The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1933-09-08
THE FUTURE OF THE
STATES MINING INDUSTRY
Continued From First Page)

dustry in Minnesota by bringing into
use hundreds of millions of tons OF ore
not heretofore disable. More than forty
plants for washing, drying, screening,
jogging and sintering iron ore
have been erected at the Minnesota
mines This has been done for purely
business reasons and not for charity,
for love of any section of the state, or
for any class of people. Much OF the
good advantages gained by this pro-
gram have been offset by the increased
cost of mining due to high taxes.
According to a recent report OF the
Minnesota Tax Commission, we still
have billion and quarter tons of
ore left in Minnesota.
Our mines have produced few tons
more than one billion. The biologists
tell us that the tonnage of iron bearing
rock and lean ores in Minnesota can
be safely placed at twenty times the
tonnages of present known shipping
ores, and that the chemist in his labor
atory can separate the iron in such
lean ores and iron bearing rocks from
the useless materials.
1t would seem that the work of
conservation should consist of two
phases:
First, to undertake on a large scale
and at once, research in the work Of
beneficiation of the low grade ores.
This is of the utmost Importance at an
early date so that the remaining mer-
charitable ores may assist in carrying
part of the expense of concentrating
poorer ones. 1t is important to bear in
mind that as fast as an ore is mined,
whether of high or low grade, at
present the high grade goes to the
furnaces and the low grade, if it must
be moved, goes to a stock-pile there to
remain perhaps for many years, if it
may be used at all. This, of course,
operates, first, as an additional expense
to the high grade ore, and second, to
rob the ore resources of Minnesota of
all that grade of ore that would tend
to "sweeten" the entire lump.
Another method that will do more
toward promoting conservation and
bringing returns at once to the mining
industry is the changing of the weakly
magnetic ore to strongly magnetic ore
and eliminating the waste material by
the magnetic washer means.
Generally stated, the non-magnetic
low grade ore is heated in a closed
chamber with coke, charcoal or almost
any other material carrying carbon.
The ore then becomes magnetic and by
use of the magnetic washers, the iron
can be separated from the dirt. The
magnetic operation method was used
at the great plant at Babbitt, Mime
sofa, where the highest grade of iron
ore was made from magnetic ore ma
terial running about twenty-five per
cent in iron. This iron bearing rock
is very hard and must be crushed at
great expense On the balance of the
Mesabi Range the low grade ores run
very much higher in iron and are very
much more easily crushed to the proper
size.
The Conservation Commissions Lab
oratory at Hibbing has demonstrated
the correctness of this process time and
again. The School of Mines at the
University of Minnesota has shown this
to be possible on larger scale. All
that remains to be done is to develop
retort in which this change to mag
netic ore can be accomplished on a
commercial scale. 1t requires the CO.
operation Of mining engineers as well
as mechanical experts. The task is not
overly difficult. When this has been
accomplished. an iron bearing material
removed in mining will go either di-
rectly to the furnaces from the mine
or to a concentrating plant. Thus the
business of iron mining in Minnesota
will be prolonged, but this must be
undertaken before all of the high grade
ores are removed.
The State of Minnesota is deeply in
terested in a movement of this kind,
first, as an agent to all of it's people,
and second, because it is one of the
largest owners of iron bearing lands
in the state. The trust funds today
have more than twenty million tons of
low grade ores on stock near the mines
which are Immediately available for
this work
The cost of seeking solution of this
question is so small as compared with
the immediate and long time returns,
that one feels it is almost waste of time
to discuss the advantages to come from
such a move. An annual approp-ia-
ton of $4,000 to some subsisting state
agency which has a corps of scientific
men, would within very few years
enable it to find the correct process
and design the necessary machinery.
One of the most important features
not wholly of a conservation measure
as we use that term, is the matter OF
extending the term of the lease of sew
eral of the state-owned mines such as
the Leonidas, Missabe Mountain and
Minnewas properties. These properties
have large tonnages of ore left and
large tonnages of lean ores remaining in
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