Lake Champlain Iron Region - No. 2. [Volume: 8, Issue: 6, 1890, pp. 322-331]

No. 6.]

CHARCOAL IRON WORKERS.

329

In mining the ore there is a considerable proportion of lean material
obtained, to utilize which the separator plant located at Lyon
Mountain and described in the JOURNAL, vol. viii., pages 4-13,
was erected, thus producing a marketable product from what
ordinarily would to a large extent be waste. A smaller separator
plant at Bradley Pond augments the amount of concentrated ore
produced, and has given the Chateaugay Ore and Iron Company
the well-earned credit of demonstrating the practicability of concentrating ores on a large scale, and introducing separated magnetite as a commercial product.
Ten years ago we made our first visit to the mines at Lyon
Mountain; then a few houses were grouped about a single compressor
and hoisting plant in the course of erection. Now a pretentious
settlement of miners' homes, stores, hotels, churches, numerous
buildings filled with hoisting, compressing, pumping and concentrating machinery, and an army of employees, show the development
of a decade, during which time about 1,500,000 gross tons of ore
have been mined.
The Chateaugay Ore and Iron Company also have charcoal blastfurnaces at Plattsburgh, and at Standish on the line of the Chateaugay railroad, which is controlled by the same interest that
operates the mines. They also own the Bellmont forge described
in the JOURNAL, vol. ii., pages 357-360, and other forges equipped
for producing iron direct from the concentrated ore. The ore-body
mined by the Chateaugay Ore and Iron Company can be traced
for miles, and it gives promise of continuing as an important contributor to the iron-ore product of the country.
Between the Port Henry and Chateaugay groups there are a number of mines, most of them idle, but two Clinton County deposits
demand notice. These are, first:
THE PALMER HILL MINES,
near Black Brook, one and a half miles north of Au Sable
Forks. There are two companies at work, the J. & J. Rogers Iron
Company and the Peru Steel Ore-Company (Limited). Prof.
Smock states that the Big Pit is the principal mine of the firstnamed company. " Its slope is 1500. feet long and 400 feet deep
vertically. The extent of the opening on the course of the ore,