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PART IV.

THE MINING INDUSTRY.

I. Report on Iron Mines,

By GEORGE E. JENKINS.

II. Notes on Copper Mines,

By HENRY B. KÜMMEL.

(149)

Review of the Iron Mining Industry.

By GEO. E. JENKINS, C. E.

During the past year the iron-mining industry has experienced one of the most remarkable revivals in its history, for at no time were there fewer mines in operation and prices so low as at the close of last year's report. At that time pig iron was commanding only ten dollars per ton at the furnaces, and New Jersey ore sold at an average of two dollars per ton. In January of this year, after a long period of extremely low prices, pig iron began to advance, and in less than six weeks the price had risen more than one hundred per cent. A consequent rise in the price of iron ore took place, and has continued, so that the average price of ore to-day is about three dollars and one-half per ton. All the mines that were in operation last year have put forth every effort for an increased yield, and many of the enterprises which had been closed by low prices have resumed operations, and several sales of mining property have taken place at something like the old-time prices. Many leases have also been made, and, on the whole, the industry is probably in as satisfactory a condition as ever was known in its history.

The question of the concentration of the large quantities of lean ores has also received closer attention, and there certainly is a wide field open for investigation along this line. The concentrating plant at Hibernia, in addition to the one at Edison, has been operated most of the year on the lean refuse from the Hibernia vein and Beach Glen ore. At the close of last year the following mines were in operation: Hurd, Richard, Edison, Lower Wood, and Wharton, on the Hibernia vein, and the new Sterling Slope, at Irondale. To this list is to be added, as now in operation, the Ringwood mines, Green Pond, Beach Glen, Ford, Weldon, Kishpaugh, Oxford mines and the Mt. Hope

mines, and the following notes are a more extended review of these several enterprises as well as references to a number of promising prospective ore properties.

The Iron-Mining Industry.

HURD MINE, HURDTOWN, N. J.

The owners of this property did some prospecting with a diamond drill in search for new shoots of ore, but nothing very promising was secured from the tests, and the results of this work were reported last year.

In the spring of 1899 a lease was made with Pilling & Crane, of Philadelphia, and they have been mining, from old workings, about two hundred tons of ore per month, and in addition have been exploring for new shoots of ore. This work consists in the driving of a cross-cut from the old working, known as the "Clay shaft," in a southeast direction toward the old Hurd shoot of ore for a distance of 120 feet, where a deposit of ore was cut, but it proved to be small and to have been previously worked upon. A shaft 209 feet deep was sunk so as to come down upon the offset, and a cross-cut or drift is now being driven along the throw of the offset toward the large deposit of ore presumed to have been broken off from the old deposit.

RICHARD MINES.

During the year the work on the very remarkably large deposit of ore which has been developed in the past four years has shown that the size and extent of the deposit has not yet been determined. The large quantity of ore found on the foot-wall side of the vein has during the past year been duplicated by the discovery and working of an equally large deposit on the hanging-wall side. The drifts driven in an easterly direction along the hanging-wall have shown ore from fifteen to twenty feet thick, and as much as could be safely removed has been taken out, but a very large amount still remains.

The ore in the foot-wall in No. 2 mine has been blasted down, and carried with it the small "horser," or rock, so that the dis

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