Standing on a dock edging the black Caroni River one day last week, Venezuela's President Marcos Perez Jimenez pressed a button, started a conveyer belt, and sent baseball-sized chunks of iron ore tumbling into the hold of a Swedish freighter. When the ship was properly "topped off," her hatchcovers were closed and she steamed downstream with the first cargo of ore for the U.S. from the steel-hungry 20th century's greatest ore find, Cerro Bolivar.
The null mountain of ore was discovered seven years ago in a worldwide iron search by U.S. Steel Corp....
To continue reading:
or
Log-In