The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1899-08-04
MININGNOTES

stripping on the Fayal location. The
new contract is for 100000 yards, and
this makes 100000 yards altogether
the firm has under contract. The
execution Of all of these contracts will
take about three years. The firm now
has fully 500 men at work, according
to the Eveleth Star and the wages run
from Sl.75 to $3.50 per day. All this
means considerable prosperity to the
village of Eyeleth, which gets the
benefit of the wages.
The state has examined It's mineral
lands on the Vermilon range and is
endeavoring to discover whether or
not any are taken with view to mere
speculation. 1t has found so far that
most of the locations under lease are
for actual explorations and develop
ment. Three of its most important
leases, in section 3S, township GA,
range 10, are reported to be under eX-
ploration by large company very
soon.
Shipments from Mt. Iron mine,
the capacity of which property is al
most limitless, is now from 5000 to
1000 tons daily About 800 men are
at present employed in the vicinity
of Mt. Iron, and that town presents a
lively appearance this year.-Virginia
Enterprise
Soon the iron business of this region
will be in the hands of four concerns.
The Oliver Iron Mining company is ut
the head, the Minnesota Iron COM
pany next in Importance. The Nat
ional Steel companys purchase of the
Chaplin is "A big help to its furnaces.
Besides this it has sixth of the ore
r. output of the Oliver people. The
time of the survival of the fittest"
appears to have arrived in the iron
trade. 1t is believed that the big in
terests will be for the good of the
region, They will he in shape to pre-
vent the wholesale saughther of
prices which has been going on for
wears. and we believe there will be Il
disposition to give the iron ore end of
business its proper credit We see no
danger in the handling of the ore by
those who are able to carry on tile
enterprise in the right way. Our
main trouble has been the weaker
companies rushed into the market
every spring with too low a price,
this demoralizing the market. II was
impossible to keep prices up where
they should have been under the old
plan. and the combination ought to
improve prices, and insure il study
busness-Iron Ore.
The report of the geological survey
, on the production Of iron ore for the
year 1898 has been completed by specia!
agent John Birknbiue. The year re-
corded the maximum iron ore product
ion for the United States. IA total of
l19, 278,359 long tons. This was l,760,-
l323 long tons, or 10 per cent in excess
lof the previous maximum OF II, $751; 46
long tons produced i'm 1897, and over
one and quarter millions tons above
the record for Great Britain in 1880,
when IS, 026, O49 long tons were mined.
t9The ores of the British isles also
average lower percentages of metal
than those exploited in this country,
and therefore represent smaller pig
metal product. The variety of iron
ore produced includes red hematite,
the output of which was SO per cent
sbf the total, and brown hematite,
which was 1913 per cent of the aggre-
gate product. Magnetic and carbon
ate ores make up the remaining 81
per cent. The total output in long
tons of ore by states was: Michigan.
7,346,S46; Minnesota, 1903, 500; Ala
bama. 2,401, 74S; Pennsylvania. 772,082
Tennessee, 500, 228; Virginia, 557, 713;
Wisconsin, 500, 645; Colorado, 31S, 4S0;
New Jersey, 275 ,430; New York, 49,
f951; Georgia and North Carolina, 100,
2 80; Montana, Nevada, New Mexico,
i, tab aud Wyoming, $500; Missouri,
kp,000; Ohio, 43,S68; Kentucky. 1913;
ltonnecticut and Massachusetts. 20, 25l: