The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1910-11-05

great SOuudn LQlIe 1--WE ulluCS were
found which have since yielded i'm
mensely in Bessemer ore. Tower and
his associates subsequently sold the
original company and made 100 per
cent on the money lthey had invested.
Since then the property has changed
hands twice, each transaction yield
ing a profit of 100 per cent, besides
great earnings. 1t is now owned by
the United States Steel corporation
All the early discoveries were made
by the aid of test pits put down on
surface indications by the use of a
primitive windlass and bucket. 1t was
not until the use of drills that explor-
ations became easy and certain. Ex-
plorations went on with great rapid
ity under the mineral law Of 1889,
which allowed the right to take out
or sell ore that could be located on
public lands. The discoveries brought
before the iron and steel makers of
the world a new problem-how the
Mesaba ores could be mined, trans
ported and reduced to commercial
iron and steel. The ore lay loose in
the ground and was taken out by
hand and wheelbarrows and trans
ported and put into vessels at a cost
out of proportion to it's value, and it
clogged furnaces.
Inventors and ironmasters, pro.
foundry impressed with the Minnesota
ore beds, set about finding means
for their utilization Instead of dig
ging into the earth until the ground
was stripped off the top, laying the
ore bare, steam shovels were used to
take out the ore and dredges dumped
ore by the ton into cars on railroads
laid to the ore beds. Ships of heavy
tonnage were built; means were de-
vised for loading and unloading them
at the least possible cost of manual
labor, and machinery was created ca
pable of doing incredible things. I'm
heard of records were made in the
taking out Of ore:N Prior to 1894 no
iron mine in the world had produced
100000 tons of ore-now there are
a dozen mines that do more than that
III single year. The proposition
of eliminating the vast cost of trans
portation, of unused raw material to
furnaces OF the least and defining
means of rendering ore into finished
products of iron and steel at the
mines next presents itself logically
Another interesting phase of the
proposition has been the development
of vast deposits of ore on the west
, ernt Mesaba, which for some time
, was thought not to be merchantable
; because Of mixture with SILICA, re
curing washing to permit of con
centration. The western Mesaba con
, tains, many hundred of millions oil
, tons OF lean and sandy ores, and il
is. proposed to give this district the
same tremendous development tha
has been carried along on other parts
OF the range. which will involve al
, expenditure of $10,OOO,0O0, PRACTICAL,
in advance. 1t is understood tina
: S6,OO0.00O has been already expended
in the building of a 55-mile brancl
OF the Duluth, Mesaba & Northern
railroad, and in the work of strip
ping and developing mines in tn.
| neighborhood Of Trout lake. For tn,
: concentration of ores coming out o
{ the mines in this district, the Olive
l company has erected large concen
trating works at Trout lake, with
l capacity of about two million tons o
|. crude ore.
| The crude ore will go into the mil
t averaging about 81 per cent iron an,
? pass out carrying percentage averae
ing about 81 Def" ont Tho oro !;