Iron-Ore Supplies of the World.— The iron industry in Asia is several thousand years old, but the annual output of iron ore is small. China has vast but little-developed deposits of limonite and hematite. Japan is very poor in iron ores. The iron industry of Australia is not of importance. The only ores exported from Africa are mined in Algeria, where the annual production has fallen to about 150,000 tons. Europe has famous ore fields. The ores of Elba and those of Styria were worked by the Romans. Certain Swedish mines have been worked almost continuously since 1300. The German output now comes chiefly from so-called minette beds of Lorraine and Luxem burg. The ore, a low-grade limonite high in phosphorus, is used in making steel by the basic process, and the present annual output is over 7,000,000 tons annually. The total ore supply left in the field is estimated at nearly 2,000,000,000 tons. The iron fields of Great Britain have passed their greatest productive ness. The principal districts are Cleveland in North Yorkshire, yielding clay ironstone con taining about 30 per cent iron; Cumberland and Lancashire, yielding red hematite con taining 50 to 60 per cent iron; and Lincolnshire, Leicestershire and Northampton, yielding cheaply-mined low-grade hematite. The black band ores of Scotland are of much less im portance than formerly. The principal Spanish mines are in the Bilbao district in the province of Biscay, the productive field being 15 miles long and 2% wide. The ores are red and pur ple hematite, limonite, and carbonate, the iron content in the crude ores running from 45 to 56 per cent. The district has produced to date about 95,000,000 tons. The greater part of the Russian ore supply comes from the Ural Moun tains, the ores on the east side of the range being magnetite, and on the west side limonite and carbonate. Near Krivoi Rog, in the Cau casus, are mines of hematite and magnetite. Fully 80 per cent of the iron ore of France is obtained from the minette beds of the Moselle that extend into Lorraine and Luxemburg. Most of the French ores are limonites. The principal Austrian iron mines are in Styria, the Styrian Erzberg having one of the largest de posits of siderite in Europe, yielding yearly about 1,000,000 tons of carbonate ore, contain ing 40 per cent of iron. In Bohemia are mines of magnetite, limonite and siderite. Sweden has immense deposits of iron ore, chiefly mag netite with some specular hematite. The most important deposits are at Grangsberg in Cen tral Sweden, where are specular hematite and magnetite ores containing 62 to 64 per cent iron and 0.9 to 1.5 per cent phosphorus, and at Gellivare, 100 miles from the Gulf of Bothnia, where are huge bodies of magnetite that run from 68.69 iron and 0.05 phosphorus to 60 per cent iron and 1.5 per cent phosphorus. The ores from this field and the neighboring dis tricts of Kurunavara and Luossavara will be of great importance to British iron-masters.
The total production of iron ore of the en tire world for 1912 (the latest year for which the figures are reasonably complete) was 148, 663,995 gross tons. The production of the prin cipal mining countries for 1913 was as follows: Gross tans United States 61,980,437 Germany and Luxemburg. 26,771,598 France 21,572,835 United Kingdom 15,997,328 Spain 9,706,366 Russia (about) 8.500,000 Sweden 7,357,845 Austria-Hungary 5,018,109 Cuba 1,582.431 The iron ore supplies of South America are known to be very extensive, but lack of trans portation facilities have delayed development. One of the largest ore bodies in the world is the great hematite deposit in the state of Minas Geraes, Brazil, estimated to be three times as large as the Lake Superior deposits. It shows an iron content ranging from 55 to 65 per cent with so low a phosphorus content as to make it of Bessemer grade. All along the
western slopes of the Andes are iron deposits as yet of undetermined extent. The only con siderable development has been in Chile, where an ore body of hematite and magnetite testing 100,000,000 tons has been located and is being worked. Mexico and Central America have numerous iron deposits but they have been worked only upon a limited scale.
In the province of Santiago, Cuba, are de posits of high-grade hematite, with an admix ture of magnetite, estimated to contain 1,000, 000,000 tons, on the south shore, and very large deposits of brown ore on the north shore. From there about 800,000 tons are exported to the United States annually. At Belle Isle, N. F., one of the world's largest deposits of hematite is being worked on a large scale. In Ontario, Quebec, and British Columbia are deposits of good hematite and magnetite, and the Dominion will eventually be a large producer. The iron ore reserves of the known deposits of the world are estimated at 90,000,000,000 tons, calculated to contain about forty billion tons of metallic iron.
The United States leads the world in the production of iron ore. The ores mined range from low grade limonite to the highest grade hematites and magnetites. The iron ore mined in the United States in 1915 amounted to 55, 526,490 gross tons, an increase of 34 per cent over the 1914 production, but 10 per cent less than the record output (61,980,437 gross tons) of 1913. The value of the ore at the mines was $101,261,528, an average of $1.83 per ton ($1.81 in 1914). Iron ore was mined in 23 States in 1915 (in 27 States in 1914). The principal yields were: in Minnesota, 32,545,236 tons; in Michigan, 13,664,437 tons; in Alabama, 5,134, 955 tons; in Wisconsin, 1,125,269 tons; in New York, 931,745 tons. As regards the variety of ores mined, 52,227,324 tons were hematite; 1,807,002 tons were magnetite; 1,488,709 tons were brown ore; and 3,455 tons were carbonate. All the Lake Superior ore is hematite; the Bir mingham (Ala.) ores are 80 per cent hematite and 20 per cent brown ore; the magnetite comes chiefly from the Adirondack region of New York, from northern New Jersey, and from southeastern New York. The carbonate is mainly from Ohio. The purest ore ever mined in the United States in quantity was probably the magnetite from the Lovers Pit at Mineville, N. Y., which ran 72 per cent iron in carload lots, though the Lake Angeline mine at Ishpe ming, Mich., has shipped hard hematite running o8 per cent iron and 0.008 phosphorus in thou sand-ton lots. The chief centre of iron ore production in the United States is in the Lake Superior region, where the ores occur along five mineral belts or granges,' in Pre-Cambrian rocks. The Marquette range, in Michigan, was opened in 1856; the Menominee, mostly in Michigan, but partly in Wisconsin, in 1887; the Gogebic, in Michigan and Wisconsin, in 1884; the Vermilion, in Minnesota, in 1884; and the Mesabi, in Minnesota, in 1892, and the Cuyuna in 1911. The ores shipped are nearly all red hematite. The Marquette produces some mag netite. As much of the ore is hauled long dis tances to a furnace, 60 per cent iron was once about as low grade ore as could be shipped profitably, but now some mines ship Bessemer ores containing but 45 per cent iron. The ore bodies are sometimes of great size. The Cha pin mine, on the Menominee range, is working lenses 100 feet wide and 600 feet thick in the middle, and feet long. The Mesabi depos its are flat-lying, covered by a varying depth of clay, sand and boulders. By stripping off the surface and working the granular ore with steam-shovels, an enormous output is possible.