The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1905-05-12
MINING"

| MlNlNG
The best ore producing sections of
the United States are: Northern
Minnesota and Upper Michigan. The
ore in most cases, is discovered by
means of diamond drills, which are
machines used for penetrating the
ground by means of pipe at the end
of which diamonds are set.
This drill is propelled by steam and
as it penetrates the ground it cuts out
a core about one inch in diameter.
This core is forced up into a pipe,
which is fastened to the top of the
diamond drill. When the drill is
taken out Of the ground this core is
taken from this pipe and examined
and in this way the kind Of material,
through which the drill has penetrat-
ed, is ascertained. By drilling
through the ore body in different
places the depth of the ore is deter
mined, and by drilling around it, the
length and width of the deposit is
found and from these figures a close
estimate of the ore body is made. In
this way the mining companies ascer-
tain whether or not the ore exists in
paying quantities.
If the ore exists in paying quantit-
les the mining companies try to pur-
chase the property, and, if this is
impossible they will try to secure
a lease on the property, that is they
will sign contract with the in
dividual or individuals owning the
property. saying that they will guar
tons of iron ore each year, paying the
owner or owners certain sum royalty
on each ton of ore mined or agreed
to be mined.
After they have secured the lease
they start to take out the ore, by one
Of the three different ways; namely,
open pit mining, milling. or under
derground mining. Where the ore
lies close to the surface one of the
first two ways is pursued, tut where
} the ore deposit is several hundred
feet below the surface the ore Is TAX
en- out by the underground system.
When the ore is from fifty to a
hundred and fifty feet below the sur
face the open pit mining is generally
used.
In this kind of mini Dg the first
thing to be done is to remove the dirt
from the top of the ore, this process
, is called "stripping." After the dirt
is removed from sufficient quantity
of ore, so as to permit mining the
company places steam shovels at the
bottom of the ore body and men on
the top drill holes into the body and
blast the ore down, then the steam
s1ovels load 1t into railroad cars
which takes the ore to the docks,
where it is shipped to the different
smelters. One steam shovel can load
from one to two hundred railroad cars
a day or about five thousand tons
every ten hours. By far the most
ore is produces in Minnesota by this
method of mining, which is only pur-
sued in summer months.
By the milling method a large
portion of the ore is produced. This
method is partly underground and
partly open pit mining. When the
ore body is located the company
strips the dirt off the ore and then
they 60 back from the ore body and
sink a shaft to depth that will be
greater than the body of ore. From
this shaft they drive drift in under
the ore body. From this main drift
they start different ''raises" up
through the body of ore. These
drifts and raises" they make safe by
timbers to keep the dirt from falling
or caving in When these raises"
are up through the ore body they put
shoppers at the mouths Of the
"raises" thus converting them into
"chutes."
! After these 'chutes" have reached
or "holed" through to the ore body,
men are placed on top of the body
and they drill holes into the ore, and
blast and cave this ore into the
ichutes from whence it is run into the