Montana steel mills?

[nkalanaga]

As far as I know there are no steel mills in Montana.  There are scrap metal recycling companies, and some accept carload lots.  Any idea where this scrap would be sent?  It seems to be a relatively low-value material to be shipped very far, but it has to go somewhere.

My mining district has quite a bit of old metal laying around, and I'm wondering whether it should go east, to Helena or Great Falls, and points east, or west to Kalispell or Missoula, and points west.  From Helena it could also be sent south to Idaho or Utah.

I model 1974, but as far as I know there were no steel mills in Montana then either.  If anyone knows of one, that would be even better.

[GaryHinshaw]

I'm not aware of any steel mills in Montana, either integrated mills or mini mills.  From a bit of Googling, it appears that the main operations in the northwest are Colorado Fuel and Iron in Pueblo CO, built in 1881 (originally to fabricate rail for the D&RG), Gilmore Steel in Portland OR, built in 1926 (later Oregon Steel Mills), and Geneva Steel in Vineyard UT, originally built in 1941 by the government for the war effort.  I would think the latter would be a sensible destination, but I have no idea if they ever used recycled material.

[nkalanaga]

Thank you.  I'd imagine that all of them used scrap, as Armco in Ashland did, and they were an integrated mill. 

Pueblo and Portland are both on the BN, so would be logical destinations.  Utah might be closer, but would have to be sent to Butte, then interchanged with the UP.  Looking at Google Maps, it's a tossup whether Vineyard would be closer than Portland.  That's all off-layout, though, so it looks like I can send it either way, or probably both, as it could go to any mill, depending on demand.

[Kentuckian]

This reminds me of a book review that Railroad Model Craftsman did in one of their April issues years ago: Logging Railroads of Kansas.

[Blazeman]

Just a SWAG, but could one of the smelting operations be getting some scrap of a specific metallurgy to produce a variety of copper alloy?

[nkalanaga]

It's entirely possible, but most of my scrap would be cleaning up abandoned mines and mill buildings, so would be common iron and steel.