steel mill location in new zealand built 1968 location auckland new zealand coordinates 37 13 s 174 44 e 37.21 s 174.74 e 37.21 ; 174.74 coordinates 37 13 s 174 44 e 37.21 s 174.74 e 37.21 ; 174.74 the glenbrook steel mill from the air . the glenbrook steel mill s iron plant . new zealand steel limited is the owner of the glenbrook steel mill the steel mill located 40 kilometres south east of auckland in glenbrook new zealand . the mill was constructed in 1968 and began producing steel products in 1969 . currently the mill produces 650 000 tonnes of steel a year which is either domesticity used or exported . 1 2 over 90 % of new zealand s steel requirements are produced at glenbrook while the remaining volume is produced by pacific steel a steel recycling facility in otahuhu auckland . the mill is served by the mission bush branch railway line which was formerly a branch line to waiuku . coal and lime trains arrive daily . steel products are also transported daily . the mill employs 1150 full time staff and 200 semi permanent contractors . new zealand steel is notable due to its unique 1 2 utilisation of ironsand as its ore . because ironsand is a low grade ore with many contaminants the mill s primary plants operations and equipment are unusual . 2 contents 1 history 2 the ore 3 the processes 4 references 5 external links history edit the west coast beaches of the north island of new zealand between kaipara harbour and whanganui contain ironsand deposits rich in the mineral titanomagnetite . 3 from the late 19th century to the 1950s there were many unsuccessful attempts to smelt steel from the ironsands . in 1954 the department of scientific and industrial research began investigated smelting from the ironsands . in 1959 the new zealand government established the nz steel investigating company under the iron and steel industry act 1959 as a vehicle for the investigations . 4 new zealand steel limited was incorporated by the new zealand government in 1965 . in 1967 construction started on a mill at glenbrook . 5 commercial operations began in 1968 with imported feed coil being used to produce steel for domestic and pacific island markets . the company pioneered the direct reduction process for reducing iron oxide ironsand into metallic iron . this culminated in the commissioning in 1970 of iron and steelmaking facilities to produce billets for domestic and export markets . expansion continued with the commissioning of a pipe plant in 1972 and a prepainting line in 1982 . total output at this time averaged 300 000 tonnes a year . in the think big era of new zealand industrialisation the mill was upgraded . in 1987 new zealand steel was acquired by equiticorp . however equiticorp was bankrupted in the new zealand sharemarket crash of 1987 . in 1989 new zealand steel was acquired by helenus corporation which consisted of fisher & paykel steel & tube anz and bhp . in 1992 bhp took up a controlling interest with an 81 % shareholding by acquiring the shares of fisher & paykel and steel & tube . the company was initially renamed bhp new zealand steel limited but in 2002 it was renamed new zealand steel when bhp steel was listed on australian stockmarket under the name bluescope steel . 5 the ore edit the ironsand ore is mined at an opencast mine at waikato north head . 1 the ironsand is then mixed to form a slurry and transported to the mill by an 18 kilometre long pipeline . 2 approximately 1.2 million tonnes of ironsand ore are delivered to the mill annually . the processes edit glenbrook s iron plant contains four multiple hearth furnaces mhfs 6 four rotary kilns and two melters . the rotary kilns reduce the ore to metallic iron . this process is unusual as most mills use blast furnaces for this reduction process . in the steelmaking plant vanadium recovery and removal is done due to the high vanadium content of the ironsand ore . 2 oxidation of the molten metal and contaminates is achieved by a basic oxygen steelmaking facility . the process used in the converter is the second unusual piece of equipment the mill operates oxygen is blown on both top and bottom of the converter klockner oxygen blown maxhutte process or kobm converter whereas oxygen is only blasted at the top of the converter is most steelmaking plants . references edit a b c glenbrook steel site operations . new zealand steel limited . 2011 . retrieved 21 february 2012 . a b c d e john green and jeremy batchelor 2008 . the manufacture of steel . the new zealand institute of chemistry . templeton fleur 15 jun 3 2010 . 1 . iron an abundant resource iron and steel . te ara encyclopedia of new zealand . retrieved 4 january 2013 . check date values in date help templeton fleur 28 september 2010 . iron and steel attempts to extract iron . te ara the encyclopedia of new zealand . retrieved 30 may 2012 . a b new zealand steel history . new zealand steel limited . 2011 . retrieved 20 february 2012 . the science of steel . new zealand steel . 2012 . retrieved 25 february 2012 . external links edit official website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title new zealand steel & oldid 729907048 categories steel companies of new zealandcompanies listed on the new zealand stock exchangemanufacturing companies based in aucklandbuildings and structures in the auckland regionhidden categories cs1 errors datescoordinates not on wikidata navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages deutsch edit links this page was last modified on 15 july 2016 at 11 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