Prospecting

Title: Open Pit Mining on the Iron Range
Type: Book
Date: 1931
Source: Minnesota Historical Society

Description: This is a section from a book that examined open pit mining on the Mesabi Iron Range.
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Activities:

1. Why was it an advantage that the Mesabi Range was located near the Great Lakes?
   
   
   
   
   Answer: The Great Lakes made it easy to carry the mined ore via ship to steel mills along the Great Lakes.
2. If the iron deposits in Brazil are larger and purer than those on the Mesabi, then why not mine them?
   
   
   
   
   Answer: The deposits in Brazil were hundreds of miles from the nearest coast and ships. It was too difficult and expensive to transport the ore mined there.
3. How was iron ore transported to Pittsburgh?
   
   
   
   
   Answer: Ore went to Pittsburgh through a combination of moving it across land by rails and shipping it across the Great Lakes.
4. If it's cheaper to ship by water than by rail, then why bother using the railroads?
   
   
   
   
   Answer: Water doesn't reach everywhere, so sometimes it was necessary to use the rails to move the ore over land to the nearest waterway.