carl mciver wrote:


Well, I know for sure the iron is still there, it just has to be
extracted a little differently!


Right. I think iron is the second most abundant element on earth.

I used to work for a crack metallurgist. He said except for a few
metals, there was an abundence in the earth's crust, but in lower grade
ores that would be less economical and take more processing, but as we
need them we'll do it.

Taconite is a good example. Here in the Iron Country of Northern
Minnesota they used to mine very high grade hematite. When it began to
peter out, they developed ways to process the low grade ore taconite. In
developing taconite they developed pelletization, which is boon to
industry. Pellets can be shipped in cold weather, stockpiled, and have
limestone and other minerals added in during pelletization so that it
doesn't have to be done at furnace.

There is still lots of native copper (elemental copper, not oxide or
other ore) in Michigan, in very deep mines. But processing is so cheap
these days that much lower grade ore in shallower mines dominates copper
supply, and Michigan's deep mines are dormant.