Pueblo, CO: 1881 Evraz/Colorado Fuel & Iron Co. Minnequa Works

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I wonder where they got the iron ore and coal for the blast furnaces. You can tell that they used to have blast furnaces.

3D Satellite

 

Charles Schwager posted
Evraz steel mill, Pueblo Colorado. Beginning of new rail mill construction. The best mill is on the right, Tube Mill.

 

Charles Schwager commented on his post

Steelworks Center of the West posted

Our #photooftheweek is another look at intern Jason's awesome work to help organize and make available some images from the later years from the photo collection created by CF&I. In this image, we see a ladle full of molten steel pouring into ingot molds.

Like what you see? Want to learn more? Check out our website www.steelworks.us.

Christopher Richman shared
David Paxton: That’s my crane but we don’t pour ingots anymore….

Comments on Christopher's share

 

El Pueblo History Museum posted

The modern city of Pueblo took shape between 1872 and 1894 through the gradual merger of four separate towns: Pueblo, South Pueblo, Central Pueblo, and Bessemer. 

Once Pueblo as we know it had been formed, nearly every economic, cultural, and political development in the county during the 1900s can be traced to one company—Colorado Fuel & Iron (CF&I)

By the time the Rockefeller family took the reins of CF&I in 1904, Pueblo was well on its way to becoming the “Pittsburgh of the West.” While smoke-belching smelters converted ore from Colorado mines into thousands of ounces of gold and silver and thousands of tons of lead, the steel mill took in coal, iron ore, and limestone, pumping out rails, structural beams, nails, railroad spikes, iron castings, and other products. By 1909 CF&I’s property in Pueblo was valued at a remarkable $40 million, and the company employed some 5,000 workers.

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Colorado Fuel and Iron Company steel mills in Pueblo, Colorado; shows smokestacks, Colorado and Southern Railway hopper cars. History Colorado 88.442.116

Chris Slobodnik sharedshared

Steelworks Center of the West posted three images with the comment:

We are continuing our celebration of the groundbreaking of EVRAZ's new rail mill with a look back in history at CF&I's rail making efforts in today's #steelstory. CF&I's original intent was to become the premiere regional source for rail and rail accessories for the transportation industry. The Rail Mill’s first product emerged in 1882. Over the next 30 years, rail manufacturing encompassed about 60 percent of all the company’s production efforts.

During the historic rail making process, a large block of steel, was heated uniformly in large underground gas fired pools known as soaking pits. Once heated to the correct temperature, its consistency was soft and malleable. It was placed on a conveyor belt, and entered a large box known as a rolling mill. It is in this rolling mill, which consists of large rollers, that the ingot, (known as a bloom at this stage), is pressed and squeezed as the steel as it is passed back and forth between rollers. The intense pressure from the rollers elongates the bloom. In the 1970s, blooms were passed through rolling machines as many as 28 times.

For the final shaping into a recognizable railway rail, the bloom entered a new set of rollers that formed and squeezed the sides and head of the steel into a recognizable T-shape. A large shear, known as a hot saw, cut about 11 inches off the end of the rail to remove any material that became distorted in the rolling process. This end piece was then returned to the scrap yard to be recycled into future products.

The rail section, manufacturer, and rolling date were then stamped into one side of the rail. Careful and controlled cooling of the newly formed rail was conducted over several hours. In rare cases of warping or distortion, the rails were run through a straightener or might have been sent back to the scrapyard to be recycled into new rails. After the straightening process, the rail was then inspected one final time and then shipped to the customer.

James Torgeson shared 

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Jon Wolfe posted
Colorado Fuel and Iron Steelmill

Comments on the above post

Chris Mersman posted
Pueblo steel mill when things go wrong. 2021
Robert Demski: It’s a EAF and balcony panel was starved and pop during a tap.
Steve Heavyside: Unmelted heel dislodged during 1st stage of tap sequence causing a wave of molten steel to melting several tunes. Water flowed intriguing ladle as well as furnace.
Ladle was stirring while looking for leak.
Ryan Brown: Is this another explosion or from earlier in the year? [Memorial Day weekend]
Lee Bradshaw: Has anyone, anywhere ever found a satisfactory solution to undetected panel leaks ?
[They are still researching. I don't know what the panels are so I don't understand most of the comments.]

safe_image for 'Pueblo is the steel city of the future' as EVRAZ breaks ground on $500 million rail mill

I went through Pueblo two Saturdays ago. The steel mill was definitely churning out rail when I went through. Hell, ai saw a UP manifest with three empty CWR sets going down from Denver through Colorado Springs.

However, I didn't know the company just started making additions. These new facilities will allow for ½ mile long sections of rail to be constructed. This is going to be a nice economic boost for Pueblo and the newly formed Front Range Rail District.

[The building will be 1/2 mile long. The rails are just the standard 1/4 mile length. It will replace the existing rail mill.]

Will Evans posted two photos. His comment was wrong. These are some of the hot stoves left from the former blast furnaces. If I understand the comments correctly, they made billets that were 310mm x 330m and blooms that were about 12"x13". The blooms were sent to the rail mill that was at the other end of the plant.

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Jeff Staymates added two photos to a post with the comment: "Evraz. Pueblo CO."

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Charles Perko posted two photos with the comment: "CF&I Minnequa Works F-Furnace (on the south, or right, end of the row of shared stoves from the picture Brian Navarrete posted a few hours ago) in the mid-80s after the blast furnace department was idled."

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Ceoff Knees posted four photos with the comment: "Colorado Fuel & Iron, ca 1950. W P Prather photos, my collection"

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Charles Perko posted
CF&I Minnequa Works F-Furnace (on the south, or right, end of the row of shared stoves from the picture Brian Navarrete posted a few hours ago) under construction in September 1941.

Charles Perko posted
CF&I Minnequa Works E-Furnace (on the north, or left, end of the row of shared stoves from the picture Brian Navarrete posted a few hours ago) during its heyday.

I presume this is the post to which Charles is referring.

Brian Navarrete posted
Getting off a graveyard shift and passing the stacks at Evraz Rocky Mountain Steel Pueblo, Colorado!!
Stephen Cussen: I saw these on the interstate 2 years ago. Apparently they stopped demolishing eons ago because they didn't have permits and asbestos wasn't abated properly.

Charles Perko commented on Brian's post
Early '80s shot from almost the same place (hundred or so feet to the south.)
Danny Salisbury: Is there actually a blast furnace operating in Colorado???
James Torgeson: Danny Salisbury None further west than Granite City, IL.
Danny Salisbury: James Torgeson ….Sad. Do you know how many are now operating in America? I remember seeing former Senator from Texas, Lloyd Bentsen, on Meet the Press in 1982 and he was lamenting that there were only 16 blast furnaces operating in America due to the recession at that time. I am thinking there are probably no longer 16 blast furnaces in America that are in operating condition.

Steelworks Center of the West posted
In today's #photooftheweek, we see the parking lot just to the north of the company's main administration building in the late 1940s or early 1950s. On the left is the company print shop where printing of letterhead, sales catalogs, and the newspaper the CF&I Blast was done. James Trujillo shared Pueblo, Colorado. Evraz, owned by a russian oligarch now. A new 500 million dollar rail mill is being built now.
Scott Gracie: The blast furnaces are gone but the stoves were standing, the last time I was in Pueblo. They had some production going on, as well. 
Jason Unger: Scott Gracie they melt 1M Tons per year, Rail, Rod/Bar, and seamless tube.
Emery Plesko: I believe Evraz also owns Oregon Steel Mills in Portland , Oregon. James Torgeson: Emery Plesko Yes, and multiple locations in Canada. 
Ron Peoples: As I remember this mill was built in the 1860s to supply rail to the transcontinental railroad.
James Trujillo: Ron Peoples , 1881

safe_image for This Colorado steel mill 'built the American west,' but its ownership has ties to Russia
The plant was founded in 1881 as the first steel plant west of the Mississippi River. "It still puts out about half of all rail used in North America....The company is in the middle of building a new $700 million steel mill that will produce much longer segments of rail, helping them compete for contracts to build high-speed rail lines and other rail projects. The project is set to receive at least $84 million in public incentives from the city and state governments and the urban renewal authority, and potentially up to $118 million — with certain requirements including retaining jobs and paying higher property taxes in the future.... Evraz also just finished a solar power project that makes it the first steel plant in the world to be powered almost exclusively with solar power -- putting it on the cutting edge of green manufacturing. A sprawling field of solar panels now lies just beyond the historic mill buildings, swiveling to face the sun and stockpile the energy needed for the mill."
Lukas Irons: Nothing like a CNN hitpiece to destroy Colorado's economy. Mind your business CNN!
James Nobbe: Not a hit piece when what the basis of the article is about is factual. I follow the left leaning media AND the right leaning media, as well as foreign media on major topics as to try to understand the issue at hand and develop my own opinion. Sad that too many blindly follow what one particular outlet or leader has to say. Anyway, if you take your political blinders off and look at the issue at hand, the article is a good microcosm of the issues faced in a world economy when most of the world has to take action against a major economic player. There are always unintended economic consequences and collateral damage to innocent people. Evraz IS a Russian Company. Evraz North Americal may not directly pay anyone in Russia or sell anything to the Russia market, but at the end of the day the North American unit is counted in the overall company's results which is what the stock markets trade off of and is where the real wealth is made or lost. Tomorrow, more sanctions will be announced against Russia. Thus far, Alexander Abramovich and Evraz have escaped a lot of US sanctions, even though the EU has hit them hard. There is a lot of international pressure for the US to increase pressure on Abramovich (and by default Evraz). It will be interesting to see what happens.

Drew Snyder posted two photos with the comment: "CF & I Pueblo."

[Some comments indicate this is a 6-strand caster and that it was recently replaced during an outage.]

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Jordan Urioste posted
6 strand caster running 75ipm
[The following comes for Jordan's answers to some questions.]
Evraz Rocky Mountain Steel. Pueblo, Colorado
The heat size is always 120tons. Poured into a 20ton tundish and casted into a 7 1/2" mold.
They run all 6 at once 24/7. 1 tundish. Each heat is about 35-45 minutes depending on temps

A drone video