Taconite

Taconite is a type of rock that comes from iron ore. You know how you dig in the sand at the beach and find little rocks? Well, taconite is like a giant version of those little rocks.

Taconite is really special because it has a lot of iron in it, and iron is a really important metal that people use to make things like cars, airplanes, and even buildings.

But before people can use the iron in taconite to make cool things, they have to do some special things to it.

First, they have to grind up the taconite into really small pieces that are about the size of sand. This is called "processing."

Then, they use something called a "magnet" to pull out all the bits of iron from the taconite. The magnet is like a magic wand that only picks up metal things.

Once they have all the iron out of the taconite, they can use it to make lots of different things that help people.