CANADA’S IRON RESOURCES.

Taihape Daily Times, 14 September 1918, Page 5

CANADA’S IRON RESOURCES.

That Canada:has need to ; adopt .scientific and organised methods to prevent the exhaustion of the more," superficial and easily mined ore bodies, and to make secure a system of replacing these from othCr home centres, may be inferred from a comparison of the annual production of iron ore in the Dominion and the quantity charged to the blast furnaces. This table shows not only that the home production has been practically stationary for many years, but that the percentage cf mined to imported ore has been steadily diminishing. From the figures given it is evident that twenty years ago, Canada produced twice as much ore as she imported, and the exports were small, amounting to less than 5000 tons. The percentage relation between the quantities produced and smelted dropped to 14.4 in 1903, owing to the large increase in imports . After some minor fluctuations, but evidencing a tendency to continual decrease, the figures reached show that Canada did not care to smelt her own ore. The maximum raw output, 404,000 tons, occurs in 1902, but for several years after that date the mean annual production was little more than half this quantity. The demand due to war requirements has increased the smelting industry, without increasing the amount of imports. The quantity imported reached its maximum in 1913, and though the earlier years of the war show a decline, this figure is likely to be soon again reached. The total production of iron ere in Canada in 1916, the last year for which statistics are available, was equal to only 15 per cent, of the total ore smelted in Canada blast furnaces. About on»tbird of the home product was exported