Iron-Ore Requirements of Great Britain. [Volume: 8, Issue: 4, 1889, pp. 251-258]

No. 4.]

CHARCOAL IRON WORKERS.

251

Iron-Ore Requirements of Great Britain.
WE have received from Mr. Josiah T. Smith, President of the
British Iron Trade Association, a pamphlet edition of the paper
which he presented before that organization on May 7th, 1889. In
this paper Mr. Smith treats of the domestic iron-ore supply of
Great Britain and of the foreign sources from which ore is, and can
be, obtained for the maintenance of Great Britain's iron industry.
Incidentally, he refers to the amount of imports of foreign ore of the
United States, France, Germany, and Belgium. He discusses the
possibility of maintaining the quality and quantity of ore for many
years to come for the European furnaces.
Following the introduction the author first speaks of the domestic supply and then of importations of ore into that country.
" No mineral is of such universal occurrence as iron-ore, and certainly none is so widely disseminated in our own country. We
find it scattered over no fewer than twenty-seven counties in England, and it is mined between Cornwall on the one side, and Northumberland on the other. The distribution of the ores, from a
geographical point of view, does not, therefore, leave very much to
be desired. But there are only six districts where the quantity
of ore annually produced approaches or is over 1,000,000 tons,
and for all practical purposes the home production of ore may be
divided into the two categories of hematite and lias, the former
represented by Cumberland and Lancashire, and the latter by Cleveland, Lincolnshire, and Northamptonshire. The three latter districts produce more than 50 per cent., and the former 18 per cent.
of all the iron-ore raised in the United Kingdom. Of the lias ironore there is practically an unlimited supply. Of, hematite, however, the quantity available is more uncertain; and although it has
recently been proved by new discoveries to be more abundant than
was at one time supposed, it is doubtful whether the present annual
output of about 2,500,000 tons could be largely augmented, or
indeed be quite maintained. As it is this description of home ore
that is insufficient for our requirements, the sources of external
supply becomes not only an important but a pressing question.
"The importation of iron-ores into the chief iron-producing coun4