The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-09-13
Alabama Consolidated Drills Through 70 Feet at a
 Ocp pth OF 12OO Feet
GIVES US MORE ORE THAN
 ALL LAKE SUPERIOR FIELD
Engineers Hold That Shaft Mnlnu Is Far Preferable to Slope When Done on a Large
 Scale.

By diamond drilling the known sup plies of iron ore of the Birmingham dis trict has been proven beyond question to be far greater than any one has hitherto undertaken authoritatively to claim. Near ly a year ago Professor Prouty of the State university, a geologist of wide re- pute, coming to Alabama from the Johns Hopkins university, whose geological de- partment ranks with the highest in the Manufacturing Record, took the ground that diamond drilling in the valley be- low the out-crop of Red mountain would demonstrate, that the geological meas ures were perfectly regular and that iron ore would be found in place at depth which would enable shaft mining to be developed on a large scale, and probably at cheaper cost in the end than slope mining.
 Ore at 120o Feet.
 The Alabama Consolidated Coal and Iron company determined to test this theory, and early in the year started drilling on their Gate City property In Shades valley. The work has been car ried on very quietly, but very thoroughly under the direction of Mining Engineer Ludwig of that company At the depth of about 12O0 feet the ore was struck In place and the diamond drill passed through seventy feet of ore the entire geological structure proving to be exactly as has been figured out in advance of the work by the geologists under whose direction this test was made.
 The importance of this discovery not only to Birmingham, but to the iron world is beyond estimate, since it adds to the known iron ore supplies of this district at least 1,OO0,0O0,00O tons upon which we could not heretofore count, since it had not been definitely demon strated. The Alabama Consolidated com pany in this work has proven that its Gate City property of nearly 2cOo acres carries not less than 200,0O0,000 tons of ore, and the Shades valley territory can safely be counted upon as having 1000, UuU,Ubu COnS lilOIc Ol dNdlietDib iApii NA than was known to exist here until the drill of the Alabama Consolidated made the final demonstration.
 Shaft Preferable to Slope.
 The foremost engineers of the world have long since taken the ground that shaft mining when, carried on large scale. is far preferable to slope mining, and while the initial cost of putting down the shaft is larger than the initial work on slope proposition, the ultimate result in the way of larger and cheaper out put is said to be in favor of a shaft proposition With this demonstration the value of the properties owned by the iron companies having lands located in Shades valley is tremendously increased. This, however, is but the smaller part of the result; for the far more important feature is that with the demonstration of such an almost limitless supply of ores ther is furnished the foundation for an expansion of the iron and steel business in this district far beyond any thing that the world has known It Is estimated that the entire Lake Superior ulSIrlCI nus OIlly l,oVotuVVVu lO S,VuOiVpVtNVo tons of available ore, and now Birming- ham alone with this addition to it's hither- to known supply is able to show to the world that this immediate district has greater available supply of iron ore than that of the entire Lake Superior region, upon which the whole irop and steel industry of the north and west ovte such va st stores of iron ore available there is the foundation here in the raw material for the investment of unlimited capital in the development of iron and steel interests on a greater scale than any part of this country has ever seen.
 Is of Tremendous Importance.
 The matter is one of tremendous inn portance. and when we take into account that the Lake Superior ores are counted as worth a dollar a ton in the ground, we can form some conception of the lmitless wealth to be developed in this district through the advance in iron ores to parity with the Lake Superior values which must of necessity come about in the near future. In this work of dia- mond drilling and proving out what the district has, the Alabama Consolidated management has done a work of infinite value for the whole state, in fact for the whole iron world. Including it's red ore at Gadsden and Attalla, its brown ore at Ironation, this demonstration at Gate City gives to the Alabama Consolidated Coal and Iron company a known aggregate of oyer 3O0.OO00O0 tons of ore. making its rank among the greatest iron ore com