The Cook County news-herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Cook County, Minn.) 1909-current, 1916-10-18
TlTANlum valuable
IN CASTING Steel
Ore That Was Considered Useless is
Now Found to be Valuable. Large
Quantities in Cook County.
By D. E. Woodbridge, M. E.

The steel industry has expanded so
greatly as result of the war in
Europe that ironmasters, foundry
men and chemists have been busy
for a. year or two devising improve
ments in the use of various alloy
metals during the processes of max
ing steel. Their experiments have
found uses for some Of these ele-
ments and have greatly extended the
efficacy Of others until, under sharp
demand the prices paid have put in
to profitable operation many proper
ties that hereto have been of limited
commercial value. Among these ele-
ments, titanium, hereto much neg
lected, and even regarded as detri-
ment in smelling iron ore, has been
found useful as a deoxidizer in the
preliminary casting operation, and
steels treated with it have been
found to possess certain valuable
qualities not found in other metals.
In fact, although it does not rectify
all the existing evils in the steel
casting operation it goes long way
toward making steel better.
The ordinary deoxidizers of iron
and steel are ferrosilicon and ferro-
manganese, but it has become ne
cessary to use a more active agent
for cleansing and purifying steel de-
signed for certain uses, so ferro-ti-
tanium has come into popularity and
is admirably adapted for this pur-
pose. Ferro-titanium, as made by
the electrical furnace, carries in the
neighborhood of Is per cent titan
ilm, rs per cent iron and the bal
ance carbon and other elements. It
would be comparatively easy to
make such an alloy from ores exist
ing in northern Minnesota, especially
in Cook county, many of which ores
run up to 13 per cent titanium.
Titanium is called rare metal,
but is only so because it is seldom
met with in nature under it's own
sassRme Is and identity. This is because it
junites with extraordinary eagerness
with both the oxygen and nitrogen
Of the atmosphere and with other
elements and metals prevalent in ma
ture, and because it can be separat-
ed from these combinations only
with great difficulty, so that it has
never been found in the free state
and has rarely been reduced from
it's compounds by artificial means. In
every other respect it is far from
rare, for it is on Of the ten COM
monest elements in the earth's crust
The fact above noted, that it unites
with extraordinary eagerness with
other elements is the secret of it's
value as a cleanser of steel. 1t
unites with the impurities and car
ries them away.
From the standpoint of the blast
furnace, iron ores are not classed as
titaniferous unless they contain
more than 2 per cent or three per
cent titanium, because smaller pro-
portions give no especial difficulty
in smelling. But there are noun
tains of iron ore in various parts of
of the world, including Sweden,
Greece, Australia, and North and
South America, that are idle because
they contain from 5 per cent to so
per cent titanium oxide. Most of
these titanium bearing, or titanifer-
Gus, ores are magnetic.
The separation of titanium from
iron in these titanium magnetites is
usually carried out with great diff
Guilty, and high losses of iron be-
cause of the iron in the ore is con-
tanned in two different chemical
combinations, one called magnetic
(Fe 304), the other called ilmentite
(FeTi 02). Both these minerals,
magnetic and limentite, contain
iron in chemical combinations with
oxygen, and in the case of limentite,
in chemical combination with both
oxygen and titanium. 1t is impos-
sible to break chemical combinations
by mechanical means, such as mag
netic separation and the like, there
fore when magnetic separation is ap-
piled to these ores, a large portion
Of the iron in the limentite is car
ried through in tailings, and the
higher the percentage of titanium
in the ore, the higher will these
tailings assay in iron. Extensive
experiments have been carried on
with certain crude ores assaying 35
per cent iron, making this separa-
tion a commercial impossibility.
But there is a certain use for high
titanium alloys. How limited this
use may be is shown by the fact
that in making steel rails, for in
stance, an addition of 13 pounds of