According to local paper, the Duluth News Tribune, P&H Mining Equipment is to close its main Minnesota Iron Range offices in Mountain Iron, Buhl and Hibbing after construction of a new $16 million, 82,000 ft² building off US Highway 53 on the town of Virginia’s north side. The building should open next summer and will include office space and a giant service floor and crane for equipment repair and service.

The centre will repair and service the company’s mining equipment that is used across the Range, but also serve as a service center for equipment from all over the world, Jon Anderson, regional manager for the company, said. The company will move 56 existing Iron Range jobs to the new building and add about 16 positions to service the company’s equipment sold to a booming Iron Range taconite industry. Kraus-Anderson Co. in Duluth will manage construction of the facility, which could be open by June 2012. Along with Alberta oil sands, Wyoming coal and US copper, the Iron Range remains one of P&H’s key hub markets in North America.