THI5 ALABAMA OPPORTUNITY. 177 



Another important center of red ore production is about At- 

 talla and Gadsden, but the ore is also mined at intervals be- 

 tween Springville and Attalla. and all along Wills' Valley, 

 from Attalla to the Georgia line, and also east of Lookout 

 ^Mountain, at Round Mountain and near Gaylesville. 



The red ore is now, and probably always will be, the main 

 clependance of the iron makers of the State, though a certain 

 "proportion of the brown ore is always desirable, and, so far 

 as I am aware, always added in making up the furnace bur- 

 dens. Some of the furnaces in the Coosa A alley region, Shelby, 

 Ironaton, Tecumseh, Rock Run, etc., use the Brown ore ex- 

 clusively. 



"Gray" or Magnetite Ore. — This ore occurs in Talladega 

 county near Sylacauga, and though its existence has been long 

 known, the great extent of the deposits and the richness of 

 some of the ore have only recently been demonstrated. The 

 ore occurs in several stratified seams of variable thickness, ag- 

 gregating in some places more than loo feet. The ore is really 

 a hematite with a slight admixture of the magnetite and it is 

 associated with the Weisner quartzite of the Cambrian for- 

 mation. 



The furnaces at Ironaton have demonstrated by practical 

 tests the value of this' ore which often rvms as high as 40-50 

 •per cent of metallic iron. The ore being also a siliceous ore 

 acquires thereby an additional value in furnace practice. The 

 vast quanfity of available ore thus added to our resources in- 

 sures the pre-eminence of Alabajna in this connection for 

 many years to come. 



The Fluxes. — Until recently the rock universally used as flux 

 iii our furnaces has been limestone, either of the Lower Silu- 

 rian (Trenton) formation, of the Mountain Limestone division 

 of the Sub-carboniferous ; the principal quarries of the first 

 named being at Gate City and near the Shelby Iron Works, 

 and of the second at Blount Springs, at Trussville, and near 

 Milage Springs. These limestones are quite pure, /'. e., free 

 from silica, and of reasonably uniform quality. Recen4;ly, 

 however, in the vicinity of Birmingham, quarries have been 

 opened in the dolomite or magnesian limestone of the Lower 

 Silurian formation, and this rock has been gradually coming 

 into use in some of the furnaces instead of limestone. 

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