the dunes of the black beaches. The magnetite is mixed with sand made from andesite and rhyolite. The sand mixture typically contains 5 to 40% magnetite. New Zealand had limited deposits of iron ore, but the deposits of ironsand were massive. It had been used by some early settlers to manufacture steel and pig iron, but the material could not be smelted in common bloomeries or blast furnaces. A few smelting companies formed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but were unable to process the ore with any economic success due to the sandy nature and high titanium content, which tended to form hard, brittle carbides in the steel. In 1939, a commission was formed to study the properties of the ore and devise a way of smelting it on an industrial scale. The commission determined that, by sintering the sand into bigger chunks or pellets, the problems of smelting the sand in a blast furnace could be eliminated. However, at that time World War II began, and thus further development was suspended and did not resume until the late 1960s, producing the first output of steel in 1969. Ironsand is placer mined from Waikato North Head. 1.2 million tonnes is used by New Zealand Steel to create steel, in a unique manufacturing process. Mining at Taharoa produces up to 4 million tonnes for export. A previous mine existed at Waipipi in South Taranaki. A proposal by Iron Ore NZ Ltd. for further ironsand mining off the coast of Taranaki faced resistance from some Māori and others in 2005 in the wake of the New Zealand foreshore and seabed controversy. A large quantity of it is shipped to China and Japan, but by 2011 New Zealand's sole manufacturing plant was producing 650,000 metric tons of steel and iron per year. New Zealand is the only country to use ironsand for industrial smelting. The typical composition of the magnetite is 82% iron oxide, 8% titanium dioxide and 8% silica; 0.015% sulfur, and 0.015% phosphorus. In 100% concentrations of magnetite this had a maximum potential to yield ~ 58% metallic iron, although the titanium is unrecoverable by modern techniques. United States Ironsand is found extensively around the US, especially in the area of New York, Southern California, New England, and the Great Lakes, where it is often mixed with a feldspar sand and sometimes bright grains of garnet. The magnetite