OUTLOOK FOR IRON — KEMP. 303 



of entry. Their chief markets, however, are the iron and steel cen- 

 ters of Nova Scotia. 



Chile. — The Panama Canal has made accessible one great deposit 

 or iron ore on the west coast of Chile, called the Tof o. Tofo is 30 miles 

 north of Coquimbo. The ores are only three or four miles from the 

 sea. The Bethlehem Steel Co. is making extensive preparations for 

 shipments on a large scale in the immediate future. Published de- 

 scriptions mention reserves of 100 million tons of ore ranging above 

 and somewhat below 60 per cent and prevailingly of Bessemer grade. 

 A possible annual output of 1.5 to 2 millions of tons is expected. 

 (Iron Age, May 11, 1914.) Other deposits along the west coast of 

 South America have been reported in an incomplete way, but are not 

 yet sufficiently developed to seriously enter into our forecasts, 



Brazil. — For some years past reports have been current of very 

 large, rich, low-phosphorus deposits of specular hematite in the State 

 of Minas Geraes, Brazil. They constitute beds in metamorphic sedi- 

 ments of pre-Cambrian age, and appear some three hundred and 

 seventy-five miles from the seacoast. Deposits of hard specular 

 hematite and loose blocks on the surface are available in enormous 

 quantity. The first estimates, for the Eleventh International Geo- 

 logical Congress, by Orville A. Derby, the able State geologist of 

 Brazil, gave 2,000 million tons. Since then the observations of Leith 

 and Harder indicate more than three times this amount. Vast quan- 

 tities run between 65 and 70 per cent in iron and are well within 

 Bessemer limits. The chief handicap lies in the long railway haul to 

 the sea. ^'V'liile railways tap the district, both from Eio Janeiro and 

 Victoria (the latter the probable port of future shipments), the 

 present roadbeds are not adapted to the hard wear and tear of a 

 heavy iron ore traffic and must be rebuilt.^ Once on shipboard, the 

 distance to Atlantic ports is about 4,000 miles. 



Europe and Africa. — The United States also import appreciable 

 amounts of ore from Spanish, Algerian, and Grecian ports. Spain is 

 the chief contributor, approximately 440,000 tons reaching Atlantic 

 ports in 1910. To some extent, therefore, declining American per- 

 centages may be raised by future shipments from these sources, yet 

 as time passes British and continental needs will be even more press- 

 ing than American and will call more insistently for supplies from 

 European and northern African mines. 



The possibilities of importation and sale turn, however, upon mar- 

 ket conditions. Through the kindness of Mr. Charles F. Rand, presi- 

 dent of the Spanish-American Iron Co., the following figures have 



1 The latest account is by E. C. Harder, " The Iron Industry of Brazil," Transactions 

 of the American Institute of Mining Engineers. 



