The mining operations were, of course, very limited, and the price of the ore subject to extensive fluctuations, owing to the circumstance that the red haematite ore was only used as an admixture to other ores to improve the quality of iron, and the ironmasters used a small proportion of this more expensive ore, or tried to do entirely without it, whenever they could not obtain a sufficiently remunerative price for their pig iron in the market.