IRON ORES 65 



deposits may be exploited in the near future as the develop- 

 ment of newer sections of the country makes fresh demands 

 for iron, or as the extension of railroad facilities and water 

 transportation brings the ores and fuel into convenient asso- 

 ciation. Improvements in smelting and fluxing ores, which 

 are now considered imdesirable because of the presence of 

 some of the elements mentioned above, may also make the 

 production of satisfactory metal from these ores a commer- 

 cial possibility. Wliile the manager of a smelting plant can 

 obtain ores high in iron, or those which need no beneficiating 

 treatment, at prices which permit him to produce metal at 

 a satisfactory profit, he can not be expected to consider favor- 

 ably supplying the blast furnaces under his direction with 

 inferior raw material. But the rapid increase in the output 

 of the blast furnaces to meet the growing demands of a de- 

 veloping country may in the near future encourage the util- 

 ization of ores which are now considered undesirable. 



The greatest development of iron ore deposits in the 

 world is in the Lake Superior region. No other section of 

 the United States, and no other district in the world, has 

 shown such marv^elous development or produced so much 

 iron ore as the region embracing parts of northern Michigan 

 and Wisconsin and the eastern portion of Minnesota. Whether 

 in the same extent of territory elsewhere there may or may 

 not be larger deposits of iron ore of equally desirable com- 

 position can not be asserted, for it is by development that 

 these great properties have become known and their reserves 

 approxiniaiely determined. But to-day the Lake Superior 

 region stands in a unique position by reason of the large quan- 

 tity and generally superior character of iron ores won from 

 the five ranges or subdistricts which it embraces. Some 

 of these mines have been in operation for fifty years, a number 

 of them for half that time, but the largest annual producers 

 are later developments. 



The mines of this region are located at an elevation of 

 from 1,000 to 1,500 feet above Lake Superior, the distance 

 from the lake varying from a few to a hundred miles. The 

 output finds cheap transportation, for the rail haul to the 

 lakes has grades favorable to the traffic, and on the lake shores 



Vol. 6-5 



