208 



lEON-ORE EESEEVES. 



Many will be surprised at the high figures given for the reserves 

 in Great Britain and European countries. So much is heard of our 

 own vast reserves and of the low grade of some of the foreign ores 

 that we have come to think of the supply outside of North America as 

 relatively small. The position of the United States is somewhat better 

 than shown in the table when w^e take into account the grades of ore. 

 By multiplying the figures by the average percentages of metallic 

 iron given for each of the countries by Professor Tornebohm the 

 result is as follows : 



r>«„.,t..,r Metallic 



Country. i^^^ 



Tons. 



United States I 603, 166, 600 



Great Britain | 295,000,000 



Germany 825, 000, 000 



Country. 



Spain 



Russia and Finland 

 Sweden 



Metallic 

 iron. 



Tons. 

 249, 375, 000 

 637, 500, 000 

 6n, 538, 460 



It is believed that the reserves for the United States, and hence the 

 total, are higher than indicated in this table, but before taking up 

 this question we may consider conclusions that may be drawn from 

 the figures as they stand. 



President Hadfield, of the British Iron and Steel Institute, has 

 prepared a diagram, showing the world's increase of pig-iron con- 

 sumption since the fifteenth century and the projection of this rate 

 for the next century on the rate of the last thirty years. If the same 

 rate of increase hold for the next century as has held for the last thirty 

 years, in the year 2000 the world's annual consumption of iron will 

 be three and one-fourth times its present consumption. The total 

 world's supply of iron ore now known, given as 10,000,000.000 tons 

 by Tornebohm, will be exhausted in about fifty years. If the total 

 be correct, about one-fourth of the world's known reserves have been 

 used to the present time. 



It is argued that the calculated rate of increase is not improbable 

 because of the increased rate per capita of the countries now using 

 iron, because of the normal increase of the population of these coun- 

 tries and because of the extension of the uses of iron through a much 

 larger proportion of the world's population than now uses it (12^ 

 per cent). If 38 per cent of the world's population were to require 

 iron in the year 2000, this would account for the calculated increase 

 of consumption. 



However, this additional part of the world's population, especially 

 in Asia, may find its own iron-ore supplies. No one would doubt 

 that the world's reserves will be greatly increased by new discoveries 

 in these relatively unexplored parts of the w^orld. 



Judging from the history of the development of the iron-ore 



