The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1902-06-27
Timber Scarcity.

price of mining timber is resulting in
constantly increasing tendency to
strip deeper surfaces from mines on
the Mesaba range. Large straight
timber adapted to timbering mines
has become we'll nigh rarity in this
part of the country. 1t is claimed
that the steel corporation has stopped
the sale Of the Duluth & Iron Ranges
spruce stumpage on land grants until
the timber large enough for mining
construction car be cut. At the
same time, the steel corporation in
terests are buying large quantities
of stumpage for mining timer.
OF course, once stripped, the re-
duced cost of mining from surface
mine as compared with milling or
deep shaft proposition is not to eX-
coed two thirds the cost portion of
taking the ore underground.
On the CJoxton mine. a new prop
erty just being opened by Joseph Sell
wood near Hibbing. Halvorsen &
Richards will strip surface that is
at some points as much as seventy
feet in depth. Ten years ago it is
likely that that mine if opened would
have been worked on some sort of an
underground principle, or at least the
thickest surface. The beauty of the
deposit on this property is that the
vein is said to be 100 feet deep, so
that when once laid open an immense
quantity of ore can be reached by
simply shifting the tracks from time
to time.
In this connection, people that are
outside of the iron business do not
realize the reasons, it is said, for the
large demand for Mesaba range prop
critics. Naturally. it is appreciated
that the activity on the Mesaba range
is due primarily to the very largely
increased demand for ore. But the
average layman usually lets his stock
of information go that far and no
farther. The great factor in the in
creased product of the Mesaba range
has been not only the lower cost of
mining it, but the ability of the fur
mace men to work larger proportion
of it IN their furnaces. Old timers
in Duluth recall that when the Mes
aba range was first worked such an
excellent authority as the Iron Trade
Review scoffed at the idea that it's
ore. could be successfully used to any
considerable percentage In any fur
mace. It's future place among the
iron rangee of the Lake Superior
region was given very low rank.
In consequence of this Renaissance,
it is amusing to learn that the Oliver
Snyder company is said to be using
100 per cent of Mesaba ore in it's fur
naces today, and no other ore what
ever. This company is said to buy no
hard ore whatever to mix with the
Mesaba for the purpose of charging
its furnaces and getting a proper
structural mixture. AS a result, I'M
less the reduction of ore in this way
entails additional cost, the Snyder
company is considerable money ahead
of those companies that use larger
percentage of hard ores, which cost
two or three times as much to mine.
In one way, the Oliver-Snyder is said
to use all Mesaba ores at a greater
cost because it uses a finely-selected
lot of ores in order to obtain the
proper mixture. structurally and
otherwise.
The proportion of Mesaba ore with
which furnaces are blown in has been
growing all over the country. The
Carnegie furnaces of the steel corpor-
alton are said to use about Is per
cent of Mesaba ore, and the rest hard
hematite. At one time it was as low
as Is per cent in some furnaces. and
at first many Of the furnaces gave up
the scheme as impossible. Expert
ments soon developed changes id the
furnaces, however that led to a con-
stantly growing proportion of Mesaba
ores. 1t is predicted by some that if
the right proportion of the various
structures could be obtained in suffic-
lent quantities on the Mesaba, it
would not be long. and may not be.
before the old range mines were pretty
we'll closed down, for time at least.
Very few mining men look for this
to come to pass, but some, while not
expecting it, would not be surprised,
from the developments made in the
past fifteen years, if such a thing
should come to pass.-Herald.