New-York tribune., 1900-07-01
A WONDERFUL IRON NINE
CUBES OF ORE LAID OUT LIKE A TILED
FLOOR
TREMENDOUS COMMERCIAL. ADVANTAGES IN TIL,
DEPOSIT AT BELLE ISLE NEwRo1JND1AND
WHICH POWERFUL SYNDICATE
HAS RECOGNIZED
HAS RECOGNIZED

st Johns. N F.. June 20-The serious mining
strike at Belle Isle, Newfoundland in the last
TWO or three weeks should direct American Of
tenton to what IS the most remarkable hematite
Oeposlt IN the world. and which is likely to
exert an important influence in overthrowing
The supremacy ir the production of iron and
s'eel which The United States now enioys but
"hlch Is seriously menaced by. Canadian enter
PRISE what the gold reefs of johannesburg are
10 the Transvaal, the Wabana iron beds are to
Newfoundland. They form immense deposits Of
rich red hematite ore, three miles long and sew
eral hundred feet wide. ard showing "a 100000
tons IN sight above the water. The beds dip
downward at an angle of eight degrees and it
Is believed they extend below the sea in prac-
ucally unlimited quantity though what is now
In sight will suffice for a generations work To
ell lntents and purposes the mine is open
quarry The ore is got by chopping off a sur
race covering Of earth and rock and then loosen
ing the hematite with charges of dynamite
The deposit is one of natures freaks 1t is a
perfect reproduction of tiled floor Countless
millions Of cubes of mineral are laid out with
rectangular precision following the trend of the
stratifcauOn. and these seem to have been
cemented and forced together by some giant
machinery in prehistoric days Layer upon
layer Of these cubes is seen in a vertical section
Of the mine, and the lines of cleavage are as
clearly defined and the general arrangement is
as perfect a childs box of blocks. The only
difference is that one cannot lift out one of
these mineral cubes with the fingers, but
charge Of dynamite fixed in a portion of the
deposit by steam drill skaters il for an area
Of many feet in either direction, and separates
the solid mass into its thousands of little bricks
each about three inches square, and as perfect
in alignment as if produced by artist No
mining. in the customary sense, is needed. The
deposit lies open to the sun, and all the work in
vOlVed is the loosening of successive sections
and the gathering up Of the fragments, which
is done by shovelling them into ore cars
which on a light cable railway to a pier on
the seashore.
The mine occupies the northern end of the
island and hard by is a sheltered cove. where a
pier has been built, whence ten thousand tons
Of may be loaded in a day. The laden cars
run down an incline by gravity, and are upset
automatically, their contents falling into one
Of ten pockets" constructed in the interior Of
the pier Each pocket takes enc thousand
tons, and can be emptied into a steamers hold
in ten minutes Two ships day can be loaded
there when business is brisk, and the output
for seven months last year was 10000 tons.
From 900 10 800 men employed this year,
as the output is to be trebIed and to do that the
force of employees will have to be still further
augmented The place is most interesting to
visit every operation connected with the get
tiEg cut and shipping of the ore being performed
I'M the open, and being plainly visible to the OBJ
sewer. For years the surface workings will
continue and even when regular Underground
mining is required there viii be none Of the
deep .cescents associated with coal and copper
mines