El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1917-11-03
BY
Frank G. Carpenter


has 70 be stripped off 1t Is scooped
~ with steam shovels, loaded on the
] cars and carried away Up until two
7 years ago they had removed more
pit mines than was moved IN max
! inE the Panama canal From the
] HaIl-Hurst mine alone they took off
! 30,O00.000 cubic yards Of stripping,
| or enough 10 have filled a two horse
[ wagon train reaching from the earlh
] three-fOurths Of the way 70 the moon
! After the ore Is stripped it has to
/ be gouEed out with the steam shovels
! and loaded on the 50-ton cars which
] carry il down 20 the vessels on the
/ shores Of Lake Superior The most
I Of the ore here looks like red clay or
l dirt Some of il rs in large Jumps. but
when broken up by the blasting it
Z looks for all the world like the dirt
you dig up on the roadside
Iron ore is, as you know. merely
| iron rust. or rotten iron mixed win
! sand or silicon, and the ore Is lean
| or fat according to the amount Of
iron IL contains. What the big COM
panies are now doing is 20 take out
and send TO the steel plants the fat
ore or that which contains q prolit-
able percentage of iron The lean ore
also is eXcavated, but 10 IS stacked
up in great piles with the idea that
il may be used in the future There
are millions of tons Of such ore now
E stored uN 4QE LAAaA HlA aINaE-
steam ShOveIs in All Mines.
In all Of the mines the steam show
els are working. and the force OF
thousands Of miners is as well or
ganized as our troops i'm the field me
steam shovels go on day ana nlghL
and a continuous train OF cars moves
down the mountains TO the docks on
the lake During my stay I have VS.
tied many Of these open pit mines pe-
longing 10 the Oliver Iron Mining
company. whose output last year was
about $4,000, 600 tons Of ore. or q
percent OF all the ore mined in this
region
The first one 7 saw lies within
pistol shot OF the town or virginia
1t covers so acres, and the ore mes ~
q great triangle the base OF which IS
a half mile wide. and the apex
quarter Of a mile high The ore body
contains altogether about 2oOOo,0O0
tons. and they are now taking II out
for the use OF the government
Top Of Earth Lifted Off.
When the ore was first found the
land was covered with forest me
trees had 10 be cut of and the earth
stripped down 80 feet TO the IRON
formation. If YOU viii take farm OF
so acres and lift off the dirt and
rock to the depth OF a five-story
house. making a great pit over the
whole farm, 50 feet deep. you VIII
have some idea Of what the miners
had 10 do before they began 10 Work
on the iron The stripping taken
away was something like 29U,eUo car
loads All this was done with steam
gbovels. the stuff being carried away
in long trains Of cars OF 80 tons eacn'
Today the shovels are working the
nine some Of the ore booy IS so soIl
that IL can be mined without blast
ing Other parts are opened W ~
hundreds OF charges the dynamite
rfrov-f0g thu frOn-uiIed earth high
into the air
/ stood a while on the edge OF the
Bfyrabic mine and watched the steam
shovels working. This mine IS In the
form OF a great cut like that Of Guile /
bra Il is now more than 200 feet +
deep. Starting from the grass roots i
there are gray strata OF clay and rock- /
running down perhaps 80 Ieet BE
low comes a deposit OF rlcn reqlish I
brown earth. so soft that II could pc .
easily dug with a pick This IS the .
iron bearing formation which IS pc
inE cut off IN layers about 81 IeeL &
thick, OF OF the depth TO Whicn
steam shovel can work IL you VIII /
consider the ore body as great loaI I
OF brown bread. and each Of the lay
ers a slice, you viii set some ldea or .
how the steam shOvels are mining .
and dropping the ore into the cars
In some places they have cut through I.
the main body and are getting out /
the ore which. as I have described IL, ]
branches into the roots OF the ron
covered tooth. The work is econom-
ically done Every bit OF goou IRON
is saved and waste Is as careLully I
guarded against as in the steel 1ur-
naces and mills 20 which the iron is Z
taken
Dean Mine Is Attractive SPOT
Another pit is the Dean mine mis-
is a beautiful oval which makes me
think OF one OF the diamond pipes OF
"a DE- F.
feet wide and 12O feet deep Its walls
for 50 feet down are earth and rock
and below that 10 the arena II IS rlcn
red ore That mine covers about Is
acres. or as much space as the Great
Pyramid Of Ghizeh- You could drop
two coIlosseums like that al Rome
inside it and they would just about
fill the space
The Shenango pit is like the famed
Kimberly diamond mine. save that the
latter is almost a half nile deep,
the depth of the ShenanEo
is only a few hundred feet 1t is all
most round and the bottom is marked
with a great coil Of railroad tracks
In all Of these mines the cars move
In and out. and there are terraces
and tracks so arranged that the ore
is hauled by easy grades TO the sur
face There are scores Of steam
shovels, which have an efficiency as
great as those OF the Panama canal
They each take two tons at a bite
and one viii fill a 50-ton car in less
than five minutes. In that time DO
loads a burden as great as 100 horses
could haul on a wagon The newest
lf the shovels weighs 900 tons Ii
cuts to depth of O feet and has
a swing or sWath OF 500 feet
In addition TO this opeu-pit work
cuts to a depth of 60 feet and has
mining is carried on underground
The open-pit work can be done only
turing the eight months Of the open
season. but the underground mining
goes on also throughout the winter.
-t is restricted to the deposits which
Lra so deen that 4 costs TOO much