The great Appalachian coal region which includes the world-famous mining sec tion of Pennsylvania and Ohio, trends south westward through eastern Kentucky and Ten nessee, having its southerly terminus in a broad area in the northern half of Alabama. The coal formations in this State underlie about 8,400 square miles distributed in four dis tinct measures: the Warrior, the Cahaba, the Coosa and the Plateau. The first named in cludes all of Walker County and most of Jef ferson, Tuscaloosa and Fayette counties, with parts of Blount, Culman, Winston and Marion counties. This great area embraces about 4,000 square miles and supplies over 80 per cent of all the coal mined in the State. The Cahaba measures underlie parts of Saint Clair, Jeffer son, Shelby and Bibb counties, and supply more than 18 per cent of the State's total output. The other two measures though they are known to contain immense quantities of coal, have but few mines and together supply less than 2 per cent of the coal mined in the State. Nearly half of the entire output is mined in Jefferson County, nearly one-fourth in Walker County and about one-eighth in Bibb County. About 35 per cent of the product is mined by ma chines, 31 per cent by hand and 33 per cent is blasted off the solid. The coal production of Alabama in 1915 was 14,927,937 tons, valued at the mines at $19,066,043. The highest output was in 1910 when 16,111,462 tons were mined. In 1870 the output was 13,200 tons. Of the coal output of 1915, 49 per cent was consumed in the State, 34 per cent by railroads, 14 per cent was shipped to other States and 3 per cent was shipped to tidewater. The amount con sumed by the railroads was 5,072,435 tons; 4,695,938 tons were made into coke; 2,389,397 tons were consumed in industrial plants; 1,592,932 tons were used for domestic and local purposes; 535,340 tons were used at the mines; 109,160 tons in the manufacture of gas; and 480,258 tons were shipped to tide water as bunker coal. From 1840, when records of the coal production of the State were first made, and including the 1915 output. Alabama has mined a grand total of 285,475,717 tons of coal —all bituminous. It is known that there are deposits of lignite in the southern part of the State, but no definite survey has yet been made of them.
Coke.— In the production of coke Alabama has ranked second among the coke-producing States for several years. In 1915 the coke in dustry consumed 4,695,938 tons of coal, valued at $1.48 per ton, and produced 3,071,811 tons of coke valued at $2.78 per ton. The yield of coke was 65.4 per cent of the coal consumed and the value of coal per ton of coke, $226. Of the whole coke production, 2,869,268 tons were of furnace quality and 172,991 tons of foundry quality. The entire product was valued at $8,545,555. At the close of 1915 there were 8,568 beehive ovens and 750 by-product ovens in the State, but during the year only 2,506 beehive ovens and 732 by-product ovens had been active. Of the by-product ovens, 450 are of the Koppers type and 300 of the Semet Solvay type. No reports are available as to the by-products recovered, but it is known that some toluol was produced.
Iron Ore.— The output of iron ore in Alabama in 1915 was 4,374,309 tons of hematite or red ore and 935,045 tons of limonite or brown ore. In the early days of iron-making in the
State only the brown ore was used and the furnaces reduced it with charcoal. Later it was discovered that the red ore could be made into good iron at a considerably lower cost, using coke for fuel. The limonites, however, con tinue to be regarded as the best ores in Ala bama and bring a higher price. They make a tougher iron than the red ore and are fre quently used with the red ore to improve the quality of the product. The limonite deposits are very numerous and widely distributed over the State, and in some localities are very ex tensive. The most important occurrences are those overlying the Knox dolomites, the Weis ner quartzite, the Lauderdale chert and the La fayette strata. The brown ore in 1915 brought at the mines $1.68 per ton when the red ore was selling at $1.25 per ton.
All the hematite ore mined in Alabama comes from the Clinton or Red Mountain formation. It is found on both sides of the anticlinal valleys which lie between the coal fields. In spots, owing to faults, the red ore ridges are missing on the western side of the valleys, although in some places and from the same cause the ridges are duplicated on the eastern side. The moderate dips are generally on the eastern side and it is in these locations that nearly all the active mines are found. The hematite seams are exposed in outcrop along a distance of about 50 miles, but for the greater part of this distance they are not rich enough for profitable working. The most important development in the State has been along the easterly side of East Red Mountain, Jefferson County, in the stretch of about 15 miles be tween the cities of Birmingham and Bessemer. Here there is an almost continuous string of active mines. A new mine, opened in 1915 in Shades Valley, gives promise of being the largest producer in the State. That rank is now held by the Red Mountain mine (a group), which also holds third rank among the iron mines of the United States, with the record for 1915 of 2,138,015 tons of ore, only 170,000 tons behind the leading mine in the country — the Mahoning, of Minnesota. The iron ore of the new mine at Shades Valley analyzes as follows: Metallic iron, 39:5 per cent ; calcium carbonate, 2420 per cent; silica, 9.94 per cent; alumina, 3.34 per cent; magnesium carbonate, 0.78 per cent; phosphorus, 0.32 per cent; metallic man ganese, 0.20 per cent.
Pig Iron.— In 1915 there were 27 blast furnaces in operation in Alabama and they pro duced 2,049,453 tons, about 7 per cent of the 29, 916,213 tons which was produced by the whole United States. With this output Alabama took fourth place among the iron-producing States, following Pennsylvania, Ohio and Illinois. The average value for the year was $10.24 per ton. In the latter part of the year the price began to rise and in the early part of 1916 reached $13. Later the price of Southern foundry No. 2 at Birmingham rose to $22 per ton. A general advance in the price of ore followed the rise in iron and the tendency was still upward at the close of 1916.