Iron Ore Concentration No. 1. [Volume: 8, Issue: 1, 1888, pp. 3-13]

No. 1.]

CHARCOAL IRON WORKERS.

3

mines, blast furnaces and iron manufacturing industries, prepared
by those eminently fitted to give information will be published.
Comparative records of blast furnace and mill practice, will
also be presented and an attempt made to place figure which
are of special interest to those engaged in pig iron production in
such position as to be readily referred to.
If the experiment proves successful, as we believe it will, and
the publication is well sustained, we will strive to make it worthy
of all the influence it commands.
Iron Ore Concentration No. 1.
Concentrating or beneficiating ores has been mainly confined
to those of copper, silver and gold, etc., and but little attention
has been given in this country to enriching iron ores for the blast
furnaces, except by roasting or washing, both of which processes
have been liberally treated in earlier volumes of the JOURNAL.
For the purposes of eliminating sulphur, carbonic acid, or water,
or for making an ore more friable, roasting answers a very good
purpose; similarly washing removes much ochreous clay, gravel
and sand from brown hematites, enriching them sufficiently to
make them available for smelting purposes. But there are many
ores which require a different treatment and for years the leaner
magnetites obtained in the Lake Champlain district, have been
separated (generally after a preliminary roasting and crushing
under stamps) by means of tray jigs.
Several works which have been erected to separate ores on a
large scale and have proven failures, had a tendency to discourage further efforts and there are to-day but few active separating
works operating on iron ores. The lean magnetites which are
necessarily mined with the richer ore, and some of the easily
mined but lean magnetites offer the most encouragement for
separation, and it is not surprising that a realization of the possibilities in this direction, aided by the urgency of those interested
in the introduction of apparatus and machinery applicable to the
purpose, should haveragain brought the concentration of iron ores
into prominence. It will be within the province of the JOURNAL
to present information upon the methods employed and the re