At Lohara (Lobs, HIND., iron), in the Chanda district of the Central Provinces, there are two localities, five miles apart, where haematite abounds. At the eastern one there is a mass of dense red haematite, forming an isolated hill 120 feet above the level of the surrounding country, which would probably yield 300,000 to 500,000 tons of iron without going below the surface. The other mass is smaller in extent.
Iron-ore, in the form of magnetite or granu lated, is found lying on the surface of almost all the high grounds in Chntia Nagpur.
In Bundelkhand and in the Nerbadda valley ere large quantities of haematite.
An iron-ore called Dhaoo is produced in the land lying between Mouzah Sathu Nurwari of the Gwalior district and Punehar, also in the hills ad joining. The ore is taken to Dhoa and Bugrowlee and other places, where it is smelted. The iron ores of Gwalior are remarkable for their purity and richness. They are chiefly red iron-ores and mag ontaining sometimes manganese, but there are also brown iron-ores and silicious haematite. The magnetites contain 70 per cent, of metallic iron, the red iron-ore from 60 to 71 per cent. of iron, the brown iron-ores from 42 to 54 per cent., and the silicious hmmatites from 45 to 48 per cent. of metallic iron. Of sulphur there are but few traces, and of phosphorus none. The red iron ores near Suntoro, Maesora, and Dharoli occur in enormous quantities on the surface of the ground. These ores, it is stated, are especially serviceable for the production of Bessemer cast-steel for rails. There is a large forest in the immediate N.W., which may be calculated to yield 56,000,000 tons of wood, and which, it is estimated, would feed an iron work producing daily twelve tons of finished iron during 900 years.
Abundance of iron-ore is found in the district of Sumbulpore, and it is plentiful in the Cuttack tributary states of Talcher, Dhenkanal, Pal Lohara, and Ungool, and, indeed, throughout the' hilly country bordering the settled districts of this province on the N.W. In Sumbulpore the broken iron-ore is mixed with charcoal, and put into the furnace, about 4 feet high, and made of clay. The fire is maintained by a blast, introduced through a fireclay pipe, which is sealed up with clay after the insertion of the nozzle of the bellows. The slag is raked out, through an aperture made in the ground, and which runs up into the centre of the furnace base. Three men-=one to serve
the fire, and two to work • the bellows—are re quired to tend each furnace. Talcher and Dhen kanal ores are said to produce very excellent metal, without the aid of a flux. The charcoal used is made from the sal or Vatica robusta. The price of the crude iron in Ungool is a trifle less than one anna per seer.
In S. Mirzapore, Palamow, Singrowlee, and Rewa the ores yield 70 to 75 per cent. of pig iron. Each furnace is kept in full play all day. Each day, if the smelters have wives and children to break up the ore into jr or 1-inch cubes, and bring charcoal, they will charge the furnace four times, and the day's work will be 4 or 5 small malleable pigs of 2 or 2f seers each, or in all 12 annas to a rupee's worth of iron. They employ no flux. The furnace is emptied at each charge. The metal never runs liquid from the furnace, but falls to the bottom, below the blast tube, from whence it is taken in a flaming mass by a pair of iron tongs, and while incandescent it ip hammered on a hard stone. or rough iron anvil into a double wedge-shaped pig, the labour being divided between the smelter and his family: The fuel employed in the Ulwar district• in smelting the ore, is charcoal obtained from the dhak tree (Butea frondosa), and costs about 1 rupee for 6 =ands. To smelt 16 maunds of ore, 24 maunds of charcoal are required, and this will yield 4 maunds of iron, valued at 3 rupees per maund.
The part of ihe Vindhya Hills forming the southern portions of Shahabad, and of Mirzapore, N. and N.W. of the Sone river, together with Mirzapore, south of the Sone, Rewa, Palamow, and, in fact, the whole chain and spurs of the Vindhya range in this neighbourhood, is full of mineral wealth of various kinds.. Quarries of the peroxide and proto-peroxide of iron, as also of iron pyrites, abound in the most accessible por tions of the Kymore •range. The Kymore range is the north-easterly spur of the Vindhya range, and fills all Southern Mirzapore and Shahabad. Some of the ores yield 70 to 75 per cent. of pig iron. Some of the best iron in India is produced in Palamow, Rewa, Bidjugghur, and Singrowlee. The iron from the latter place in particular bears a high character in the market, being tough, flexible, and easily worked.