Iron makes up a full 35% of the whole Earth, though most is sequestered within the metallic core, with the crust containing around 6%. It is an important rock commercially, being smelted to make iron and steel. High grade deposits, often comprising more than 70% iron, were laid down in the Precambrian, around 2 billion years ago, as banded-iron deposits found in Australia, Africa, and America. Ore of this quality is imported at Teesside for use at the Redcar blast furnace.
Locally the Cleveland Ironstone Formation, deposited in a tropical sea which occupied the Tees Valley during the Jurassic Period around 190 million years ago, was exploited at over eighty mines between 1850 and 1962. The stone’s iron content of around 30% being much less than the high grade ore required today. Its former exploitation led to the founding of a great number of blast furnaces, shipyards, foundries, iron and steelworks along the banks of the River Tees. Cleveland Ironstone was fundamental in the growth of our region as a world centre for the iron and steel trades.
More information about the way in which Cleveland Ironstone was mined can be found on this site and via The Cleveland Ironstone Mining Museum at Skinningrove.
March – Ironstone
Iron makes up a full 35% of the whole Earth, though most is sequestered within the metallic core, with the crust containing around 6%. It is an important rock commercially, being smelted to make iron and steel. High grade deposits, often comprising more than 70% iron, were laid down in the Precambrian, around 2 billion years ago, as banded-iron deposits found in Australia, Africa, and America. Ore of this quality is imported at Teesside for use at the Redcar blast furnace.
Locally the Cleveland Ironstone Formation, deposited in a tropical sea which occupied the Tees Valley during the Jurassic Period around 190 million years ago, was exploited at over eighty mines between 1850 and 1962. The stone’s iron content of around 30% being much less than the high grade ore required today. Its former exploitation led to the founding of a great number of blast furnaces, shipyards, foundries, iron and steelworks along the banks of the River Tees. Cleveland Ironstone was fundamental in the growth of our region as a world centre for the iron and steel trades.
More information about the way in which Cleveland Ironstone was mined can be found on this site and via The Cleveland Ironstone Mining Museum at Skinningrove.