OUTLOOK FOR IRON KEMP. 



299 



The estimates for the Eleventh International Geological Congress 

 were grouped in a somewhat different manner, as follows : 



Avail- 

 able. 



Probable 

 addition. 



Archean magnetites: 



Lump ores 



Concentrates 



Adirondack red liematites 



Pennsylvania soft magnetites 



Cambro-Ordovieian brown hematites 



Mesozoic and Tertiary brown hematites 



Clinton red hematites 



Alabama gray and red hematites 



Carbonate ores 



Lake Superior hematites 



Mississippi Valley specular and red hematites. . 

 Mississippi Valley Palaeozoic brown hematites. 

 Mississippi Valley Tertiary brown hematites... 

 Cordilleran magnetites and hematites 



20.0 

 40.0 

 2.0 

 40.0 

 65.0 

 10.0 

 505.3 

 27.5 



3,500.0 



15.0 



30.0 



2G0.O 



63.8 



Tltaniferous ores. 



4, 578. 6 

 90.0 



30.0 

 10.0 

 2.0 



181.0 



15.0 



1,368.0 



27.5 



308.0 



72,000.0 



5.0 



45.0 



520.0 



55.0 



74,566.5 

 128.6 



As shown earlier, the annual production in recent years has 

 totaled between 50 and 60 millions of tons. Let us assume that 

 it will be 60 millions in the near future. Dr. Hayes's estimates 

 indicated practically 4,800 millions of tons of available reserves 

 or eighty years' supply. The estimates for the International 

 Geological Congress of 1910 are not appreciably different. By 

 just so much as the annual production exceeds the amount of 60 

 millions, will the time be shortened, except in so far as further 

 exploration opens up new reserves. In mining enterprises in gen- 

 eral, however, if the management of a company felt that it had 

 eighty years fairly well assured, it would congratulate its stock- 

 holders on the outlook. This attitude of mind would be justified by 

 the common experience in mining the ores of such a widely dis- 

 tributed metal as iron, that new reserves open up in old or new 

 properties as old supplies are exhausted. 



On the other hand, if we anticipate the general decline in the yield 

 of ores, so that lower and lower grade reserves may be brought in; 

 and if we assume that more tons of ore will be required to furnish 

 the usual output of pig iron, such that the annual output of ore may 

 reach 100 millions; then from the probable addition of reserves, 

 given in the second column of estimates, we forecast from practi- 

 cally 75,000 million tons a life of 750 years. That iron could be 

 produced in these amounts and for this period of time, there can be 

 no doubt, if we omit consideration of cost and if we only consider 

 possible ores down to 35 per cent. Iron-bearing rocks of still lower 

 percentages are so abundant as to be inexhaustible. No one need feel 

 anxiety about the physical possibility of producing iron up to the 

 conceivable life of the race on the planet. 



