Government Support
The Ontario Government, through the Ontario Hydro-Electric Commission, and the Dominion Government, through the Canadian National Railways, are providing the essential services required. Their contributions are: for Ontario, a power line
125 miles long capable of carrying up to 40,000 H.P.; for the Dominion, a spur line into the mine, which is about four miles north of Atikokan Station on the C.N.R., and additionally the provision of ore docks at Port Arthur for loading the ore into lake freighters.
The total cost of the power line, the spur line and the docks is estimated at $5,000,000 to $5,500,000 which will be furnished by the governmental organizations concerned. The power and freight rates charged the company will include amortization of these sums over a period of years. In addition, the Dominion Government will give a freight subsidy on the rail rate for the first 5,000,000 tons of ore hauled to Port Arthur a distance of 140 miles. After handling this amount of ore, the railway will have had sufficient experience of the business to set an economic and competitive rate for the future. The diversion of the Seine River, the pumping out of Steep Rock Lake, the stripping of the B ore body in the bed thereof, and equipping the property for large scale open-pit mining will be financed by the company, and involve a sum estimated at $7,500,000 which has been assured by undertakings in the United States.
Opportune Production
The backing provided by the two Governments was the result of a most searching inquiry into the status of the ore deposits and of the scope of the plans for their operation. The mine will get into production at a time when open hearth high-grade ore will be peculiarly valuable, as the American ranges which are shipping this year in excess of 91,000,000 tons of iron ore to the furnaces, are
rapidly exhausting their high-grade lump ore. Of the 100,000,000 tons required for 1943 operations, the steel makers, it is estimated, will need 11,500,000 tons of special grades for open hearth furnaces, while the existing mines can produce only
about 1,500,000 tons which can be used in the open hearth in its natural form without beneficiation. Increasingly the United States iron ranges are having to treat their ores, either by sintering or some other method of improving the physical
character or metallic content of the furnace feed. Beneficiation, no matter what form it takes, costs money.
What is the known ore position of the Steep Rock as indicated to date by drilling and other work? An engineering estimate follows:
| Body |
Length explored |
Probable Avg Width of Orebodies |
Depth of Water to Lake Bottom
From -- To |
Depth of Overburden under water
From -- To |
| A |
over 3,000 ft.open one end |
205 ft. |
130 - 160 ft. |
60 -- 220 ft. |
| B |
5,000 ft.open both ends |
135 ft. |
50 - 160 ft |
60 -- 120 ft. |
| C |
800 ft.open both ends |
200 ft. |
210-- 245 ft. |
155 - 177 ft. |
The company has 7,000 acres in contiguous claims along a seven mile length, and several other orebodies are believed to exist in this area as indicated by geophysical results, the presence of ore float and by diamond drilling.
Depth churn and diamond drill holes have shown ore to occur at varying depths
to a maximum of 1,300 feet below the lake; this maximum is merely the greatest depth explored to the present and the company's engineers and geologists see no reason why ore should not extend to considerably greater depths. The length of the ore zones and the suggestion of deep ore structure serves to corroborate competent
opinion that Steep Rock may be the largest high-grade, hard hematite mine in North America, producing at the rate of several million tons annually.
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