Since MiningMagazines.com does not play the game of other financial/mining publications by pretending to be all-important, using $10 words when the dollar ones will do, do not expect boilerplate jargon here. So, let me put this very simply, iron is no longer something you pass off, as in the song where the joke on the Rock Island Line is—"I got pig iron!"

Wish that you do have pig iron, as iron ore that used to be kicked aside by prospectors as unmarketable, has come out of left field, to become a desirable commodity.

How did this happen? Seems that China is in the steel business also. If you think US Steel, and the Mesabi Range in northeastern Minnesota is the major, undeniable supplier our needs, think again. While the US produced 5% of the worldís iron ore output, we consumed about 7 percent. Go ahead and shrug your shoulders with a "who cares," about the American mining industry environmentalists love to hate. Know that one day we as a nation we will pay the price for the destruction of our maritime cargo fleets, of reserving our forests for fuel for uncontrollable wildfires, and not drilling Alaska oil reserves on account of caribou that avoid ANWAR tidal flats on account of billions of mosquitoes.

Meanwhile, back in the developing world— no, not Japan, who were able to land steel on US docks in the 1960's, cheaper than we could produce it ourselves—China has been feeding their appetite of supplying Walmart with merchandise, as well as their own developing market— by out producing competitors. In 1991 Japan, with a production of 80 million tons of pig iron per year, was the leading source of this much-needed industrial mineral. China, at that time, was second, with an annual production of 68 million tons.

In 2002, China produced 170 million tons of pig iron, more than twice Japans output of 81 million tons. The US figures? A mere 50 million tons! We have fallen so far from being a leader in the world of steel, that one of the big six mines in Minnesota went bankrupt, only to be snapped up by a Chinese iron producer.

It also should be noted, in these days of being dependant on foreign oil reserves, that there are absolutely no government stockpiles of iron ore. Add to this the US resources consists of large deposits of a low-grade taconite that require agglomeration for commercial use.

So, the stage is set. As a Nevada prospector I was used to kicking even high-grade magnetite out of the way, for not being economic. Now I am headed back out to see what there is to see (the basis of all prospecting). I already know of a number of iron ore claim blocks in need of investment money to make them work. Look for the listing of these opportunities, here, in the very near future.