United States Steel Corporation

Below, fall scene in Wyoming's
rugged Wind River Mountains,
at the site of the
Columbia - Geneva Division's
"Atlantic City Project"
for the mining and beneficiating
of low-grade iron ore.
This project will include an
open pit iron ore mine,
crusher, concentrator, pelletizer
and shipping facilities.
The raw materials program was further advanced in 1960 by the continued
construction of iron ore production facilities at Quebec Cartier Mining
Company in Canada. The construction of a major iron mining and ore beneficiating
facility near Atlantic City, Wyoming to supply iron ore to the
Columbia-Geneva Steel Division was also authorized. A new raw materials
research laboratory for studying problems related to iron ore beneficiation
was established by Columbia-Geneva. In addition to the present plant in
Minnesota now being used for process development through the production
of a limited quantity of commercial ores from low grade magnetic ore bearing
materials, construction was authorized for an additional plant in Minnesota
for experimental processing of non-magnetic low grade iron bearing
materials which exist in substantial quantities in the western Mesabi Range.
Better methods and processes
Many people think of a steel mill as a series of large furnaces in which raw
materials are melted, while nearby are the buildings that house massive
machines to squeeze, shape, roll, or otherwise form the steel into various
familiar products. But production of consistently high quality steels requires
much more than that; it requires a multitude of necessary supporting equipment.
Facilities are needed both for heating and for cooling the steel slowly
or rapidly as required; machines are necessary for stretching, straightening,
flattening, sawing, or cleaning it. But most important in producing high quality
steels is the accumulating store of knowledge from which can be known in
advance what will happen to the uniformity, structure and strength of the
steel as various operations are performed.
As an important research tool with respect to the efficiency of producing
iron, a versatile four-foot diameter highly instrumented experimental blast
furnace is being constructed which will accurately duplicate all phases of blast
furnace operation. It will be equipped for precision control of temperature,
pressure, wind velocity, and fuels. With it, furnace and supporting facility
designs, size of materials, and fuels can be tested. In addition, construction of
an ultra-modern blast furnace, near Pittsburgh, has been authorized. It will be
the largest iron producing facility in the Pittsburgh District and will be equipped
for evaluation of numerous technological innovations.
Unnoticed by the casual observer are the tremendous quantities and varieties
of refractory brick used in a steel mill. The selection of the proper brick for
each process means greater productive time, and therefore capacity, because
of the longer periods between shutdowns for repairs and rebuilding. Research
scientists, using modern research tools and advanced techniques, analyze,
design, construct and test to destruction various brick and brick shapes to
find the best one for each of the many processes using such refractory materials.
Such research has resulted in very substantial savings.
Research on the shaping of steel involves, among other things, the development
of complex systems of machine control which are largely automatic.
Such controls are incorporated in the design of new equipment and in the
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