The Hawaiian gazette., 1904-12-16


Comparing these figures we see that
in Our red and yellow soils we possess
actual iron ores. of which some APP
proximate in composition the best ores
in the u. S.
1t must be understood that. besides
the contents of iron, of all other con-
stituents of an iron ore only three are
OF importance: PHOSPHORUS, sulphur
and titanium. All the rest: silica, alum
ina, lime, are OF little consequence, be-
cause any lack of those elements in every
ore is supplied artifcially by properly
compounded fluxes, whose purpose is to
make the balance of minerals CATER the
separation of pig from fluid, and thus
to enable it to leave the smelter and
prevent choking.
As for those three elements. sulphur
renders iron too brittle in its incandes
cent condition. Phosphorus has the
same effect at low temperature. For
tunately the above analysis proves that
the contents of sulphur and phosphorus
in Hawaiian ores are even smaller than
in the ores OF Mesabi range.
In regard to titanium, | am sorry
u. S. Geological Survey Report does
not give the contents of American ores
in titanium. We are therefore unable
TO compare just now. Maxwell anal
Uses give the average in our red soils
as per cent of pure titanium CORES
ponding to 7.6 per cent of his titanic
acid) and in yellow soils, per cent of
titanium. Like sulphur and phosphorus
it is an undesirable component of an
iron ore, and this may constitute the
only black cloud on Our mining horizon.
Still the above U. S. Geol. S. Report
(page 4I) says: at is not improbable
that large deposits of titaniferous mag
mites may be brought into demand, if
| the supply of ores free or nearly free
from titanium is restricted"
The principal advantage of Hawaiian
iron ores, however, which they share
with the Mesabi range, is that both lie
on the surface. There is this advantage
that has made of Mesabi range such
gigantic enterprise.
| In the above quoted article of F. N.
Stacy; The Iron Mines that give us
leadership" Worlds Work, Sept.
| 1000, we read:
Nowhere else in the world is it pos
sible to buy an open field of iron ore
in forty or eighty acre tracts; or to I'M
cover a bed of ore, stretching in a single
horizontal mass from one to three miles.
Nowhere else is iron ore mined, as il
it were sand with steamshovels, loco
motives, and trains of switching cars.
Nowhere else is the cost of mining re-
duced to the trifling item of 2oc. to
3oc. a ton, which is one of the least
important items in the value of the ore
laid down at the furnace. Nowhere else
is there an iron ore formation, from
which the everything stone Gaping for
more than a hundred miles has beer
planed off by glacial erosion and by
flood and frost to a width of one-half tc
three miles, exposing an iron formation
, covere only bv few feet of soil witt
from five to eight per cent of the whole
, $50 square miles of surface undertake
| with good ore. he Mesabi change
I ones whole conception of iron mining
t Instead OF mine deep down in the cart
s you see an open field from 20 to 20
s acres. Instead of blocks of black rocks
e hard and massive as iron ore, you Sc
v acres OF black and red and yellow dus
e -. and this is high grade ore. Instea
/ of hive of human beings, delving wit
= pick and drill and shovel in dark an
;, dripping caves, a thousand feet under
Y ground, steam engine on the surface
Z guided by one man, scoops up ore i
: five ton shovefuls and drops it into
= railway train alongside. One great stear
/ machine. in a sunlit field, does in a
! hour what would be a days work G
S 500 men, working in the depth of a
I underground mine. For this revolutio
in mining, we have, of course, to than
a nature first. The ore instead of stand
ing vertically on edge, as in other range
, of Lake Superior region, and running
: down in deep and narrow wedges, ofte
to a great depth, spreads out near tn
. surface in great horizontal BEDS
And so it is with the Hawaiian re
4 and yellow soils. They might be ser
l to the seashore on trolley lines.
4 Now reverting to the Report of tn
= U. s. Geol. Survey Dept. to the page S;
] we read:
-, The total value at the mines of II,
i 27,s53,I6I long tons of iron ore, pre-
duced in the calendar year 1000 is re
ported as 500, 500, 5o4 worth, an averag
j OF SAP per long ton. This indicate
: an increase of 81 per ton or 7o.4 pc
cent over the 1890 value of SLAP per tor
:. The lowest average value reported pc
: ton was 81 cents IN the State OF eNa
: where convict labor is employed in som
> OF the mining operations. The highe:
y value was $3.7I per ton in Colorado"
:; The value of iron ore at the min
/ over the U. S. being S5c. to $3.7I and tn
2 cost OF production of surface ore i
, Mesabi zoe. to SOC, there is a goo
!, margin of profit for the owners of
surface mine.
\ From page 65 of the same report W
5 further learn that the following amount
and values of ore have been importe
to the U. S. from abroad:
Years. Long tons. Values
. 1896. ...... 6S2, SOC $1,036,9 81
- 1897. 4S9,970 67S,9l
n 1898, .... lS72OS 255,
= 1899. ....... 6740S2 1,0S2,Si
|. ! 1900. ...... S97,S31 1908, Il
e The average price paid per long to
n in 1900 for the imported ores was SI.4
e per ton.
5 (rhe hematite ores pay 30 per cen
? z : : : gIg s <