VAST IRON DEPOSIT.

Northern Advocate, 23 July 1923, Page 7

VAST IRON DEPOSIT.

LARGEST IN THE WORLD,

The world's greatest iron storehouse is a vast ore-bearing region in the interior of Brazil, says Frank E. Kennedy in the ' '.Pure Iron Era'' (Chicago). Dr. O. C. Farrington, curator of the Geological Department of tho Field Columbian Museum, has recently returned from a trip to this part of the world, and an interview with him forms the basis of Mr Kennedy's article. The ore-beds arc remarkably pure and abundant, but the region is remote, and there are no transportation facilities. The valuable ore, where it is touched at all, is smelted in the most primitive way. With all this wealth of metal in her back-country distriets, sea-eoas* Brazil is still importing iron for her uses, writeß Mr Kenndy:—

"Scores of miles beyoad the furthest railroad outpost, boring- into the interior along narrow moaatain-trails where the only means of transportation was mule-baek. Dr. Jforrington penetrated what is without a doubt a region that holds the greatest iron deposits in the world.

' 'Due to the feet that the country lies far away from the beaten track followed by the tourist or. even the adventurer, and has only been traversed at rare intervals even by scientists and the concession-seeker, the exact extent and magnitude of this vast iron country has not been determined. Enough is known, howeve/, from the one or two cursory investigations that have been made, to drop conclusively that the great iron deposits of Europe, the Saar Basin, Alsace Lorraine, the Ruhr Valley and the Ural Mountain district and even the vast iron centres of the United States, will appear small when compared with the enormous resources of Brazil.

"Professor J. W. Gregory is quoted a3 saying that if 1 iron-ore consumption continues at the pre-war rate plus an annual increase of 5 per cent., the supply will be exhausted in 130 years. Possibly this English authority referred only to the iron-ore deposits of the globe which are now being worked, when making his calculations. At aay rate, the recent report of Dr. Farrington shows that there are several thousand square miles of iron-ore deposits in Brazil.

"This colossal wealth of the world's most needed motal is far from the limits of transportation at the present time. But necessity will eventually force the iron and steel-hungry world to 'build railroads and tap this hitherto little-known country and extract its marvellous store of iron.

"That time may not be far distant, for not only are the deposits greater in extent than anything that has yet been discovered in the world, but they are of unprecedented richness. Mountains, ranges of hills, and rolling prai-rie-like country contain ore of such purity and so close' to the surface that for hundreds of years the sinking of extensive shafts would be unnecessary. In many places the iron crops out on the surface to such an extent that many of the mountains and native villages have been named after it.

"One of the native towns which Dr. Farrington visited is called Itabira, which, translated, means 'Shining Rock.' Not far distant is a "huge mountain of iron ore. Samples which Dr. Farrington brought back—pieces which were picked up on the surface of the ground or chipped off the sides of a mountain —show an ore that is probably one of the purest that has been smelted for commercial purposes anywhere in the world.

" 'Itabirite' is the native name. The 'Shining Rock' gleams with a silver sheen and is so heavy that a man can hardly lift a piece as large as a typewriter. The ore is so pure that the natives smelt it and fashion it into utensils and farming implements by the crudest process known to modern man. " 'It was rather a striking contrast.,' said Dr. Farrington; 'there; in the heart of the greatest and purest iron deposits in the world the natives were using the crudest form of furnace for the extraction of the mct:vl. A modification of the ancient Catalian Forge was employed.* Part of it was even simpler than the furnace used in Spain and Portugal hundreds of years ago.' "Starting by train from Rio de Janeiro last July, which is midwinter in Brazil, Dr. Farrington rode north and east to the end of the railroad transportation —a little town called Santa Barbara. Here an outfit was gathered together, suitable for traversing the sparsely habited region. Striking due north across a country similar to eastern Colorado or western Kansas, the expedition slowly marie its way into the heart of the iron country. The region is treeless to a great extent. Low bushes and thin grass a few inches high ia the characteristic vegetation. "At a little native village named Conceicao, Dr. Farrington found the natives smelting the rich iron ore in what is without doubt the most primitive form of blast furnace in use anywhere in the world. The ore is carried in from the bare hillside not far distant. There is no mine in any sense of the word, the iron ore cropping out of the surface of the earth."

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