212  CONTRIBUTIONS    TO   ECONOMIC    GEOLOGY,  1906,  PART    I. 
The  most  promising  method  of  treating  titaniferous  iron  ores  is 
reduction  in  the  electric  furnace.  Experimentally  the  process  is  suc- 
cessful, and  its  commercial  application  is  wholly  a  question  of  cost. 
Concerning  this  F.  W.  Harbord  a  states: 
Pig  iron  can  be  produced  on  a  commercial  scale  at  a  price  to  compete  with  the  blast 
furnace  only  when  electric  energy  is  very  cheap  and  fuel  very  dear.  On  the  basis 
taken  in  this  report  with  electric  energy  at  .$10  per  estimated  horsepower  year  and 
coke  at  $7  per  ton,  the  cost  of  production  is  approximately  the  same  as  the  cost  of  pro- 
ducing pig  iron  in  a  modern  blast  furnace 
Under  ordinary  conditions  wlx  r<  i  blast  furnaces  are  an  established  industry,  electric 
smelting  can  not  compete,  but  in  special  cases  where  ample  water  power  is  available, 
and  blast-furnace  coke  is  not  readily  obtainable,  electric  smelting  may  be  commer- 
cially successful. 
These  conclusions  apply  to  nontitaniferous  ores,  although  Dr. 
Eugene  Haanel  b  says: 
The  experiment  made  with  a  til  an  if  erons  iron  ore  containing  17.82  per  cent  of  titanic 
acid  permits  the  conclusion  that  titaniferous  iron  ores  up  to  perhaps  5  per  cent  titanic 
acid  can  be  successfully  treated  by  the  electric  process. 
In  1905-6  experiments  in  smelting  magnetic  iron  ores  electrically 
were  carried  on  under  the  direction  of  Dr.  David  T.  Day  of  the  U.  S. 
Geological  Survey,  at  Portland,  Oreg.  In  the  course  of  the  experi- 
ments cast  iron  of  good  quality  was  obtained  from  the  titaniferous 
ores  of  Iron  Mountain,  Wyoming.  An  analysis  of  the  impurities  in  this 
iron  is  given  below: 
Impurities  in  iron  produced  from  titaniferous  oris  of  Iron  Mountain,  Wyoming. 
Silicon 0.93 
Manganese None. 
Phosphorus 074 
Sulphur 005 
Total  carbon '. .  4. 'A 
Titanium 53 
I  Shromium 09 
Doctor  Day  states  thai  3,760  kilowatt  hours  were  used  on  the  aver- 
age in  smelting  a  ton  of  2,000  pounds  of  pig  iron  produced,  the  total 
charge  averaging  approximately  two  of  the  Wyoming  iron  to  one  of 
briquettes  made  of  Pacific  coast  magnetite  sands.  During  a  run  of 
2,583  pounds  of  iron,  205  pounds  of  graphite  electrode  were  con- 
sumed. 
a  Rept.  of  Commission  appointed  to  investigate  the  different  electro-thermic  processes  for  the  smelt- 
ing of  iron  ores  and  the  making  of  steel  in  operation  in  Europe:  Dept.  of  the  Interior,  Ottawa,  1!K)0,  pp. 
115-116. 
b  Prel.  rept.  on  experiments  made  at  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  Ontario,  under  government  auspices,  in  the 
smelting  of  Canadian  iron  ores  by  the  electric-thermic  process,  Dept.  of  Interior,  Ottawa,  L906,  p.  23. 
