REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR I9IO IO9 



continuously for the last four or five centuries. It is not to be in- 

 ferred, however, that the methods and equipment at the smaller 

 properties are, as a rule, crude or antiquated ; on the other hand, 

 they are often very efficient and the cost of production is sur- 

 prisingly low on the bas^is of output. 



The low phosphorus magnetites have no counterpart with us. 

 They carry generally but a few thousandths or at most hundredths 

 of a per cent of phosphorus and usually correspondingly low 

 amounts of sulfur. 



The deposits with moderate to high phosphorus content, which 

 furnish the closest parallels to our own from a commercial view- 

 point, have become prominent producers only in recent years when 

 the export demand began to develop. The output of Grangesberg 

 and the Lapland mines goes almost entirely to other countries, 

 owing to the fact that Sweden has no coal suitable for blast fur- 

 nace use. Since the completion of the Lulea-Narvik Railroad in 

 1902, by which the Lapland mines secured outlets to both the Baltic 

 and the Atlantic coasts of Scandinavia, the shipments have grown 

 very rapidly. This district now produces much more than central 

 Sweden, the output for 1908 amounting to 2,724,886 metric tons, 

 with a probable total around 3,500,000 tons for the current year. 

 The shipments go to Germany, France, England and even to the 

 United States, competing here with our own magnetic ores of the 

 East. 



The facilities for extraction and handling the product in the 

 mines of Lapland are on the largest scale, as perforce they must 

 be to permit exportation of a low-priced material like iron ore. 

 Open quarry work is generally practised, though at Gellivare, 

 where the pits have already attained considerable depths, under- 

 ground mining is being introduced. The aspect of enterprise and 

 permanency which the mines and their surroundings reflect is most 

 pleasing, as it is rare enough in mining settlements under more 

 propitious climates. Kiruna and Gellivare are flourishing towns 

 of 6000 or 7000 inhabitants each, with attractive buildings and all 

 the conveniences of modern communities, though both lie within the 

 Arctic Circle. 



The exploitation of the high phosphorous magnetites will proba- 

 bly not proceed as rapidly in the future as the mining situation 

 might admit, owing to the strong position taken by the govern- 

 ment in favor of their conservation in the hope that ultimately 

 they will be used at home. A definite limitation has been put 



