ADIRONDACK MAGNETIC IRON ORES 23 



Part II 



NONTITANIFEROUS MAGNETITES 



General relations and distribution 



The class of so called nontitaniferous magnetites includes the 

 ores that are relatively free from titanium. The term nontitan- 

 iferous, it may be noted, is hardly an accurate one to apply to any 

 of the Adirondack magnetites, since the presence of titanium has 

 been shown to be almost universal in these ores. For practical 

 purposes, however, the low-titanium magnetites may well come 

 under such designation, since they carry an inconsiderable pro- 

 portion of the element — usually but a fraction of one per cent — 

 too small to have any notable influence on their metallurgical 

 behavior. The titanium is traceable usually to the mineral titanite 

 which is a common constituent of the wall rocks and is often inter- 

 grown with the magnetite. Its proportion is generally higher in 

 crude ore than in concentrates, the titanite being removed to a 

 greater or less extent by mill treatment. 



The nontitaniferous magnetites are the most widespread of the 

 Adirondack iron ores. They have been worked at a great num- 

 ber of localities distributed over different sections. 



With some exceptions the deposits may be grouped, however, 

 into two geographical regions. The first and more important 

 is that lying on the eastern border of the Adirondacks within 

 the Lake Champlain drainage basin. To this region belong the 

 deposits of Washington county, the Hammondville and Mineville 

 districts and the smaller mines of Essex county, and all of the 

 mines of Clinton county aside from the Lyon Mountain group. 

 The last named is the only one on the, north side of the Adiron- 

 dacks that has been exploited to any extent, though there are a 

 few small bodies in Franklin county. The second region lies on 

 the west side in St Lawrence county and includes the Benson, 

 Jayville, Fine and Clifton deposits all lying in the same vicinity. 

 The rest of the western border extending through Jefferson, Lewis 

 and Oneida counties contains, so far as known, no deposits of size. 

 On the south side the Salisbury mine of Herkimer county is the 

 single representative. 



Attention has been called by Smock and other writers to the 

 fact that nearly all of the mines occur in the bordering zone and 

 that comparatively few have been opened in the interior of the 



