SECTION III, 1916 [33] TRANS. RS.C. 
The Smelting of Titaniferous Ores of Iron 
By ALFRED STANSFIELD, F.R.S.C., and W. A. WISSLER 
(Read May Meeting, 1916.) 
The industrial development of a country depends very largely 
on its supplies of the basic materials of engineering, notably coal and 
iron. Canada’s production of pig iron is about one million tons a year, 
while Great Britain produces ten million, the United States thirty 
million, and the world seventy-five million tons. One million tons a 
year may seem a fair production for so young a country as Canada, 
which has as yet a very limited market, but the situation will be found 
less satisfactory when it is pointed out that nine-tenths of Canadian 
pig iron is made from imported ore. The furnaces of the Dominion 
Iron and Steel Company at Sydney and the Scotia furnace at North 
Sydney, are fed with ore from the Wabana mines in Newfoundland, 
and the furnaces at Sault Ste. Marie and other parts of Ontario employ 
in large measure both iron ore and coal or coke imported from the 
United States. 
We have been informed that Canada has a boundless wealth of 
all natural resources, but when we begin to enquire in detail into the 
suppliés of iron ores we find that in general, the quality of these ores is 
poor and the quantity decidedly limited, and as has recently been 
pointed out by Mr. G. C. Mackenzie, Canadian ores require in general, 
to be improved in one way or another before they can be economically 
smelted. 
There are, in eastern Canada, immense deposits of titaniferous 
magnetite ores, but these are not acceptable to blast furnace managers 
and are not at present recognized as available ores of iron. In view, 
however, of the scarcity of easily smelted Canadian ores, it is becoming 
increasingly important to ascertain whether such ores can be made 
available and whether it may not be possible to smelt these titaniferous 
magnetites economically. 
As an example of such ores, we may mention the deposit of titani- 
ferous magnetite near St. Charles on the Saguenay river. Prof. 
Dulieux! estimates the deposit to contain from one million to five 
million tons of ore. By crushing these ores to a powder and passing 
them through a strong magnetic field it is possible to make a partial 

‘Les Minerais de fer de la Province de Québec, Gisements et Utilisation, par 
R. E. Dulieux, Dept. of Mines, Quebec, 1915. 
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