="/facts/Mesabi_Iron_Range/IIM4D9IP">Mesabi Range</a>, containing up to 65% iron and as little as 1.25% <a href="/facts/Silica/A3WILp6J">silica</a>, miners termed the unaltered iron-formation wall rock taconite. The iron content of taconite is generally 30% to 35%, and the silica content generally around 45%. Iron in taconite is commonly present as magnetite, iron silicates, and iron-bearing carbonates, and locally martite (hematite) formed by oxidation of magnetite. Horizons containing magnetite as the dominant mineral have been extensively mined since 1955 to produce iron ore pellets; the term 'taconite' has consequently been colloquially adapted to describe the magnetite iron-formation ores (<i>taconite iron ore</i>), the mining, milling, magnetic separation, and agglomerating process (<i>taconite process</i>), and the product iron ore pellets (<i>taconite pellets</i>). </p>