Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1941-10-04

- fNtSo S~A~-~~~-1~a @~t4~ ---NN4 1850
from 1880 to 1910. with apologies to ON
] deluded New Deal friends for tn
franknesS Of the statement, it was
i tremendous struggle TO hold the majo
chrome properties together and tn
II proponents and co-owners Of sans
having all been hard hit by the Sc
verify Of the times, made many sac.
n rifices to do so. They were upheld
by the belief that some day theS,
properties would become the basis o.
! a major industry in our splendid state
i supplementing, at least in part. thC
4 decreasing resources in copper which
has been so long a major factor ir
our industrial life.
High Grade" Depletion
A great deal of the difficulty in
getting Montana chromite deposits de-
| veloped lay in the fact that these
deposits have relatively high iron
| content in the ores and when reduced
make a ferro-chrome having higher
iron content than that made from the
better grades of imported ores. The
writer has made a very careful study
Of all known deposits of chromite and
believes that the time Is soon coming
when the high grade deposits of
chromite ore found and operated else
where in the, world, will be depleted
and when this takes place, the Mon
tana chromite deposits win compare
very favorably with the chromites re-
naming elsewhere in the world in
larger quantities As a matter of fact,
at this time nearly all OF the really
high grade chromite ores Of the world
have been exhausted or are rapidly
nearing complete exhaustion and there
remains in the rest of the world only
a few large deposits of high iron chro-
mite ores of little If any better grade
than the deposits found here, so that
even without the impetus of the pres
ent emergency, it is practically posi-
tive that the Montana deposits would
have been necessarily quickly devel-
oped.
World Market Changes
Prior to this year the relative cost
of equal grade ores or concentrates
made from Montana ores and the av-
erage grade of ore imported into this
country from foreign sources of supply
have been about the same so that If
Montana chromite owners had mined
and milled our ores and shipped same
to the eastern market, they would have
met such competition there as would
have forced a sale of their product
at little profit or some loss, but this
condition, of course, does not exist
today and it is believed that properly
operated and with the fulfillment OF
the promise of reasonable freight
rates to eastern points of consump-
ton, that the present plans formed
by the major consumer Of chromite
ores in the United States will result
in permanent operations in Montana.
NEetaTIurgy
In 1880 the Montana Power Co. and
the Anaconda Copper Co., afforded
their facilities in cooperation with the
officials of the Montana Chrome Co.
N making tests to determine the feas-
Ibility of making ferro-chrome from
The chromite ores of Carbon county. !
These tests were made in Great Falls |
Under the direction of their talented |
netallurgist Mr.. e. S. Bardwel of
Great Falls. 1t was found at that
Tine that ferro-chrome of a grade
about five units less than that made
rom imported ores could be relied
lpon being made from the Carbon
county ores. 1t was also found that
he chromium content Of the Carbon
county ores was higher than that OF
he ores Of saltwater and Sweetgrass
counties and that same were easier to
Mill into good grade concentrates. 1t
S probable that had not the depres-
ion continued in increasing severity
It that time small start would have
,een made in the development of these
properties, but the idea had to be
.bandoned due to the continuation of
he depression and the added contin-
led dry seasons that dried up and
limited the power generating capacity
4 the Montana Power co. The work
lone by Mr.. Bardwell, however, fully
the claims made by the
of the Carbon county
properties that same could be operated
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