Word: ores
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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WILSON F. EDINGER Medford, Ore...
...vast nickel strikes have revived long-dormant ghost towns. In the desolate Pilbara region, two railroads, two ports and two brand-new towns have sprung up in the past four years, and more than 20,000 people have flocked in. The lure: some of the largest and richest iron-ore deposits in the world, estimated to total as much as 15 billion tons...
Geologists had long known that northwestern Australia contained mountains of ore, but until recently they lacked the technology required for extracting it: chiefly, automated tools and, to make life bearable for the miners, air conditioning. The present boom can be traced largely to the vision of one remarkable man, Charles Court, a Perth accountant turned politician who served as Western Australia's Minister for Industrial Development from 1960 until this year. "We must develop our great empty spaces," Court said, "before we can say we really own Australia...
...investment of more than $1 billion in the Pilbara. The $336 million Mount Newman Mining Co. (30% of which is owned by American Metal Climax) is systematically leveling Mount Whaleback, an immense lode that rises 750 ft., stretches three miles and is said to be rich in ore for at least 1,000 ft. below the earth's surface. In the next 15 years, it will deliver 300 million tons of iron ore to steelmakers, mainly in Japan...
...carrying off the mountain bit by bit is done by huge 450-ton power shovels that chew off 25-ton chunks of ore in a single bite and dump them into 75-ton trucks. The ore is then crushed and transported by 150-car, mile-long freight trains to Port Hedland, where it is loaded aboard freighters at the rate of 10,000 tons an hour. The boom has turned Port Hedland into the world's fifth busiest port...