ERP Iron Ore assets auctioned off

The Minnesota and Indiana assets of bankrupt ERP Iron Ore were auctioned off Tuesday as the company entered purchase agreements with two bidders.
ERP selected Illinois-based PPL Acquisition Group, LLC’s $6.8 million bid for its Minnesota assets near Grand Rapids, according to documents filed in Minnesota Bankruptcy Court Wednesday evening. The sale is scheduled to close by Nov. 15.
ERP selected a $15 million bid from Altos Hornos de Mexico, a Mexico-based steel manufacturer, for its Reynolds, Ind. pellet plant.
A sale hearing for the assets is scheduled for Oct. 24.
In July, ERP Iron Ore filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and hours later owner Tom Clarke told the News Tribune he would be scrapping the assets.
With ERP, Clarke had been trying to revive the bankrupt Magnetation operations since purchasing it in January 2017. The company wanted to restart pellet productions soon after closing on the sale, but ERP was held back by two violation notices filed by the Environmental Protection Agency in 2016 against the Indiana plant, alleging the former Magnetation owners didn't have proper pollution control equipment in several areas of operation, and creditors owed millions by ERP tried to petition the company into bankruptcy.
In August, Clarke lost control of his other Minnesota mining venture when a federal judge said he could no longer represent himself as the owner of Mesabi Metallics or Chippewa Capital Partners, which was trying to finish a taconite mine and process at the former Essar Steel site near Nashwauk.