Certain high-grade low-phosphorus iron ores which are not present in the United States in sufficient quantity to supply domestic needs have been imported in past years from Spain, North Africa, and to a small extent from Sweden. During the war, when the shortage of shipping facilities necessitated combing this country for supplies of high-grade low-phosphorus ores, it was shown that the United States is more or less dependent upon foreign sources for such ores.
There are a number of mines in the United States, such as the Lyon Mountain mine in New York, and the Cranberry mine in North Carolina, which produce limited amounts of high-grade low-phosphorus ore. Several mines on the Menominee Range, Michigan, produce a very siliceous low-phosphorus ore that can be used to supplement in part the high-grade ores. A considerable quantity of low-phosphorus pyrite residue from sulphuric acid and fertilizer plants is also used for making low-phosphorus iron. Much of the pyrite yielding this residue is imported from Spain, some of it is of domestic origin, and some of it comes from Canada. Altogether, the United States supplies about 60 per cent. of the material required for the manufacture of its normal output of low-phosphorus pig iron.
Certain developments in progress make it probable that a greater percentage of ore used for this purpose can be supplied from domestic mines. The principal enterprise is one that plans to concentrate the siliceous magnetite ore of the eastern Mesabi Range. Experiments have yielded a high-grade product and work on a commercial scale is planned.
The reserves of the ordinary grades of iron ore in the United States are large, and no shortage of such ore is anticipated for many years. They are easily capable of taking care of a considerably increased consumption. The largest reserves are in the Lake Superior district and in the southeastern states, but large untouched reserves occur in the western states as well. The iron ores in the Pacific Coast region have remained undeveloped from the lack of sufficient demand for pig iron and crude forms of iron and steel on the Pacific Coast. Undoubtedly this demand will increase in the future, and iron and steel industries will be established there.
The reserves of ore in the Lake Superior district are large. The grade of ore mined, however, has been gradually getting lower, and it is possible that before many years Lake iron ores averaging considerably below 50 per cent. will have to be utilized. At present the average grade of the ores mined in the Lake Superior district is about 51 per cent.
It is clear that there is not likely to be a shortage of the ordinary grades of iron ore in the United States. Reserves of high-grade ores, however, are being gradually depleted, and high-grade ores from foreign countries will find an increasingly ready market. American capital controls a large reserve of high-grade iron ore in Brazil. Much of the Brazilian ore averages about 68 per cent. in metallic iron and is very low in phosphorus, making it an exceedingly desirable raw material for the manufacture of special iron and for mixing with lower-grade domestic ores. Doubtless much of the Brazilian ore will go to Europe, as British and other foreign holdings of this ore are extensive. However, it is highly desirable that a certain proportion of the ore should be diverted to American furnaces.
Germany.
—The annual consumption of iron ore in Germany just before the war was about 40 million tons, and the maximum annual output at this time, including more than 7 million tons from Luxemburg, was only about 34 million long tons. In order to supply German furnaces it was necessary, therefore, to import more than 6 million tons of iron ore from foreign countries. More than 58 per cent. of the iron ore mined in Germany has come from the Lorraine district. The production from German iron mines outside of the Lorraine district amounted to 6,906,809 tons in 1913. The production of pig iron during that year was 19,004,022 tons.
The pre-war imports of iron ore into Germany were large, amounting to nearly 14 million tons in 1913; against these the exports were somewhat more than 2 million tons.
The iron ore imported from Sweden is mainly high-phosphorus ore from the mines of Swedish Lapland and central Sweden. This is especially adapted to the manufacture of pig iron for the Thomas process, much used in Germany. Most of the ores from the Lorraine district are slightly too low in phosphorus to be suitable for the Thomas process; and Swedish high-phosphorus ores, phosphate rock, and phosphatic slags are in places mixed with Lorraine ore to raise the phosphorus content.