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Show BIG DEVELOPMENTS PROMISED SOON Iron County Iron to Supply Requirements Re-quirements of Pacific Coast Trade. BRANCH ROAD TO LUND INCLUDED IN PROGRAM Salt Lake Tribune II. i- I nil Page Story on Kesourccs and future of This Country; Iron Deposits Among Best in the Inilcd Slates. All the Salt Lake City dailies have bam devoting considerable spnee recently re-cently to the mineral resources of this connty and the prospects for the early construction of a railroad, the utilization of our immense iron and coal supply, and other topics of a most encouraging and gratifying character to residents of this section of the state who have dreamed so long of this threat industrial development. Last Sunday's Tribune had a full page, illustrated il-lustrated write up on the proposed railroad, the iron deposits and other resources, written by O. J .Grimes, from which the following excerpts are taken: Efforts on the part of Utah interests inter-ests during the Inst quarter of a century cen-tury or longer, to open up the vast iron deposits of Iron and Washington counties the most extensive known high-grade deposits in America outside out-side of the Lake Superior region take on special significance in view of governmental policies in connection with the operation of transportation lines, and the recent announcement that practically the entire output of American steel has been command-f command-f acred for wr purpose. For the past three years the movement move-ment to open up southern Utah's iron lields has been slowly but surely gaining gain-ing momentum, and, if the plans which have been carefully worked out should materialize, a steel plant with a daily capacity of approximately 2500 tons of crude ore, and numerous allied industries, in-dustries, soon will be in operation along the shores of Utah lake. Should this come to pass, Utah will enter upon up-on a new era of development which should bring within its borders a population pop-ulation of a million within a decade or less. While the limited construction of new industries permitted by the government gov-ernment at this time would seem to handicap to a certain extent the development de-velopment planned, the necessities of the hour are such as to appear to ' more than justify the work contemplated. contem-plated. The need for steel is imperative, imper-ative, as is indicated by the commandeering command-eering of the output of olants now in operation, and the government policy in the operation of the transportation lines is to develop resources essential to war operations, with a view to reducing re-ducing the haul to the minimum. The development of the American merchant marine has brought about shipbuilding activities on an extensive scale on the Pacific coast. Under present pres-ent conditions it is estimated that there is an annual demand for approximately approx-imately 2,500,000 tons of steel on the Pacific coast, and there is every indication in-dication that the needs will steatlih increase Resources Warrant Mammoth Industry. In the vast area between western Colorado and the Pacific coast, fend from Canada to Mexico, supporting a population of approximately 8,000,000, there is not a single impoitant insti'u. tion producing pig iron Some IV small steel plants are in operation, manufacturing the product from m rap and even these are ii, sore st raits since war conditions have practically eliminated the scrap iron supply Utah has everything necessary to the building up of a mammoth steel industry. Its iron deposits are conceded con-ceded to be among the most extensive in America, and of a quality whii '; is . excelled in but comparatively few in-Y in-Y stances. Vast fields of coal of good coking quality lit undeveloped, awaiting await-ing the coming of on industry of sufficient suf-ficient magnitude to warrant devel-' devel-' opment on a big scale. In Utah lake, along the thorOI of winch the proposed k plant is planned to be erected, is a vast source of water supply, equal in every way to caring for the demands of a mammoth industry. And last, but most essential, there are adequate transport; Lin" facilities and a ready markti. In years gone by it has been the genei" ' impression that the big iron deposits in southern Utah were con-1 trolled by the steel trust, and the natural nat-ural inference has been that these resources re-sources would not be developed until the big interests in the steel World were forced to inaugurate I campaign of development to meet competition , on the Pacific COaat and U) the Orient To a certain extent such wus the condition, if enparently authentic re- ports fere correct. The steel trust has controlled the development Of the iron resources of the state, not by ownership owner-ship of the property so much as by standing between the owners and the capital necessary for such an undertaking. under-taking. It may come as a surprise to most persons, as it did to me, to learn that probably less than 5 per cent of the iron deposits of Iron and Washington Wash-ington counties is owned by the big interests of the steel world. Flattering Offers Summarily Declined. Conservative etimates indicate that more than SO per cent of the iron deposits de-posits of southern Utah are owned bj Utah in -ests, and the bulk of that SO per cent rests with the Miner corporation, cor-poration, Walker Brothers and the Cullen-Campbell interests of Salt Lake City. And these interests do not control such extensive interests because of lack of opportunity to dispose of them nattering offers have been madi and declined, all because theec Utah men believe in Utah and refuse to listen to any proposition which would not mean development and adequate return re-turn to the commonwealth, only last year an offer of flattering proportion! propor-tion! il reported to have been made and arbitrarily declined because the plan of the woi Id-be purchaser! called for the erection of the proposed blast furnaces in a Pacific coast city. The proposition was not Iccliued by local interests because they were not in sympathy with, or did not realize the importance of, Pacific coust development, devel-opment, but because they were more in sympathy with the development of Utah. Some of the same interests which control extensive iron deposits also control equally vast coa! lands in Carbon Car-bon county. These, too, they decline (Continued on fourth page. I IW; DEVELOPMENTS ARE PROMISED SOON (Continued from first page.) to develop until the iron fields are opened op-ened up. During the past three yenrs they have made an intensive study of the steel industry and, working together, to-gether, have formed plans for the construction con-struction of a plant on the shores of Utah lake which await only the sanction sanc-tion of the federal government for fruitation. Almost daily the federal government is emphasising the necessity for increased in-creased steel production. Furthermore, Further-more, in its handling of the transportation transpor-tation lines of the country it is doing everything in its power to facilitate the movement of traffic economically by eliminating long hauls wherever possible, thereby lessening the oppOl tunity for congestion and making the most use of the available equipment, The erection of S steel plant in Utah to supply the Pacific coast would be a step in the direction desired by the director general of the railroads. It would mean the establishment of B new and necessary industry far from the congested commercial centers and a reduction in the haul of pig iron anywhere from 1000 to nearly .'1000 miles, which, according to conservative estimates! would lower the ton-mile haul on pig iron and steel to the Pacific coast by nearly 70 per cent. : I i ili Iron is of Finest ((uality. In connection with the irenoral belief that Utah's iron deposits were oon-t oon-t rolled by the steel intersts there were rumors to the effect thnt their development devel-opment was hampered because the iron was of an inferior quality. The rumor ru-mor loses most of its menace in the : light of facts and figures. Analysis I of approximately 400 samples from j various sections of the Iron Springs district show the average metallic- content of the ores of the entire district dis-trict to be 50. M per cent. From the production reports for the year 1916 it is ascertained that the average metallic me-tallic content of 2H1 ores of seven districts in the Lake Superior region was 66.69. per cent; of 199 ores from the Cuyuna, IfarOJUOttO and Menominee ranges, .r:i..r4 per cent; of 1 IS ores from the Gogebic, Messaba and Vermillion Ver-million ranges- the best ores of the entire Superior region all. 27 per cent. The average metallic content of the ores of the Alabama fields is .'!7 per ' cent. i Among the things rumored to be detrimental to the quality in the Utah ores were excesses in sulphur and phosphorus, but information disseminated dissemin-ated in this connection seems to have been of misleading character. A bettor idea of the composition of the ores of Utah as compared with those of Lake Superior and Alabama is contained in the following table, prepared pre-pared from recent reports from the respective regions: Utah. L. S. Ala. Iron (metallic) 50.04 50.45 :17.00 Silica 7.00 9.60 Ht-44 Phosphorus 154 .1210 .117 Lime, Hang. 4.00 l.HO 10.20 Alumina LOO 1.50 :1.18 Water above 220 8.00 9.T8 .'U8 Copper -027 Sulphur .057 .019 .07 Manganese .198 Carbonic Acid. 12.24 From this comparison it is evident that Utah iron ores from Iron and Washington counties are of a quality which is a happy medium between those from the two other great regions, re-gions, having a higher metallic content con-tent than either, being almost equal in other respects to the ores from the Lake Superior country. Investigations also indicate that there is considerable Bessemer ore in the southern Utah fields, probably as much as 20 per cent of the entire deposit. A report prepared by the U. S. geological geo-logical survey twelve years SgO shows about the same general results as indicated in-dicated in the comparison The ev istence of Resscmor ore was admitted, but the quantity was estimated as small. The estimated tonnage at that time was "t least 10,000,000 tons, with the qualification that there probably was a (.'leal deal more, inasmuch as tin Work done at thai time was extremely ex-tremely limited, More te.-.-nt mse ti gationa indicate that there are any where from 800,000,000 to 1,000,000, 000 tons of ore in the region, which includes the Iron Springs, Pinto and Hull Valley diatricta, covering an area of approximately sixty miles lonu and a mile to a mile and a half wide. Plana lor Standard Gauge Road Afoot. In a report prepared one of the ni". a i nunent iron experts in Amen ca it la set forth that the tonnaue is SO extensive as to render further drill ing supui fluou.s, in so far as the development de-velopment of a steel Induatrj In Utah li concerned, There is probablj no other diatricl in tb- United States where so many varieties of high grade Iron ore occur in .i limited an area, and where phya leal eonditiom are so favorable to and preparation of ores for an ideal furnace charge, Utah ire free from titanium, and the sulphur ami phosphorous content is not a serious consideration. The cost of mining is low, compared to the cost in other leading districts of the United States, and no state in the union is troubled less by labor dl turbancea. The ragiOfl where immediate dl Vol opment is contemplated includes what has been designated as the Iron Sprinirs district, situated about twenty-two miles southeast of Lund and approximately 200 miles from Bait Lake City. The ores occur in a scries scr-ies of disconnected masses, covering an area about twenty miles long and a mile and a half wide. The deposit is composed chiefly of h'-matite iron, in which occur occasional magnet i. blowouts. A great deal of ore is exposed ex-posed on the surface, and where it i COVOrad, tot the most part, the overburden over-burden Is from one to ftVS feet UllcX. Practically the entire deposit can he handled with steam shoveds. The stripping of the or" beds represents rep-resents an extremely nominal OXpi ltd iture, as compared with lie stripping eosts in the Lake Sup. rue- region where the deposit.'- are covered by from thirty t(, eighty feet of ovei bin den Because of the dlstants of the d posit from the railroad, it may be suggested that inadequate transportation transpor-tation facilities mitrht militate against the opening of the field. In this connection, con-nection, however, it is an open secret that Strang financial interests already are contemplating the construction of a branch connecting Cedar City and its near-by coal deposits and the iron fields with the Salt Lake Route in the vicinity of Lund. For several weeks past Walter K. Yorston, formerly with the Pearson Engineering company and the builder of the narrow-gauge road in the Alta district, has been conducting investigations investi-gations in Iron county as to the feasibility feas-ibility of the proposed road. The syndicate syn-dicate which Mr. Yorston represents in this instance also has acquired some promising iron holdings. The line of grade, it is understood, has been designated des-ignated and plans are being arranged with a view to the construction of o Standard-gauge road. The distance from Lund to the Desert Mound iron deposits is approximately twenty-four miles, and nn extension of approximately approxi-mately ten miles will serve the community com-munity of Cedar City and the vast coal deposits which are being opened up. It is reported that the materials necessary for the construction of the proposed branch are available. The Tribune article goes on to comment com-ment on the election of coke ovens on the shores of the Utah Lake, calls attention to the by-products, which will be of much value to the stockholders, stock-holders, and explains in detail what the industry will mean to Utah. Mr Crimes, the writer and who has tht editorial management of the mining department of the Tribune, spent r few days in this county u couple of weeks ago, getting some first hand information in-formation on the resources of this county and was much impressed with what he saw here. His personal observations ob-servations have been augmented with facts gleaned from the promoters am! property owners, and may be regarded regard-ed as not only accurate, but also ,-ri thentic. Mr. Crimes nersonally informed in-formed The Record that he was not at liberty at this time to make knowr all that he knows in this connection but that unquestionably there was a great program of activity near at hand for this section of country, am that he was here merely on a scoutinji expedition in advance of the bur interests in-terests who would soon come here Mr. Yorston, who is concerned chiefly chief-ly with the railroad end of the program, pro-gram, but wdio has also nicked up valuable val-uable iron properties for the Southern South-ern Utah Development company which he represents, states that the proposition proposi-tion is going along entirely satisfactorily satisfac-torily in fact to quote his exact words, "Couldn't be better" and he fully expects that the railroad will be under construction in a short time. In connection with II. A. McCollem, a stockholder in the company, and l'l-K. l'l-K. Green, Mr, Yoraton has spent the past week In Cedar City perfecting the arrangement for the building of the road, ikmiic to Federal Government Govern-ment regulations, which prohibit the incorporation of companies of more than one hundred thousand dollars Capitalisation, it has been found nS lessary to take over a company already incorporated for sufficient to build the proposed railroad. For this purpose the Old t'apital Petroleum Compan) has been purchased, which owns the : mineral lights to 8,000 acres of prom laing oil lands in Millard county. It is proposed to sell enough bon s to build the railroad. The projeet has the eml 1. seinenl cf many prominent and Influential 'in n 1 of this state incluilin t x I ' mi' Spry, who has ; 1 to 1 0 I 1 warm letter of congratulation and endorsement, en-dorsement, of whicn we have a )i . but eaniii ' in & 1 ooin for this 1 - 1 is also itated that th I . 1 Church will hold an important interest .1 the company. |
