Thomas Edison tried to process iron ore at his New Jersey mining operation.
His Edison Ore-Milling Company developed machinery intended to concentrate low-grade iron ore by crushing rock and separating magnetic material. Edison became interested in the project because high-grade deposits were becoming harder to obtain in some regions.
The enterprise involved a large processing plant at Ogdensburg, New Jersey, and represented one of Edison’s major business ventures outside electricity and sound recording. The machinery worked technically, but the operation struggled economically because richer and cheaper iron ore became available elsewhere.
The project is sometimes mistaken for a coal or precious-metals venture. Edison’s mining experiments focused on iron, particularly the challenge of making low-grade deposits commercially useful.