The Big Stone Gap post. [volume] (Big Stone Gap, Wise County, Va.) 1892-1928, 1914-01-21
IronOr Breaks
Record
Production of 1912 Exceeds
by Large Tonnage the Re-
cord Figures of 1910.

NVio isul @ vi lSIO.
The quantity of iron ore
mined in the United States in
1918 i & estimated by f. f.
Burchard, of the United States
Geological Survey, TO have
been between $4,000, ZOO and
so, 100000 long tons. This en-.
innate ia based on preliminary
reports from % of the largest
iron-mlning companies, which
represent the principal IRON
producing districts and whose
combined output ia about 81
per cent OF the total iron ore
mined in 1912.
The average increase in out
put shown by these 25 compa-
MES was s per cent over that
for 1912, and If this Increase
should be maintained by all the
iron companies in the United
States the total output of iron
ore for 1918 should reach So.
800. 900 long tons. At any rate,
1t appears almost certain that
the former high record of iron
ore mined, 57,014, 096 long tons
in 1910, has been surpassed in
1913. The reports received for
1913 showed considerable vari,
alton III h percentage of
changes in output compared
with 1912, the maximum range
being from a decrease o { IS per
cent to an increase of SO per
cent. These apparently wide
variations were evedently due
to conditions affecting particu-
lar companies rather than to
general or even local conditions
of lron-mining industry; more
over, they concerned, for the
most part, he operations of
companies whose production is
not sufficiently great to affect
largely the grand total tonnage.
In the Lake Superior district.
where about 50 per cent of the
domestic iron ore is mined, the
increase i'll production CORES.
poned closely with that for the
United States in general, or
about 5 per cent, thus indicat.
ing a total production for that
district of about 90, 900 900 long
tons, compared with 4G ,36s, SIS
tons IN 1912. The year 1913 ia
therefore u record year for pro.
ductlon and shipments in this
district also. The preliminary
figures Indicate that the ship.
ments of Lake Superior ore by
water will exceed $4,000 900
long tons, which, together with
the all-rail shipments of more
than 100000 tons, brings the
figures for total shipments of
Lake ore very close to the ton
mage of ore mined and indica-
ties that not much change has
occurred in the stocks OF ore at
the mines in the Lake district.
These stocks amounted at the
close of 1912 to about $500, 900
long tons of ore.
In the Birmingham district,
Alabama, tn production OF
iron ore 1913 as Indicated by
the preliminary returns was
about 10 per cent greater than
that for 1912. In Tennessee
there was apparently Il slight
decrease and IN North Carolina
a slight increase. New Jersey
and New York both showed
slight increases, while Pennsyi-
vania showed a slight decrease.
In the Rocky Mountain district
of Wyoming, Colorado, and
New Mexico there was slight
decrease.
The types of iron ore produced
commercially consist of red aud
specular hematite, brown ore.
magnetic, an d siderite, o r
spathic ore. Hematite consti-
tutes about 80 per cent of out
put. Only very small frac-
ton of | per cent of the output
IL siderite, the production of
brown ore and magnetic to.
gether constituting nearly 10
per cent of the total.