Evening star., 1942-06-08
(First OF a Series.)
BY ALLEN HADEN,
Correspondent Of The Star and Chicago
Daily News.


Correspondent Of The Star and Chicago
Daily News.
RIO DE JANEIRO (By Clipper -
Three men met in washington last
February and shook together a
mountain of iron, a railway 4oo
miles long, and s14,000,00O to form
a triangular big STEEL combine OF
Great Britain, United States ana
Rrazil important in this war II IL
lasts long enough, but even more
important in peace. e,,.r
The last three men were ouliiiiei
welles. Undersecretary OF olaVe
Who anted up the money: LoIo
halifax. British Ambassador W
washington, who gave to braall Ii,e m
Itahira IRON Ore Co., and Arthur
de Souza Costa. Brazilian FINANCE
Minister who agreed to produce
high-grade iron ore from the l"ou
ious Itabira mine. ot
The Itabira deal is a question Oh
ffe and death for British steer: Fol
sBrazu the deal means opening d
new region and laying the lou,'-
Eation of a steel industry. For tne
ITnited states, it means lnterlock-
ING Brazil's interests with our own
Smiles on All Sides.
Hence the smiles on all stoee
uhen Ambassador Jefferson Canery
rerentlv accepted an official invita-
tion to visit the state OF Mlnas
Geraes. where Itabira is located. ms
visit to Belo Horizonte, state caplIai,
was seen as a graceful personal
bcnediction of the triangular uta'
which-at least on paper-s sdtiS
factory to all concerned.
Two big things still need 10 De
done before Britain's blast furnaces
oct the iron. Essential railway
eouinment must come from tle
ITnited States and Brazil must pro-
duce the ore.
Nv an accident which happened
some millions of years ago, there
is y mountain of iron ore IN brazu
called Itabira, weighing about 2oo'-
oOOOOO tons. It's iron is 68-IO per
cent pure and has low phosphorus
! content. Only the now almost ex-
hausted Swedish deposits ana tae
rather small Sierra Leone mines
on the West African Coast are
comparable to Itabira iron. :,
: Brazil has that ore. England
needs it to mix with low-grade iron
ores found in the British Isles.
i That mixture is necessary because
? Fncland makes steel by the BesSe-
rer process and to use her own
low-grade ores alone would require
conversion of the whole industry
to the open-hearth technique used
in the United States. That's I'M
possible in wartime.
Concentrate on Ore Boats.
Britain particularly needs the
1tabira ore now that Swedish ore
is unavailable. 1t used to flow
through Narvik, but since May, 1910,
Narvik has been controlled by the
Germans. After the fall of Nor
way, Britain turned to Sierra Leone.
The Germans know how important
that is, for they have concentrated
on sinking ore boats off the West
Africa Coast.
Itabira is just a mountain of iron,
solitary peak in Minas Geraes,
lost in a scrubby jungle on rolling
hills. 400 miles from the Seacoast.
Accompanying Ambassador Caftery
and Gov. Valadares of Minas Ge-
raes, our plane flew twice around
this pile of iron. It's outline is
something like Gibraltar's, sheer
drop on the north. compensated by
a 30-degree slope on the south.
Toward the top, three or four
outcroppingS are being worked by
gangs welding pickaxes. The men
dropped their tools and watched us,
waving occasionally, as our plane
Circled the peak On the easier slope
a 5-ton truck craWled up the dusty
red road We could see an even
slower truck loaded with ore inch
ing down to meet it.
Slow Transportation.
Those trucks carry the ore 80
miles to the railhead of the Victoria
Minas Railway, 5 tons at a time.
The eXpenSlveneSs and SlownesS of
this piece of road is the first and
main hurdle toward more produc-
ton.
While Itabira has been there for
centuries, the problem of Itabira
has convulsed Brazilian politics.
and especially the politics of Minas
Geraes-since 1919. In that year an
American engineer named Percy
Farquhar staked a claim and in
1922 the Itabira Iron Ore Co., which
he formed with British capital, re-
ceived the governments concession
to exploit the iron ore.
Farquhar, and Brazil with him,
ran smack into the European steel
cartel the Luxembourg metal COM
bine, the French Comite des Forges
and the German steel cartel. The
European steel cartel saw that if
Itabira ever produced, Britain would
be Independent of French and
Surodicb 0roc 1rpo1, ont to CT