Taconite

I recently needed a piece of granite  for a custom vanity I was working on and so turned again to the guys down at Laurentian Monument. I was given the OK by the home owner to go and pick something out that I thought was nice. They have a lot of nice stone slabs on site now so I figured I would drive down there and take a look. It is one of the funnest things for me to walk around a stone yard like this, the various colors and patterns in the slabs of granite is just so amazing to me and Jeff down at Laurentian Monument always seems happy to show me around the yard and the shop.

As we are walking around the yard a beautiful piece of rock just jumped out at me. I think I said something approximating: “what the heck is that?”

I was then given the update on an interesting project they are working on. He informed me that this was not granite but taconite.
What?
Taconite.
They are building a plant in Biwabik to begin harvesting this stuff to be used as counter-tops or whatever, like granite or marble. I am always intrigued when I hear about something being harvested or manufactured here on the iron range and this really fascinated me.
It seems they have secured funding for a 2.8 million dollar expansion project of which, among other things, they will be producing this product that caught my eye that day in their yard, this amazing, colorful piece of taconite.

From the news release:
LMGS currently produces granite countertops and monuments and is expanding into other areas of natural stone use, such as structural, architectural, decorative and landscaping. The project is expected to create 15 jobs.

It seems uncommon to find businesses that are expanding here on the iron range and it is exciting to see them doing it by producing a product that is unique to this area.

Jeff gave be a little chunk of it for my desk.

Anyway, the stone piece that I was getting from them might be slightly less exciting, but natural stone is natural stone and always very cool. Here are some pictures of the finished project:

Hey, how many angle can you look at the same piece of stone?
Here are some more: