MINERALS OF THE UNITED STATES — PEHRSON 



189 



Minnesota. It seems probable that the huge iron-ore resources of that 

 region will continue to be the outstanding source of iron ore for the steel 

 industry of the United States. 



Figure 8 shows the past production of pig iron and iron ore and 

 an appraisal of the possibilities during the next quarter century. The 

 forecasts for 1970 were based on an analysis of the probable demand 

 for steel assuming that per-capita consumption in 1970 might lie be- 

 tween 0.60 and 0.73 short tons. These represent increases of approx- 

 imately 25 and 50 percent over the predepression rate of 0.48 tons. 

 With a population of 156,549,000 in 1970 steel requirements would 



Figure 8. — Production of iron ore and pig iron in the United States, 1900 to 

 1944, and estimated range of production to 1970. 



be between 94,000,000 and 115,000,000 short tons, the lower figure ap- 

 pearing to be the most acceptable estimate. At the normal operating 

 rate of 75 percent of capacity, plant requirements would be between 

 125,000,000 and 150,000,000 tons. The present installed capacity is 

 93,500,000 tons. 



Pig-iron requirements in 1970 were computed on the assumption 

 that there would be a slight increase in the use of scrap and a cor- 

 responding decrease in the ratio of pig iron to steel. The latter was 

 estimated at 65 percent in 1970 compared with 68 percent during the 

 past decade. On this basis pig-iron requirements in 1970 would be 

 between 61,000,000 and 74,500,000 short tons. The present capacity 

 is 67,500,000 tons according to the American Iron and Steel Institute. 



During the past 10 years the ratio of iron-ore production to pig-iron 

 production has been 1.72 to 1. Assuming this ratio will continue and 



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