The Ely miner., 1921-09-09
.BABBITT GETTING ALONG.
Curtailed Operations at the New City Has
Delayed Production Until Next Year,
Method of Operation.
From Duluth Evening Herald1

of the surficial area of the iron bear
ing rocks west of say, the village OF
Mesaba, is concentrated into COM
mercial ore bodies; east of that vii
lage the commercial bodies are but
two or three, and the mass of the
formation is as it was at the time OF
the gabbro overflow, the water circu-
lation underground not having been
able TO attack and carry away the
silica and other worthless minerals in
the ore and leave high grade iron in
their place.
The taconites of the magnetic
portion of the district are practically
exposed over very large areas; the
taconite is hard and dense, with
bands of rich magnetic iron ore and
bands of very lean ore, these bands
being of varying thicknesses and
quality. In this area the covering of
drift or soil is rarely more than six
feet, and in many places it is far less
than that, while in others there is
none at all, the formation lying eX-
posed.
First Known Exposures
1t was because of these exposures
that the eastern end of the Mesaba
was known to explorers long before
that lying to the west. The original
iron mining company in Minnesota
was the Mesaba Iron company, form
ed during the Civil war by the then
Governor Ramsey, W. W. Spalding,
then of Ontonagon, the Wielands of
Duluth, and others. 1t was to exam
inc this supposed rich ore deposit
that Prof A. H. Chester was sent
here about forty-five years ago, and
when he realized the impossibility of
treating these rocks and was about
TO turn away discouraged, his atten-
tion was directed to the ores outcrop-
ping on the shores of Lake Vermil-
hon and the Minnesota Iron COM
pany was formed to exploit them.
But the development of the past
ten years in treating low grade ores
became interested in 1913 in the east
ern Mesaba district The first re-
port on the possibilities of these low
grade iron ores was made in 1914
and the Mesaba Syndicate was formed
the following year. An experimental
mill, having a capacity of 100 tons
per day was constructed in Duluth
This experimental work was contin-
ued until the spring of 1919. Prov
ing satisfactory, the Mesaba Iron
company was Incorporated in 1919
with a capital of $3,OOO,O0O for the
purpose of developing and working
these low grade deposits
The directors of this company are:
Charles Hayden, chairman of the
board; Daniel C. Jackling, president; !;
John D. Ryan, W. E. Corey, Percy
A. Rockefeller, C. NJ. Mcneil, Sher-
wood Aldrich, Alva C. Dinkey, W.
Hinkle Smith, Seeley W. Mudd,
Horace V. Winchell, w. G. Swart,
John R. Dillon and j. Carson Agnew.
Hayden, Stone & Co. had financed
and D. c. Jackling had worked out
Utah Copper company and other large
mining enterprises, handling in all
some 100000 tons of raw material
daily. Most of this was mined by
steam shovel, crushed in great mills,
and after crushing and grinding, the
valuable minerals extracted either by
gravity or by flotation. The Mesaba
magnetic deposits do not differ in
any essential respect from these low
grade copper deposits, and in a gem
eral way the methods and machinery
at Babbitt do not differ from the
methods and machinery in vogue In