BRITAIN'S LATEST STEEL ENTERPRISE.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXIV, Issue 17737, 10 December 1919, Page 5

BRITAIN'S LATEST STEEL ENTERPRISE.

Conspicuous enterprise has . been shown during recent years in developing the Jurassic ironstone deposits which are abundant in Great Britain. TLe ores are "lean," as they contain only 28 per cent of iron on the average, but by the free use of labour-saving appliances . they were worked very cheaply. While the output of ore per man was less than 4 tons per shift wtere hand labour was employed, it rose to over 15 tons where mechanical excavators were used • under favourable conditions. Containing a large proportion of sulphur and phosphorus, these ores required special metallurgical treatment in basic-lined steel furnaces. They also required large supplies od limestone for fluxing the ore in the blast-furnaces; and these supplies Avere obtained from new quarries opened up in Great Britain. It is believed that the working of such low-grade Jurassic deposits is destined to play a lar^ge part in the future of British iron production. The works have been'planned on the most modern lines, with by-product. coke ovens, blast-furnaces, steel works, and rolling mills all on the same site. When the extensions now under way, are competed, the output of British iron and steel will be greatly augmented.