East Texas iron ore has been mined from time to time ever since about 1855, and records show that a number of local iron furnaces once operated. The brown iron ore (as the [limonite] is also called) now is mined from open pits in Cass, Cherokee, and Morris counties.
This ore, after being washed, goes into blast furnaces at Lone Star (near Daingerfield) and at Houston. In the blast furnaces the ore is changed into metallic iron by mixing it with coke (made from coal) and [limestone] and blowing in blasts of hot air.
To make steel, the iron from the blast furnace (called pig iron) is put into open-hearth furnaces together with scrap iron, [limestone], and other materials. This mixture is heated and melted together to get rid of unwanted substances. Then other [elements], such as molybdenum, manganese, or nickel, are added to make steel with the right strength and toughness.
[Limonite] ore is changed to metallic iron in a blast furnace.
Skip car Hot Gases Blast Furnace Iron Ore [Limestone] Coke Fire Brick lining Steel Plate covering 3550°F Hot Air Blast Slag Slag Ladle Molten Iron Iron Ladle
Steel mills alongside the furnaces in Texas turn out many products, such as steel plates for oil tanks, ships, and tank cars and steel beams for framework in buildings and bridges. Some of their other products include pipes for the oil and chemical industries and wire for nails and fencing material.
Lithographic Limestone. See [Limestone].
Llanite
[Llanite] is a unique rock that is found only in Llano County in central Texas. This [intrusive] [igneous] rock is made up of easily seen crystals and grains of [quartz] and [feldspar] that are scattered through a brown-colored mass of extremely small mineral grains. The quartz is beautiful, sky-blue, and opal-like; the feldspar has a rusty pink color. (Because the quartz looks like [opal], this rock often is called [opaline granite].) The mineral grains that make up the brown-colored mass are so tiny that they can be identified only with a microscope. They are quartz, feldspar, [mica], [fluorite], and apatite.