The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1937-08-12
VermiIion Iron Ranqe
BY DAVID N. SKTLLINGS

The three principal communities or
the Vermilion iron range of Minnesota
are Ely, Tower and Soudan.
Ely, which has the heaviest mining
population, is the fountain-head of Yer
million range ores, in the immediate
vicinity of which are the Pioneer
Zenith, Sibley, Chandler and South
Chandler mines, all within the ore
trough of the Soudan iron formation
The Vermilion range ore occurs in the
Soudan formation of the Keewatir
geological period, the oldest series Of
the Lake Superior district iron ore. This
great iron formation itself exists not
only at Ely, Tower and Soudan, but
continues on, extending 100 miles north
east into Canada, traversing on its way
through st. Louis, Lake ad Cook coun-
ties in Minnesota. The only producing
points at present are at Ely and Soudan
The Ely trough is where the big under
ground mines have been producing since
1889. The Pioneer mine has been pro-
ducing since 1889, the Zenith since 1892
and the Sibley since 1899. The Soudan
mine, located at Soudan, 25 miles from
Ely, is the real old-timer of all of the
Minnesota ranges, the first shipper in
the state of Minnesota, starting in 1884
The Zenith mine Is the youngest pro-
Queer on the Vermilion and it is A
years old Prospects which were under
development, such as the Armstrong
Bay, Consolidated Vermilion, Section 80
Chippewa, Lucky Boy Anderson, Scott
BeVier and North American never were
developed to a point of getting on the
shipping rolls to any great extent. The
Section 80 came the nearest of the
deposit. 1t shipped 1,457,00 tons OF
iron ore between 1910 and 1923 and then
became exhausted of commercial ore
The late George A. st. Clair last oper-
ated the mine, through the Section sc
Mining company.
Separate Lump Ore
The Vermilion is a range of under
ground mines. It has become more and
more a district where, after the ore is
hoisted to surface, it is screened, separ-
ating the lump ore from the mine
run ore. The Jumps have been steadily
growing in favor for open hearth use
in the furnace departments of the steeI
mills. During the past few seasons both
the Oliver Iron Mining company and
Pickands, Mather and company, have
installed vibrating screens over the
shafts in mine headframes. No crush
ing is done, the ore dumps from the
skips into bin, which by gravity flows
over vibrating screen with about two
inch openings. The lump ore passes
over the screen to a pocket located over
the railroad track. The smaller sizes
pass through the screen to an ore poe
ket in position for gravity loading into
railroad cars The Vermilion range has
four producing mines, the Pioneer, Sib-
ley, Zenith and Soudan. All these
mines at present ship lump ore separate
from smaller sizes. These units built
into the steel headframes are so con-
Structed as to eliminate vibration ano
the walls of the headframe are built
with two layers of corrugated galvanized
iron with about four inches of insula-
ton between for the cold weather
months on the range.
Pioneer "B" Shaft
In January of this year the Oliver
Iron Mining company installed vi
brating screen system of lump ore re-
covery in it's Pioneer 'B" headframe at
Ely. The system took the place of its
stationary grizzly bar installation. The
enclosure housing the machinery has
also been insulated for the all-yeal
screening Of iron ore. The Pioneer 'B'
shaft, like the Zenith, is located adj