The Story of I Ron Ore

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Hi, My name is I. Ron Ore and I'm from the family made up of iron oxides (hematite and magnetite) quartz, iron carbonate, iron silicate and iron sulphide minerals. Our family tree shows we're Lake Superior type ore. We were formed 1.2 billion and 800 million years ago by volcanic action and water from hot springs. This process is said to have taken 50,000 years to finish. Grandpa says the reason the formation is wrinkled and folded is because of those 50,000 years we spent in a hot tub.

We vary in depth from 30-300 m (100-1000 ft) and our family's territory is 1199 km (745 miles) along the Labrador Trough. There are currently three working mines in this area: IOCC, Wabush and Mount Wright. There were two other mines in this area at one time; however, Schefferville was closed because the type of ore became uneconomical to mine while Gagnon's Lake Jeannine and Fire Lake mines ran out of minable ore.

In the early 1950s some men started checking the extent of my family tree in this area. They did this rather oddly as they drilled holes into the earth (tickled my ribs doing that) and took samples. This was done, I presume, to check out our genetic code. Then they charted our family tree and decided we were a huge family and if mined, may bring some financial reward to a company brave enough or farsighted enough to invest the money to overcome the problems inherent in this remote area.