The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1924-09-12
LOW GRADE ORE
!" MAIN CHANCE. :
SCHOOL OF MINES EXPERIMENT
STATION WORKING ON RE-
CLAMATION METHODS.

From Minnesota Chats issuet
weekly by the University of Mime
sofa we take the following entitled
Solution of Low-Grade Ore Prob
lem Called Main Chance for State
Mines. The article takes up the
necessity of getting busy on the low
grade stuff of which this section ha:
such an abundance and between the
lines can be read political argu
ment in favor of tariff on iron ore
and also an argument against the
constant south-state tax measures
Minnesota Chat says:
I'm no field, with the possible eX-
ception of agriculture, is the Univer-
sity of Minnesota at work on prob
lens more Immediately connected
with the future welfare of the state
than in the field of mining. View
ing forestry for the time being as a
branch of agriculture, which 1t
seems destined to be if Minnesota
very great stretches of forest lana
are to be replanted to trees as a
two principal sources of new wealth.
Both come from the ground. The
products of agriculture are one of
these. Something has sprung into
existence where before was nothing.
The products of mining also repre-
sent new wealth. Other values are
added, of course, to products in both
classes. Transportation of them
adds to their value as they are
brought to points of consumption
where they are more needed. Manu-
facture adds value as wheat be-
comes -four, -four bread, or bread
pie. Iron ores become pig-iron, iron
becomes castings, or it is made into
steel, which in turn is fabricated
into locomotives, surgical instru-
ments, girders, rails, or sewing
needles. But tie basic new wealth
is the materials on which the carrier
or the manufacturer has a chance
20 perform. :.
obvious that there is a marked diff
ference, however, between the Gre
from a mine. 1t is true that raising
a crop takes from the soil small
fraction of the mineral plant foods
that are necessary to the raising OF
future crops. Unless the field is to
become barren this depletion must
be met by fertilization. But it is
even more strikingly true that min
ing an ore deposit removes all of
the valuable mineral that current
processes can extract. One crop of
ore exhausts that field, once and for
all. Man can fertilize the seeded.
Nature required millions of years
and conditions far beyond the con-
troll of man for the enrichment of
the area. Unlike the production of
minerals leaves the field worked out.
"When grain lands were abund-
ant, the farmer whose soils were i'm
poverished moved to new soils and
was repaid with overwhelming crops
from virgin earth. Now the limits
of new agricultural land have been
approached the world over, so scien-
tific agriculture is teaching the
farmer to raise crops on the old
soil. This he can do forever. The
miner, on the other hand. having
worked one deposit, has no choice
he must come to the end of his dig
gings and move.
Fortunately for Minnesota, the
miner of iron ore on the northern
ranges has been offered an alter
native for pulling out, once the end
of the rich deposits has been
reached, a conclusion probably no
more than 20 or 80 years distant in
time. He can not recreate his rich
ore deposits, but nature has placed |
close at hand an apparently endless
supply of ores that are less rich,
the so-called low grade ores. At the
Minnesota School of Mines Expert
ment Station they say now that pro-
per handling of the lean ores will
enable Minnesota to continue as an
IRON ore producing state for as long
as need be considered. What the
farmer accomplishes by fertilizing
his field, the miner will achieve by
modifying his machinery and intro
ducing processes for concentrating
the lean ores into the equivalent of
the rich ores he formerly found.
"Mines experts at the University
are seeking to present this problem
in such way that the public will
realize its full significance. With
out its ore deposits, Minnesota would
be in much the predicament of a
man who formerly had two arms
with which to earn living, but
who now has only one. Minnesota
will always have the earning arm
represented by its ore deposits, be-
cause the deposits of low grade ores
are practically endless. But the
point is this: unless the industry of
extracting and concentrating low
grade ores is developed and encour-
aged this arm will hang useless
when the high-grade ores which feed
its nerves and muscles have been
exhausted in the not-distant future.
There are various reasons why
this is true. The principal one is
that unless the lower grade Mime
sofa ores can be made commercial
ly available at prices to compete
with foreign ores, smelling companies
will inevitably buy the foreign ores.
In Nova Scotia, Cuba, and Brazil,
to mention only a few, there are
near to water transportation, which
offer competition TO Minnesota
mines. Even today such ores are
shipped to our seacoast smelters.
Minnesota ores are also in competi-
ton with deposits such as those
around Birmingham, Ala, where
there is not only the ore but the
coal and limestone needed for smelt-
ing, all within very narrow area.
Solution of the problem of bene-