ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Sunday, March 24, 1996                 TAG: 9603250087
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: B-6  EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: PITTSVILLE

STATE TO CLEAN UP OLD IRON ORE MINES

The state will reclaim an abandoned magnetite iron ore mine in Pittsylvania County and clean up the site, which officials called dangerous.

At least 10 open vertical shafts from the abandoned Herter magnetite land site near Pittsville pose a severe public safety hazard, said Mike Abbott, a spokesman for Virginia's Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy in Big Stone Gap.

The magnetite iron ore deposit was one of the largest of its kind mined in the United States before 1906.

Mining began there in 1880 and continued until 1920, when increased competition from Great Lakes ore, unfavorable freight rates and more modern furnace practices made it difficult for Virginia mines to compete, the department said Friday.

The department will reclaim the land under the state's orphaned land program, established in 1978 to eliminate the environmental and public health and safety hazards posed by abandoned mineral mines.

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