Word: itabira
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Dates: during 1948-1948
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...spadework for the Rio and Bogota conferences. But his friends believed that he left behind him ideas which would live and grow. Already Brazil had shown itself more receptive to U.S. investment in oil development. Pawley had tried to interest U.S. iron and steel men in the possibilities of Itabira (TIME, April 5). Some day that work might bear fruit...
...Itabira is the name popularly given to Caué, and for two centuries its wealth has been a legend. Early colonists melted its ore into blunderbusses, horseshoes and crude plowshares. International bankers gambled with the concession during the early 1900s. But it was World War II that set shovels biting into Itabira's crown...
Soon machines were shipped in, roads were snaked around Itabira's core, and test drillings were sunk into the solid heart. The peak's top 300 feet proved out as "compact hematite," red as rust and heavy to the hand-and the best ore there is. Below were huge deposits of "Canga" (54-62% iron) and soft "Itabarite" "(45-52%). After the tests, the work went ahead faster than ever. Though mechanization was by no means complete, Rio Doce was showing results. Last year, 700-odd Brazilian miners, with the help of two U.S. superintendents...
Getting to Market. Development of Itabira has been handicapped by bad management, waste, nepotism and political featherbedding. Moreover, once the ore is dug, it is not easy to get to market. The railroad's locomotives are woodburning, its cars antiquated. Vitoria's port facilities are so poor that it takes 30 hours to load an ore ship; modern machinery could do it in 30 minutes...
...government recently subscribed $19 million for Itabira. Last week, after a year of heated negotiations, the finishing touches were being put to a new $7,500,000 Export-Import Bank loan. That meant electric shovels, compressed-air drills and crushing plants for the Iron Mountain. It also meant further improvements on the railroad, new facilities at the port. With all that done, say in two years, Itabira hoped to reach its immediate target: a yearly output of 1,500,000 tons...