The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-12-14
THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS AS
AN IRON MINING COUNTRY

Editor Advertiser: Your paper being
champion of diversified industries, I
beg to call the attention of students of
Hawaiian industrial possibilities to some
facts in connection with our mineral
resources. As an independent PROPOSE
| ton the iron mining here may prove
to be not sufficiently renunerative, con-
sidering the lack of fuel on the Islands,
but the difficulties in securing the re-
turn freights both ways are such as to
give this question different aspect. On
| one hand our sugar vessels seldom find
sufficient return freights from the coast;
| on the other, vessels loaded with mer-
chandise from Oregon and Washington
complain of the lack of return freights
on the way back Both facts constitute
an obstacle towards commercial and in
dustrial development Should some ar
ticles, ALWAYS on hand for transportation
either way, be found, this difficulty
would be eliminated The Northwest of
the Pacific Coast abounds in coal mines
there are Goals of inferior quality not
good enough for other purposes, but
good for smelling purposes, that always
may be carried here, be it instead of
ballast. On the other hand in our red
and yellow soils, exceedingly rich in
iron, we have an amount of iron ore
without limit This ore may be trans
ported to the Northwestern smelters
All this at the first glance sounds as
a queer revelation, but it will not be
so if we consider the following facts:
Taking the pamphlet by Prof w.
Maxwell on "Lavas and Soils of the
Hawaiian Islands" as an authority in
regard to the chemical composition of
Hawaiian soils, we find that they are
exceedingly rich in iron. Thus some
samples of soils from Makawao, Maui
have given So per cent of oxide of iron
plus 500 per cent of suboxide, alto
gether 6I.o2 per cent (page 38). The
| dark soil of Kokoloea on Oahu contains
7o.4o per cent of oxide and I4o per cent
of suboxide, altogether 7I.8o per cent.
The Kea1ia red soil (Kauai) gave 62.72
per cent of oxide and I.o2 per cent of
suboxide, altogether 6464 per cent of
iron. The red Lihue soils analysis re-
suited in o.84 per cent suboxide and
o3.68 per cent of oxide, total 64-52 per
cent. The red soil of Kilauea on the
same island of Kauai contains 1913 per
cent of suboxide plus 67.o6 per cent of
oxide, total 600 per cent Some red
earths with the maximum of iron con-
tents give as much as 83.68 per cent of
oxide, which according to chemical
formula of the sesquioxide in question
(Fe2 O3) corresponds to So per cent
of pure metallic iron.
I do not agree with Prof Maxwel1's
theories on the origin of Hawaiian red
and yellow soils through the effect of
sulphuric and sulphurous acids vapors
upon the lavas during volcanic activity,
as set forth on pages 47-5o of the book.
Nor do l think the author is right IN
calling these red and yellow soils lat
critics" They are but first initial stages
in the process of laterite formation,
and it will take yet a mighty long time
of rain weathering till the most of their
iron is gathered into packets and the
balance of it, together with alunina and
lime, undergoes chemical combination
with silica to form solid silicates of
1aterite. Professor Maxwell's theories
of lava's disintegration by sulphurous
vapors cannot stand, because, if he were
right, the iron of our red and yellow
soils would have been found III the
shape of pyrites (sulphide of iron) and
not in the form of sesauioxide and sub
oxide as we find it in them. AS pyrltes,
these soils would have been perfectly
worthless for mining purposes. 1he|
origin of these soils IS explained sutt1-
GENTLY on general principles of weather
ing by warm tropical rains, FASTENED
by the extreme porositv of certain
volcanic products like our IA flows
and large deposits of volcanic ashes IN
some localities (Punchbowl, Hilo, Olaa)
enabling rain waters to penetrate 20
considerable depth
The iron in our red soils is in the
same form of free, enhydrous sesquI-
oxide as it is in the red hemat1te ores,
which supply S2.4 per cent of all Amer
lean ores: and that our yellow soils con
tain it in the shape of free hydrated
sesouioxide, viz the same as in brown
hernatite, providing II.7 per cent OF iron
ores to American shelters. (Ih3se ng-
ures as well as the rest OF statistical
figures are quoted from the Z. ;: Gen
logical Survey Dept. Report; Mineral
resources of the U. S., 1000. Washing
ton, D. CO
In regard to pure iron contents, iron
ores with but 20 per cent of it are con- |
sidered to be the lowest that pay. Our
red and yellow soils, as proved above:
give considerably higher percentages OF
iron. For instance, let us compare the
above mentioned Kokoloea, Oahu, ore,
as well as the average red and yellow
soils of the Hawaiian Islands with the
ores of the now world famous Mesabl
range in Minnesota, supplying Is of all
IRON ores of the world. IS of the whole
ores of the United States, furnishing
alone sufficient ore to make as much
iron and steel as all Great Britain. the
,..t - o,,,a fine supremacy III