OUTLOOK FOR IRON — KEMP. 301 



by such extensive exploration that with much confidence we may 

 credit them, at least in the Birmingham region, with 36 to 37 per 

 cent iron, and may consider the estimates of reserves as unusually 

 trustworthy. Dr. C. W. Hayes, on the basis of the careful field 

 work of C. F. Burchard,^ estimated them at the following amounts 

 in millions of tons. 



Available. 



Not 

 available. 



Tennessee, Georgia, and northeast Alabama. 

 Birmingham district, Alabama 



Total 



86.5 

 358.5 



440 



438 



Mr. E. C. Eckel had previously credited the Birmingham district 

 with 1,000 million tons, a number not unduly above the sum of 

 the two figures for Birmingham given above. The officers of the 

 Tennessee Coal & Iron Co. considered, in 1909, in round numbers 

 500 million tons as reliably assured. 



The combined output of these three States in Clinton ore was 

 practically 4 millions of tons in 1912, indicating at this rate 111 years' 

 life assured, and over 200 years' additional life as probable. In 

 these estimates we do not assume an essential falling off in the 

 yield of the ores below percentages actively mined to-day. 



Were we to take up the figures for the other portions of the 

 country very similar results would be reached. But, as their con- 

 tributions are proportionately smaller, the effects of rearrangements 

 are less serious. Obviously, in a general way, viewing the country 

 at large, and allowing for reasonable decline in yield, the ore supply 

 is good for several centuries. 



FOREIGN SOURCES OP SUPPLY. 



The yield in the furnace is certain to be maintained, in an im- 

 portant manner, by importations of rich ores from abroad. These 

 contributions are already a serious factor, since they amounted to 

 2.1 million tons in 1910, and had reached 2.5 millions in 1912, rang- 

 ing between 3.5 and 4.G per cent of the total. 



Cuba. — The most accessible and the heaviest contributor of ore is 

 Cuba. The mines in the vicinity of Santiago, on tlie southeastern 

 coast, have been shipping for 20 years amounts which annually 

 range below and above a half million tons of magnetite, with some 

 hematite mechanically intergrown. The ores now run from 55 to 

 60 per cent in iron and are of Bessemer grade. For some years addi- 

 tional, these contributions will continue. The great and enduring 



» Bulletin No. 394, U. S. Geol. Survey, pp. 88-89, 1909; No. 400, pp. 129-133. 1910. 



