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ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



for lower grade but still practicable ores, which will be sufficient to last at 

 present rate of production for fifteen hundred years to come. 



If, however, production increases, as indeed it may with a rapidly 

 growing population, and if in this way heavier and heavier drafts are 

 made upon even this great reserve, where shall we look for more ? There 

 may be some new discoveries within the United States, but at present it 

 is impossible to speak definitely of them. We may ask if there are other 

 supplies in neighboring lands. To this question we may answer, yes. 

 Along the north shore of Cuba, toward its eastern end and near the sea, 

 three areas of what formerly appeared to be a barren, ferruginous soil 

 have been discovered and tested, so that we now know that there are two 

 to three billions of tons of a very pure iron ore, which, when deprived of 

 the large percentage of water which it contains — a cheap and simple 

 process — will yield from 40 to 45 per cent. iron. This variety of ore 

 already begins to enter our ports, and the deposits will undoubtedly con- 

 tribute in no unimportant way to the output of our furnaces. 



The report of the International Geological Congress has shown further 

 that in Newfoundland there are quite probably more than three billions 

 of tons of red hematite, whose present yield averages 54 per cent. From 

 Brazil, moreover, in the state of Minas Geraes, but pretty well back from 

 the coast and not yet opened up by rail, as estimated by Dr. 0. A. Derby, 

 there are from five to six billion tons of 50-70 per cent, ore awaiting the 

 drill and the steam shovel. Ore from Brazil faces a long sea voyage, but 

 the grade is rich, and the ironmasters of this and other countries are look- 

 ing upon these deposits as well within the possibilities of the future. 

 Ocean freights are kept at very reasonable rates in these later days, and 

 once on a steamship even so low-priced a commodity as iron ore, if of good 

 percentages and cheaply mined, can be taken relatively great distances. 

 This is demonstrated by the shipment this year from the mines of Kinma, 

 112 miles within the Polar Circle in Lapland, of 300,000 tons of ore, 113 

 miles to the Norwegian coast by rail, and over 4,000 miles to Philadel- 

 phia by sea, with no great prospect of a return cargo. These shipments 

 also demonstrate that we are not without the range to which European 

 ores may be shipped Avhen exceptionally rich. Some portion of the vast 

 ore body of Kiruna, with its demonstrated 500 millions of tons of 60-69 

 per cent, ore, will also reach American furnaces. 



But even were our/actual ores of present grade to become exhausted, 

 iron as a metal would not fail. The basic rocks with their low percent- 

 ages still remain. The trap-rock of the Palisades contains 7-8 per cent, 

 of metallic iron, a value that is far above the general yield of our copper 

 ores in the red metal. 



