IRON 



Mining 



INDIA'S RESOURCES IN IRON ORE 



Test 

 Consignment. 



Major Mahon's 

 Opinion. 



Mr. Head (at page 18 of his report), it will be possible to deliver Kanjamalai 

 pig-iron in England for 3 15s. lOd. per ton, being 5s. 3d. below the 

 minimum value of imported Swedish pig, 1 4s. lid. below the maximum, 

 and 12s. 3d. below the average. The same iron could also compete still more 

 favourably with Swedish pig imported into Madras, Calcutta and Ceylon." 

 In 1898 a consignment of Kanjamalai Salem ore was sent to England to 

 be tested along with Indian coke supplied for that purpose. The experiment 

 was conducted by Messrs. Bolckow, Vaughan & Co. at Middlesborough, 

 with the result that it was found to contain only 40 per cent, magnetic 

 iron in fact, that it was not worth exporting. This led to an acri- 

 monious correspondence in the public press, in which it was affirmed that 

 the sample sent was not selected ore but an average of the whole rock, 

 and thus contained much that ordinarily would never be conveyed from 

 the mine to the smelting furnace. It was urged that the results of previous 

 investigations (such as those conducted by Dunstan, Imp. Inst. Tech. Repts., 

 12-22) showed a much higher average merit. Six samples examined gave 

 56'95 average, with the highest 7O06 and the lowest 36'44 per cent, of iron. 

 The Porto Novo Iron Company, founded by Mr. Josiah Marshal Heath, 

 was the earliest and perhaps the most persistently worked concern in 

 India. It was founded in 1830, changed hands more than once, and was 

 finally dissolved and its privileges surrendered to Government in 1874. 

 For thirty years a large quantity of iron was manufactured, and failure, 

 as Major R. H. Mahon says, was not due to lack of iron ore or its quality, 

 but to inexperience, defective machinery, and want of capital. He is, 

 moreover, strongly of opinion that all existing difficulties will be overcome 

 and iron production from the South Indian supplies made an industry of 

 the greatest possible value. Persons interested in this subject should 

 therefore procure Mahon's admirable report. It would thus seem that 

 the whole subject needs to be even still further investigated before it 

 can be regarded as satisfactorily disposed of one way or the other. 



Central Provinces and Orissa. Hardly less satisfactory are the 

 results of the inquiry made regarding the iron supplies of the Central 

 Provinces. The report of investigations conducted by Mr. E. P. Martin 

 and Prof. Henry Louis (on behalf of the Right Hon. Sir E. Cassel) will be 

 found in The Agricultural Ledger. Speaking of the Jabbalpur district, 



Agaria Supply, more especially the Agaria ridge, these distinguished investigators say 

 " the entire district undoubtedly contains considerable quantities of 

 ferruginous material, but the latter is nowhere concentrated into what 

 may be called a workable ore deposit showing the essential characters of 

 steadiness and persistence which are indispensable in a deposit that is to 

 form the basis of an important industry." The conclusion arrived at may 

 be said to be that considerable though the iron resources of the district 

 are, they are not such as would warrant the erection of iron and steel 

 works with any prospect of commercial success. In the Mayurbhanj State, 



Ohanda Supply, in Raipur and in the Chanda districts, Messrs. Tata, Sons & Co. of Bombay 

 organised prospecting operations on a large scale and employed Mr. C. P. 

 Perin and Mr. C. M. Weld as their experts. As a result it has been decided 

 to erect iron and steel works near Kalimati on the Bengal-Nagpur Railway 

 with the intention of using the Mayurbhanj ore in conjunction with fuel 

 from the Jherria Coal Field. It may thus fairly well be assumed that 

 this new departure marks an era in the metal industries of India. 



A Company known as the Tata Iron and Steel Company, Ltd., was 



690 



C. Prov. 



