The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1914-11-12
ELECTRIC sHovELs IN LAPLANn.

miles north of the Arctic circle in
Sweden and uses electric energy on a
large scale, says the Engineering and
Mining Journal American machinery
and American methods are largely en-
proyed in these operations.
The Kiruna iron ore deposits are in
a remote and desolate country, 40
miles from Lulea, a port on the Baltic
sea and 80 miles from Narvik, the
present shipping port for the ore ON
the northern coast of Norway. The
distance from Stockholm to Kiruna is
about 1000 miles.
The climate is severe, the winter
last from the beginning of October to
the last of May, with an average year
ly temperature of 20 degrees F. There
are huge falls of snow and the tenn
perature frequently goes to 80 de-
grees.
Kiruna Is clean, well laid out city,
with macadamized streets and good
sidewalks splendid schools and splen-
did churches, and a population of
about 10000 people. When the mines
were opened, there were no perman-
ent settlements in the vicinity, and ii
was necessary for the company to
build up town and attract labor from
the south.
The Deposit.
The mines lie on a plateau about
1000 feet above the sea. The iron
mountains reach height Of about 500
feet above this plain The only timber
in the district is birch, the tree line is
below the mountain tops. The Kir-
unaware ore deposit commences in
Luossajarvi and continues toward the
south as far as is known, with length
OF somewhat more than 3 Is miles.
At the top of the mountain ridge
which constitutes a large part of the
deposit where the boundaries Of the
! ore are well known, the horizontal
width averages about 300 feet and the
| thickness at right angles to the hang
ing and footwalls is approximately 24C
y
about 100 feet under the ridge of the
Kirunavaara, and the horizontal area
calculated from careful surveys is
about 100000 square yards Luossa-
yet. but on Kirunavaara there are al
lpresent seven levels from which the
ore Is being extracted, either by hand
labor or with shovels, steam or cleo
trically driven.
| The ore Is hard and requires consid-
cradle blasting, but it is pure and low
in sulphur phi sphorus, etc. Two shifts
are employed and mining is carried or
the year round. Permanent leve
tracks and some portions Of the in
clines are covered with snowsheds, tC
keep the tracks clear in the winter
The ore is loaded by shovels into dunn
cars which bring 1t to inclined chutes
discharging into hoppers at the foo
of the hill; there the ore is loaded into
railroad cars and conveyed to the por
for shipment.
Shipment.
The annual output is about 1000, 00(
tons, soon to be increased to 5000, 00(
TONS The ore goes principally to Ger.
many to be used by Krupp, some be.
ing shipped to England. and to thu
United States. Part of the ore for tn,
German Baltis sea points is shipped t.
Lulea, port several hundred mile.
east Of Narvik and connected with tn,
latter by railroad, but most of it goe.
to Narvik.
Between Kiruna and Narvik, thu
railroad crosses the mountain divid,
at high altitude. The operation Of
freight trains across this divide is ex.
tremely difficult because of the low
average temperature which makes Il
hard to procure water for the locomo.
tives and to keep up steam. For this
reason 1t was decided to electrify the
road from Kiruna to Narvik. This Is
now nearly done and electrically oper-
ated trains will run in a short time
The power is obtained from Porjus
Falls, south of Narvik.
Power Generation.
Porjus Falls is one of the great wa.
ter power resources of Sweden. The
head obtained is approximately 15C
feet and the total available power Is
estimated at $4,000 horsepower, OF
which 100000 horsepower is developed
The power station is interesting in
many ways. 1t Is built below the wa
ter line of the tailrace and blasted out
of solid rock, the roof being about so
feet below the surface of the ground
This was done for protection against
the low temperatures and to permit
the use of horizontal intsead of verti-
cal water wheels. II was feared that
the deep shafts necessary with vertical
wheels would lead to freezing of the
water in the winter.
! The power generated at this station
! is brought to Kiruna on two lines at a
tension of about 10000 volts. One of
these lines, with two-phase current.
supplies the substation of the railroad
company, and the other, with three
phase, supplies power for the mines. II
is estimated that the mine demand will
average about $4,000 horsepower; the
remainder is to be used by the rail-