Name: Political and commercial geology and the world's mineral resources
Author: Various

XV. LEAD

BY FREDERICK B. HYDER

USES OF LEAD

Lead is used in the form of the metal, of alloys with other metals, and of various chemical compounds. As metal its chief uses are as pipe for water and corrosive solutions; for protective covering of electrical cables; as sheet lead for lining chambers for the manufacture of sulphuric acid and vats for chemical manufacturing processes. In smelting, lead is used as a collector of other metals, particularly of gold and silver, from which it is later separated, now most generally by the use of zinc by the Parkes process of desilverization.

Lead alloys readily with nearly all other metals in all proportions. Its alloys of industrial importance comprise type metal, bearing or babbitt metals, shot, solders, casting metals, some brasses, and the fusible alloys used for the protection of electrical apparatus and in automatic sprinklers for the protection of buildings against fire. Type metal, originally composed of 83 per cent. lead and 17 per cent. antimony, now often contains bismuth and sometimes a little copper and iron. An alloy of 9 parts lead, 2 antimony and 2 bismuth is used for stereotype plates. Less than 2 per cent. of arsenic is added to lead used to make shot to increase the hardness and sphericity of the product. Antimony also imparts the hardness essential to shrapnel, etc. Bearing metals comprise alloys of lead and antimony or these with copper, tin, and zinc. Antimony imparts to lead the property of expansion on solidification, essential to type metal and casting materials generally. Lead makes a brass that is soft and machines easily. Solder is commonly an alloy of lead and tin. The melting point varies with the proportions of these constituents and others, sometimes added for special purposes. The cheapest solder in general use is 30 per cent. tin and 70 per cent. lead. Solders seldom contain more than 50 per cent. tin. The addition of bismuth, cadmium, or mercury lowers the melting below the boiling point of water. Fuses can thus be obtained which interrupt electric circuits at any desired temperature.

The largest uses of lead compounds are as pigments. White lead or basic carbonate, 2(PbCO₃)Pb(OH)₂, is the most extensively consumed, being used alone or mixed with zinc oxide and barytes. Red lead (Pb₃O₄) is used for painting structural steel, as a pipe-joint cement, and in the manufacture of glass. Litharge, another oxide, is used in assaying as a flux, in rubber manufacture, and in making glass. The acetate, carbonate and other chemical compounds are used in medicine.

The relative amounts of lead consumed in the various uses in 1913 were: In pigment, comprising white lead, red lead, litharge, and orange mineral, 38.0 per cent.; in alloys such as type metal, bearing metals, and solders, 29.7 per cent.; in pipe, 15.2 per cent.; in shot, 10.4 per cent.; and in sheets, 6.7 per cent.

CHANGES IN PRACTICE

The most revolutionary advance in ore dressing of recent years has been the development of oil-flotation, electromagnetic, and electrostatic processes for the concentration of lead-zinc ores. These processes permit the elimination of the objectionable zinc content of many ores and render it an additional credit of great importance in the exploitation of low-grade complex ores.

The Murex process applied to the treatment of complex ores consists of coating the metallic sulphide minerals with oil and particles of magnetite and pyrite roasted to magnetic sulphide, then separating them from the gangue by an electromagnetic machine. The Lyster preferential flotation of galena depends on the presence of various salts in the water used. In the Broken Hill mines these salts are present in the mine waters. After removal of galena the blende may be preferentially floated by the Bradford copper salt or Bradford hyposulphite or sulphurous acid processes.

In the reduction of lead ores, there are improvements constantly being made. These are chiefly in the mechanical appliances, such as mechanical ore hearths and continuous roasting machinery, such as the Dwight-Lloyd, and in details of furnace construction and the handling of materials, rather than in processes or recognized principles. Various new processes have been proposed, most of which are intended to make available the ores now of too low grade, or the complex ores of lead and zinc whose separation is difficult or commercially impracticable. These processes are now the subject of experiment, with some indications that successful applications may be found. One process involves the volatilization by chloridizing roast of sulphide ores, the precipitation of the lead chloride fume by Cottrell electric precipitation, and smelting the fume with lime. At least 50 per cent. of the chlorine is recovered as calcium chloride, which can be substituted for salt in the further operations. With oxidized ores it is proposed to dissolve the lead by means of brine acidified with sulphuric acid and to precipitate metal sponge by electrolysis.

Gillies’s process consists in roasting the complex sulphides to a low sulphur content, mixing with carbonaceous matter, distilling in excess of air, and volatilizing the lead, zinc, bismuth, cadmium, arsenic, etc., as oxides and sulphates, the lead in form of sulphate, the zinc chiefly as oxide. The fume is caught and digested with a solution of ZnSO₄ and free H₂SO₄ from the electrolytic vats; PbSO₄ remains, which can be used as pigment or smelted. The ZnSO₄ solution is electrolyzed, in the presence of gum arabic in the electrolyte, rendering the zinc deposit more dense.

The Ganlin process, reported successful on Burma zinc-lead middlings, consists in feeding the dry pulverized ore into a molten bath of Zn and NaCl in equal parts. Zinc replaces lead and silver, which are dissolved as chlorides, ZnS being precipitated. When this reaction is complete the lead and silver are precipitated as metals by granulated spelter added to the amount of 35 per cent. of their weight, the dissolved spelter forming ZnCl₂. The silver-bearing lead is tapped off, the residue granulated, the salts leached with water, and the zinc-bearing gangue freed from lead shot by tabling, leaving a zinc ore free from lead.

Electrolytic refining has been one of the greatest advances in the industry; it makes possible the preparation of pure lead from any source and the recovery of numerous by-product metals.

GEOLOGICAL OCCURRENCE

Zinc and lead are commonly associated in mineral deposits, sometimes intimately mixed, sometimes segregated enough so that one metal predominates, but seldom free entirely one from the other. The geological and geographical distribution of the two metals is, therefore, nearly identical. Galena is the most common and important of the lead minerals. Cerussite, anglesite and pyromorphite usually result from the oxidation of galena, the sulphate being usually an intermediate state in the oxidation to the carbonate. Pyromorphite and wulfenite are of minor importance. Jamesonite is more an ore of antimony than of lead. Sphalerite (zinc blende) weathers more readily than galena, and therefore zinc in many places is carried below water level more rapidly and completely than lead. For this reason some mines change from predominantly lead mines to zinc mines with greater depth. Apart from the effect of such secondary enrichment, this change is often encountered in primary ores with increase in depth.

Lead ores occur in deposits of several distinct genetic types. Many deposits lie at shallow depth in sedimentary rocks, without apparent connection with igneous rocks, occurring as tabular replacements of receptive beds. In regions of slightly disturbed strata the ore shoots tend to follow pitching troughs. Ores of this type usually contain lead (galena), zinc (sphalerite), and iron (pyrite) minerals; many contain manganese and cadmium; some contain cobalt and nickel; but few carry gold, silver, copper, or antimony. Deposits of this type are of world-wide distribution, and many are extensive and commercially important. The greater purity of the ore and the simplicity of treatment (particularly for the ores in the oxidized zones), caused them to be exploited first and most extensively, and to dominate formerly the world production of lead. To this type belong, with many others, the deposits of the Mississippi Valley and Silesia, that together yielded 15 per cent. of the world’s production in 1913.

Other important deposits are closely associated with igneous rocks, and are characterized by complex ores. They comprise vein deposits, disseminated replacements of igneous rocks, and silver-lead replacements in limestone.

GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION

The chief lead-ore deposits of the world are situated in the countries that are listed below in the order of their importance in 1913.

RECOVERABLE LEAD CONTENT OF THE LEAD ORES OF THE WORLD PRODUCED IN 1913[129]

----+-------------------+----------+-----------+------------- | | | |Percentage of | | | |world’s total Rank| Country |Short tons|Metric tons| production ----+-------------------+----------+-----------+------------- 1. |United States | 484,880 | 440,000 | 36.0 2. |Australia | 267,169 | 242,440 | 19.8 3. |Spain | 209,193 | 189,830 | 16.4 4. |Germany | 79,344 | 72,000 | 5.9 5. |Mexico | 68,343 | 62,000 | 5.1 6. |Tunis | 31,076 | 28,200 | 2.3 7. |Italy | 24,905 | 22,600 | 1.8 8. |Canada | 24,244 | 22,000 | 1.8 9. |Austria | 22,591 | 20,500 | 1.7 10. |Great Britain | 20,277 | 18,400 | 1.5 11. |Greece | 19,836 | 18,000 | 1.5 12. |Turkey-in-Asia | 15,428 | 14,000 | 1.1 13. |China | 13,995 | 12,700 | 1.0 14. |German S. W. Africa| 13,224 | 12,000 | 1.0 15. |Algeria | 12,893 | 11,700 | 1.0 16. |France | 9,587 | 8,700 | 0.7 17. |India (Burma) | 6,502 | 5,900 | 0.5 18. |Peru | 4,331 | 3,930 | 0.3 19. |Japan | 4,143 | 3,760 | 0.3 20. |Egypt | 3,196 | 2,900 | 0.2 21. |Russia | 3,083 | 2,800 | 0.2 22. |Bulgaria | 2,204 | 2,000 | 0.2 23. |Sweden | 2,094 | 1,900 | 0.2 24. |Hungary | 1,256 | 1,140 | 0.1 25. |Bolivia | 1,102 | 1,000 | 0.1 26. |Portugal | 661 | 600 | 27. |Rhodesia | 361 | 330 | | +----------+-----------+------------- | Total |1,345,918 | 1,221,390 | 100.0 ----+-------------------+----------+-----------+-------------

[129] Adapted from compilations by Adolph Knopf, of the U. S. Geological Survey.

The four districts now of pre-eminent importance are, in order, Broken Hill in New South Wales, Australia; southeastern Spain; southeastern Missouri and Coeur d’Alene, in Idaho: which are credited respectively with about 19, 16, 12 and 10 per cent. of the world’s production in 1913.

=United States.=--The chief producing regions and their percentage of the domestic lead production in 1915 are as follows:

Percentage of total Region domestic production Southeastern Missouri 33 Coeur d’Alene, Idaho 27 Utah 18 Joplin (in Mo., Kans., Ark., and Okla.) 6 Colorado 5

As regards the types of ores and the character of the lead produced, there are two metallographic provinces: the Mississippi Valley, including southeastern Missouri and Joplin, and the minor district of Wisconsin, producing as soft lead 39 to 45 per cent. of the total domestic production; and the Western province, in which the ores are complex, carrying precious metals and often antimony and copper. All of the output from the Western province, but only a part of the soft lead, is desilverized.

Ninety per cent. of the ore mined in southeastern Missouri comes from St. Francois and Madison counties. The ore deposits contain predominantly galena, and are disseminated in Cambrian limestone over large areas at depths of 100 to 550 feet. Copper, nickel, and cobalt occur in the Madison County ores, and copper concentrates are separated and shipped by nearly all the companies in the region. The principal operating companies, with the names of companies absorbed by them or now subsidiaries, shown in parenthesis, are: St. Joseph Lead Co. (Doe Run Lead Co.), Federal Lead Co., National Lead Co. (St. Louis Smelting & Refining Co.), Desloge Consolidated Lead Co., Baker Lead Co. (St. Francois Lead Co.), Boston Elvins Lead Co., Missouri Metals Co. (Mine La Motte Co.), and Missouri Cobalt Co. (North American Lead Co.). The St. Joseph Lead Co. is normally the second largest lead-producing company in the United States. Its holdings have a conservatively estimated life of 20 years, at a rate of production of 2,000,000 tons of ore, or 80,000 short tons of lead, per annum. In 1917 this company mined 2,485,431 tons of ore, nearly half the total output of the region. The Federal Lead Co., a subsidiary of the American Smelting & Refining Co., is the next largest producing company in the region. In 1915 it mined and milled 1,355,000 tons of ore. The National Lead Co., through its subsidiary, the St. Louis Smelting & Refining Co., works three mines near Flat River and has a concentration plant with a daily capacity of 2,400 tons. Its smelter at Collinsville treats its own concentrates, as well as those of the Baker Lead Co. and the Boston Elvins Lead Co. The Desloge Consolidated Lead Co. operates three mines and a mill of 1,700 tons’ daily capacity; its ores are smelted by the Federal Lead Co. The Missouri Metals Co. operates the Mine La Motte and a mill treating 700,000 tons annually at the 1917 rate. In 1915 it was estimated that this mine could produce 3,000,000 tons of ore annually for sixty years.

In the Joplin region, which is chiefly in Missouri but also includes adjacent areas in Kansas, Arkansas, and Oklahoma, the ores lie at three horizons in horizontal limestone and chert beds of Lower Carboniferous age. At the upper horizon, usually 100 to 150 feet below the surface, the ore occurs in clayey chert breccias. The ore bodies are characteristically “runs” up to 300 feet wide, and continuous in one horizon for several hundred feet and, rarely, for more than a mile. The middle horizon, or “sheet ground,” at a depth of 150 to 300 feet usually ranges from 6 to 15 feet in thickness. The ore, mixed galena and blende, cements brecciated chert. The third and lowest horizon, in sandy limestones, contains disseminated ores mainly, and as yet is little exploited. In 1915, about 4,000,000 tons of ore was mined from the upper horizon, and 6,500,000 tons from the middle horizon or “sheet ground.” The average lead content of the ore as mined was about 0.25 per cent. Most of the lead concentrates are sold in open market. The Webb City district is the most important in the Joplin region, and the American Zinc, Lead & Smelting Co. is the largest galena producer. Most of the output is by lessees and small operators. The Joplin district ranks second in importance. The A. W. C. Mining Co. is the largest miner of “sheet ground.” The Ravenswood and Ritz mines of the United States Smelting, Refining & Mining Co., in Jasper County, produce 218,000 tons of ore annually. The concentrates of this region are chiefly smelted by the plants of the Eagle-Picher Lead Co. at Galena, Kansas; Joplin, Missouri; Webb City, Missouri; and by the Granby Mining & Smelting Co. at Granby, Missouri.

The Coeur d’Alene region is in Shoshone County, Idaho. The deposits are metasomatic veins formed by replacement of siliceous sedimentary rocks along zones of fissuring, and carry mainly galena and siderite with some pyrite and sphalerite. In 1915 the crude ore shipments amounted to 95,169 tons with a lead content of 35,271 short tons. The remainder of the ore, or nearly 96 per cent. of the total, is concentrated to carry about 50 per cent. lead. The 1915 yield of concentrates of all kinds amounted to 329,530 tons, having a lead content of 128,928 short tons, making the total lead content of crude and concentrate shipments 164,199 short tons. The mining companies form three groups, determined chiefly by their relations or affiliations with the smelters, as follows: The Bunker Hill group, comprising the Bunker Hill & Sullivan Mining & Concentrating Co., and the Hecla Mining Co.; the Day group, comprising the Tamarack & Custer Mining Co., the Amazon-Manhattan mine, and the Hercules Mining Co.; and the American Smelting & Refining group, comprising the Federal Mining & Smelting Co. and various small producers.

The mines of the Bunker Hill & Sullivan Mining & Concentrating Co. had reserves on December 31, 1917, of 3,457,634 tons. The ore bodies are replacements of quartzite. This company’s production in 1917 was 493,030 tons of ore, the metallic lead recovered by smelting being 46,996 tons. The Bunker Hill & Sullivan Co., while still shipping its own ores to the Helena plant of the American Smelting & Refining Co., built its own smelter at Kellogg, Idaho, where it smelts the Hecla and other ores. The Day family controls the Hercules, and Tamarack & Custer companies, the Northport smelter at Northport, Washington (now closed down), and the Pennsylvania Smelting & Refining Co. at Pittsburgh, Pa. The 1916 shipments of the Hercules had a lead content of about 22,000 tons. Both companies are close corporations and make public little information as to their operations. The Tamarack & Custer probably has large reserves of ore averaging about 9 per cent. lead; it has produced as much as 3,000 tons of shipping ore and concentrates per month. The Federal Mining & Smelting Co. operates several mines. One-sixth of the stock is owned by the American Smelters Securities Co. and all its silver-lead ores and concentrates are contracted to the American Smelting & Refining Co. The Success Mining Co., working two mines, has been an important producer. The Interstate-Callahan has been chiefly a zinc producer but ships some lead concentrates to the Salida plant of the Ohio & Colorado Smelting Co.

The lead production of Utah is chiefly from the Park City, Bingham Canyon, and Tintic districts. The ores, composed of galena, tetrahedrite and pyrite, and in places sphalerite, with their oxidized derivatives, occur in lodes cutting limestones, sandstones and shales, chiefly of Carboniferous age, and also as bedded deposits in limestone. Both types are frequently associated with porphyry and form irregular ore bodies in contact-metamorphosed limestone. In many mines copper is an important constituent of the ores and the silver content is always important.

The production of Colorado in 1917 comprised 33,995 short tons of lead, of which 9,293 short tons came from the Leadville district in Lake County, 10,412 short tons from the San Juan district in San Juan, San Miguel and Ouray counties, and 6,816 tons from the Aspen district in Pitkin County. The Leadville deposits are in the Mosquito range. The chief producing companies are the Iron Silver Mining Co., the Yak Mining, Milling & Tunnel Co. and its subsidiary, the Leadville Exploration & Mining Co.; the Western Mining Co.; the Downtown Mines Co.; the Ibex Mining Co.; and the United States Smelting, Refining & Mining Co. The Yak Mining, Milling & Tunnel Co., and the Western Mining Co. are subsidiaries of the American Smelting & Refining Co. In the San Juan district, the principal producers are the Liberty Bell; Smuggler-Union; Tomboy; Black Bear; Iowa-Gold Tiger; Dives; Shenandoah; and Silver Lake mines. The veins penetrate all the clastic and igneous rocks of this region, and the ores are exceedingly complex. In Pitkin County, the Smuggler Leasing Co. operates most of the producing mines at Aspen. The ores are peculiarly free from other metals than lead, antimony, and silver.

=Australia.=--The lead resources of the Commonwealth of Australia are chiefly in New South Wales, Western Australia, Tasmania, and Queensland. New South Wales has been the chief producer in the past, but the Tasmanian deposits are now being rapidly developed and equipped for production.

The most important source of ore in New South Wales is the great Broken Hill lode, situated in the arid Barrier Ranges at an elevation of about 1,000 feet above sea level. The lode ranges in width from a few inches to 400 feet and has been worked over a distance of three miles. Mining began in 1884 and now is conducted by several mining companies which, in the order of the importance of their production and ore reserves, are: Broken Hill South Silver Mining Co.; Broken Hill North Mining Co.; Zinc Corporation; Sulphide Corporation; British Broken Hill Proprietary Co.; Broken Hill Proprietary Co.; Broken Hill Proprietary Co., Block 10; and Broken Hill Proprietary Co., Block 14.

Although the deepest workings are 1,815 feet deep, the ore still continues downward. For many years the estimated ore reserves of all the mines have approximated 12,000,000 tons. The upper part of the lode consisted of a gossan 20 to 100 feet wide of siliceous and manganiferous limonite, hematite, and kaolin. Below the gossan were great masses of cerussite, anglesite, cuprite, and malachite, with abundant cerargyrite, embolite, and iodyrite. Between the oxidized and primary sulphide ores was a thin zone of secondary sulphides. The early operations in the district were conducted for the purpose of obtaining lead ores, and immense dumps were accumulated of zinc-bearing ores sorted out or zinc-bearing tailings left after concentration of the lead ores. In 1903 these dumps were estimated at 5,687,400 tons, carrying 18.6 per cent. zinc. With the development of a demand for zinc sulphide ores and of oil-flotation methods of separation and concentration, these dumps have been important sources of zinc. There are two classes of sulphide ores, distinguished as silicate gangue ore, and calcite gangue ore. The sulphide ores are a close mixture of galena and zinc blende, carrying silver. The silicate gangue ore bodies carry rhodonite, garnet, and quartz; and are richer in zinc and silver than those with calcite gangue.

The Broken Hill South Silver Mining Co. has ore reserves estimated at 3,350,000 tons and is the largest ore producer in the field. Broken Hill North, Broken Hill South, Amalgamated Zinc (De Bavay), Zinc Corporation, and Barrier South, Ltd., are controlled by the Hoover-Govett-Bailliau group of British and Australian capitalists.

The Amalgamated Zinc Co. in 1913 treated 498,289 tons of tailings containing 17.1 per cent. zinc, 3.7 per cent. lead, and 4.4 ounces silver, obtaining 140,098 tons zinc concentrates carrying zinc, 48.9 per cent., lead 5.9 per cent., and silver 8.5 ounces per ton. The Zinc Corporation, a company formed by Bewick, Moreing & Co., has ore reserves estimated at 1,504,211 tons, averaging 14.8 per cent. lead, 9.2 per cent. zinc, and 2.5 ounces of silver per ton.

The largest lead-producing district of Tasmania is on the West Coast, where the largest producers, the Hercules of the Dundas group and the Primrose and Tasmanian copper mines of the Rosebery company group, are now controlled by the Mount Read-Rosebery Co., affiliated with the Mount Lyell Mining & Railway Co., Ltd. The deposits contain complex sulphide ores, the reserves being estimated by the state geological staff at 1,272,500 tons, averaging 29.79 per cent. zinc, 8.89 per cent. lead, 12.16 ounces of silver, and 0.17 ounces gold per ton. This estimate has since been revised and made more conservative.

In 1913 Western Australia produced 26,589 long tons of lead ore and 125 tons of silver-lead ore, almost wholly from the Northampton district on the West Coast. The only company working on a large scale is the Fremantle Trading & Smelting Co., operating the Baddera and Narra Tarra mines and, formerly, a smelter at Fremantle. The Chillagoe district is the largest producer in Queensland, its output amounting to 2,550 long tons of pig lead in 1913, chiefly from the Girofla mine of the Mungana company, but in part from lead-copper concentrates. The Chillagoe operated a small smelter. The total pig lead production of Queensland was 3,603 long tons in 1913.

=Spain.=--Spain yielded in 1913, 314,369 short tons of lead concentrates, from which were smelted 189,559 tons of pig lead. In 1915 only 1,010 short tons of ore or concentrates was exported, and 161,912 short tons of desilverized lead was exported, mostly to England. Over 90 per cent. of the production of ore came from the provinces of Jaen, Murcia, Cordoba, and Ciudad Real. In 1913 the Province of Almeria occupied fourth place, but its mines are now nearly exhausted. These provinces are in the southeastern part of Spain and cover the Sierra Morena and Sierra Nevada mountain ranges.

In the Province of Jaen are two principal districts--the Linares-Santa-Elena and the La Carolina. Many years ago Linares was the greatest lead-producing district in the world. The veins cut granite and thin overlying sandstone and are very narrow. The Arrayanes, a state-owned mine, has been exploited over a length of two and a half miles and to 1,500 feet in depth. The gangue is granite, quartz and calcite. Iron and copper pyrites and sphalerite are present, but a 79 per cent. lead concentrate is easily made. The deepest mine is 1,800 ft. deep and is still in rich ore. In the Santa Elena vicinity, the San Fernando, Ojo Vecino, and Santa Ana mines are owned locally. The Caridad is owned by French capital and the Santa Susanna by a Belgian concern, the Compagnie Real Asturienne des Mines. In La Carolina district the nearly vertical lodes cut Silurian quartzites and Cambrian and Silurian slates. The ore attains a greater width than in the veins of the Linares district. The Nuevo Centenillo mine (English owned) produces 27,000 short tons of concentrates annually. The great Guindo lode runs through six mines, two of which are owned by Spanish companies, and three by the Guindo Co., a German-Spanish corporation having an output of 27,000 short tons of concentrates yearly. The Castillo La Vieja, owned by a French company, has a yearly output of 20,000 tons of marketable ore.

In the Province of Murcia the Mazarron and Cartagena districts are important. Most of the veins are nearly vertical but many have spurs or branches forming lenticular and bedded deposits in the sedimentaries. This district extends southwestward along the coast from Cabo de Palos a few miles north of Cartagena. The production of this province has been steadily decreasing.

In the Province of Cordoba (district of Posadas) many silver-lead-zinc mines were worked by the Romans and are still profitable. Near Alcaracejos are the mines of Anglo-Vask and Penarroya, the latter owned by a French company of the same name.

The development of the lead ores in the Province of Ciudad Real has been retarded by lack of transportation facilities. The best known district is that of El Hoyo-San Lorenzo, which in 1915 had risen to fourth place among the lead-producing districts of Spain.

=Germany.=--In imperial Germany the lead-producing districts in the order of their importance were as follows: Upper Silesia, Rhenish Prussia, Westphalia, Saxony, Hanover, and Nassau. Rhenish Prussia and Westphalia are usually grouped together as one metallographic province. At Gladbach, east of Cologne in Rhenish Prussia, are ore deposits lying in troughs and basins in limestone. The ore is smithsonite and galena mixed with shale. The chief deposits of Westphalia are at Iserlohn and Brilon. At Iserlohn ores containing calamine, galena, and blende are found in irregular pockets. The deposits of Brilon are similar, but most of the ore is found in crevices in the limestone. Rhenish Prussia and Westphalia are the source of about one-third the German production of lead.

The greater part of Upper Silesia lay within the boundaries of Germany in 1914, although formerly part of the kingdom of Poland, the population being still predominantly Polish; but portions were included in the old empires of Russia and Austria. The pre-war production of lead ores from Russian Poland was entirely from this metallographic province. The deposits, which contain lead and zinc together, lie in Triassic beds that overlie Carboniferous rocks carrying important seams of coal. This juxtaposition of ore and fuel furnish an ideal basis for the great smelting industry that developed locally, for the conditions permit smelting of low-grade ores.

The historic mines at Freiberg, in Saxony (Erzgebirge) yield a small quantity of blende in connection with the concentration of galena ores from a remarkable series of intersecting veins, which number more than 900, although few are more than 2 feet thick. They have been worked to a depth of 2,100 feet. More than 10 per cent. of the lead production of Germany is derived from Saxony. These mines are owned and operated by the Saxon government, which also owns the smelting plants.

Lead predominates over zinc in the ores of the Upper Harz, in Hanover. These ores occur in veins and zones in slates of Devonian and Lower Carboniferous age. These mines are worked by the Prussian Department of Mines, which also operates two smelting plants, the output being about 10 per cent. of the total German output. In Nassau, in the valley of the Lahn, lead ores are produced as a by-product, with zinc blende concentrates.

=Mexico.=--In Mexico lead ores are mined in several states, the more important being Chihuahua, Durango, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, Sonora, San Luis Potosi, and Zacatecas. In many districts during a considerable part of the past eight years work has been intermittent and occasionally suspended for long periods.

The Santa Eulalia district in Chihuahua is largely owned by American companies, including the American Smelting & Refining Co., operating the Mina Vieja, Sin Nombre, Velardeña, San Antonio and Santo Domingo mines; and El Potosi Mining Co., operating the mines of the same name. The San Toy is under lease to the American Metal Co., now purged of German interests. The Santa Eulalia Mining Co. belongs to the Hearst estate. The Buena Tierra Mining Co. is a British concern. The mines of the Santa Barbara and Parral districts are also largely under American control, among many others being the Montezuma Lead Mining Co. of the R. S. Towne interests, Granadeña Mining Co., American Smelters Securities Co. and American Zinc Extraction Co. The American Smelters Securities Co. operates the Tecolotes, Montezuma, San Diego, Guadalupe and Alfarena mines. The San Francisco mines are owned by British capital. In the San Isidro district the Calera, Prieta and Buena Vista mines are operated by the American Smelting & Refining Co. The Lago mine is operated by C. M. de Las Plomosas (French). In the Parado district are mines of the Compañia Minera Aurora y Anexas, controlled by the Madero family (Mexican). Other Chihuahua mines of the American Smelting & Refining Co. are Orizaba and La Union at Magistral, the Jibosa at Dolores, La Luz and Parcionera at Cordera, the Veta Grande and Veta Colorado.

The largest operators in the state of Durango are the American Smelters Securities Co. at Velardeña and the Cia. Minera de Peñoles at Mapimi, both now American since the selling of the German-held stock of the American Metals Co. by the Alien Property Custodian.

In Sonora, the Carnegie Lead & Zinc Co. worked a mine near Cananea, during the war, but the best part of the deposit is now depleted.

The Tiro General mines, in San Luis Potosi, belong to the American Smelting & Refining Co.

The Cabrilla and Paloma mines, in the Cabrillas district in Coahuila, are owned by the Compañia Minera de Peñoles, controlled by the American Metal Co. The Sierra Mojada district is dominated by American companies, the principal mines being owned by the Consolidated Kansas City Smelting & Refining Co., a subsidiary of the American Smelting & Refining Co. The Boquillas de Carmen mine has been acquired by an American company.

In the state of Nueva Leon, deposits lying within a radius of 50 miles of Monterrey, at Villadama, Vallecillo, Ladera Occidental de Minas Viejas, etc., have been exploited by German and American companies, including the Compañia Metalurgica Mexicana (American), Joplin-Mexican Mining Co. (American), and the Metallgesellschaft (German).

=Other Countries.=--The output of lead ore in Tunis in 1913, almost wholly by French companies, was 56,072 metric tons. It is all exported.

Practically all the output of lead ore in Italy is derived from the Inglesias district of Sardinia, which in 1915 produced 40,829 metric tons of ore averaging 55 per cent. lead, out of a total national production of 41,590 metric tons. The principal operators are the Monteponi and Pertusola companies, the former Italian, the latter English. The remainder of the ore comes from the provinces of Bergamo, Brescia Cuneo, and Grosseto, and the operating companies are the English Crown Spelter Co. (English), and the Societa Austro-Belga and Société de la Vieille Montagne (Belgian).

In Czecho-Slovakia, the most important district is that of Przibram, in Bohemia. Rich lead ores were once mined at Mies, but the district is now exhausted. The district of Joachimsthal was for centuries an important producer.

In German-Austria are the silver-lead mining districts of Schneeberg, in Tyrol, and Raibl, in Upper Carinthia. In both districts the mines were before the war owned and operated by the Austrian state. Miess, in Carinthia, is one of the chief sources of ore in recent years.

The lead mines of Great Britain in 1916 produced 17,083 tons of dressed lead ore. The largest operator is the Weardale Lead Co., operating the Boltsburn and Stanhopeburn mines and smelting its own and some custom ores.

In Greece the only important lead deposit is that of Laurium, which was worked on a large scale in ancient times. It is now controlled and operated by a French company, the Compagnie Française des Mines de Laurium.

The lead production of Canada is chiefly from British Columbia, the most important producers being in the Slocan district. The largest operator is the Consolidated Mining & Smelting Co. of Canada, Ltd., proprietor also of the Trail smelter. This company operates the Sullivan and other mines and produced during the year ended September 30, 1917, 29,542 tons of lead ore from the Sullivan mine, and 1,100 to 1,500 tons from several others. The Sullivan mine has been reported to have reserves of 3,500,000 tons of galena-sphalerite ore. Numerous smaller properties in the same district ship ore to the Trail smelter, which produced some 22,000 tons of lead during the year ended September 30, 1917.

The most important lead-silver mines of Asiatic Turkey are those at Hodsha Gernish (Balia), belonging to the Société des Mines de Balia-Kara-Aidin (French), which yield about 12,000 tons of lead annually. There is a state-owned mine at Bulgardagh producing lead, gold, and silver. The English company, Asia Minor Mining Co., produces about 3,000 tons of ore annually.

In China the ten lead mines in the Province of Hunan are controlled by Chinese. The Wah Chang Mining & Smelting Co., Ltd., operates the Tien For Tai mines. The Shui-Ko-Shan mine, controlled by the Hunan Mining Board, from a deposit in limestone, produced in 1913, 51,561 net tons of ore, which yielded 3,762 tons of lead concentrates and 12,275 tons of zinc concentrates. Since 1913 the production has been increased, but the possibilities of the deposit are limited. The Japanese have endeavored to secure control of this mine, but without success. The pig-lead output of China is chiefly consumed in the country. The only modern lead smelter is at Changsha and is owned by Japanese.

The lead production of Southwest Africa (formerly German) has been derived chiefly from the Tsumeb deposit in the Grootfontein district in the Otavi Mountains. The ores exported in the fiscal year 1913-14 amounted to 48,000 long tons, averaging 13 per cent. copper, 25 per cent. lead, and 7.7 ounces silver. The ore is a coarsely crystalline aggregate of argentiferous galena and chalcocite with minor amounts of other minerals. The Otavi Mines & Railway Co. owns and operates this mine, the ore having been exported in 1913-14 to the United States for smelting.

In 1913 all the lead-ore production of Algeria was from the Department of Constantine, and amounted to 21,442 tons. Practically the whole production was by French companies.

Lead ore is produced in several scattered districts in France, chiefly in the south. Among the mines are the Chaliac et Chassezac (Ardeche) mines of the Société Metallurgique et Minière des Cevennes, producing 2,200 metric tons in 1913; the mines of the Société Civile des Mines des Malines; La Londe mine of the Société des Mines des Bormettes; that of the Société des Mines de Bleymard, producing 2,470 tons of galena ore in 1913; and the Pierrefitte (Haute Pyrenees), Peybrune, and Bulard de Sentein-Saint Lary (Ariege) mines. All of these appear to be French companies, except the Pierrefitte, which is English controlled.

In Burma, the chief deposits are those of the Bawdwin mines, in the Northern Shan States (Burma), now connected with the Burma Railway from Rangoon. The ore bodies of present interest are nearly vertical shoots in a feldspathic grit (rhyolitic tuff or silicified rhyolite) and rhyolite series. The Chinaman and the smaller Shan ore body are believed to have been one, though now separated by faulting. Estimated reserves on December 31, 1917, were 4,033,000 tons of lead-zinc ore assaying 24.7 ounces of silver, 27.4 per cent. lead, 19.1 per cent. zinc, and 0.4 per cent. copper; and 105,000 tons of copper-silver ore assaying 21.0 ounces of silver, 19.9 per cent. lead, 8.8 per cent. zinc, and 8.9 per cent. copper. Since then development has considerably increased these reserves. In addition there is estimated to be 1,600,000 tons of low-grade ore averaging 5.1 ounces of silver, 7.5 per cent. lead, 4.8 per cent. zinc, and 0.2 per cent. copper per ton, with excellent prospects of larger developments. A large tonnage of gossan outcrop ore containing 4 or 5 ounces silver, 4 to 5 per cent. lead, and a little zinc is cheaply mined and available as siliceous flux. The essential constituents of the ores are galena and sphalerite with a little pyrite and chalcopyrite. All of the ore is argentiferous.

The lead and zinc concentrates are available for the customary methods of smelting. A zinc-distilling and sulphuric acid plant is being constructed at Sakchi, with the aid of the Indian government, to treat the table zinc concentrates. Its initial capacity of 25,000 tons of concentrates is expected to be increased to 75,000 tons. The company operates a lead smelter at Nam-Tu, 11 miles from the mines, using a mixture of ore and ancient slags. Treatment of the middlings by the Ganlin process is proposed and a 100-ton unit is under construction at Avonmouth, England. The Bawdwin deposits may be expected to be an important factor in the world’s production of lead in the immediate future. They are owned by the Burma Mines, Ltd., an English corporation representing the R. Tilden Smith-Govett-Hoover interests and some American capital.

The lead production of Peru is largely in the form of ancient high-lead slags from the Cerro de Pasco district, Department of Junin, shipped to plants of the American Smelting & Refining Co. in the United States. Lead occurs as a minor constituent of copper deposits.

The domestic lead-ore deposits of Japan are all owned and operated by Japanese. During the war Australian concentrates and Chinese ore were imported and smelted, 10,666 short tons of the former, carrying 56 per cent. lead, during the fiscal year 1915-16, and 9,829 short tons of the latter during the year 1916. The Fujita company, mining in Japan, Korea, and Formosa, produces 382 short tons of lead yearly. Its principal mine is the Kosaka, at the northern end of Hondo, the main island of Japan. The ore is a complex sulphide mixture of lead, zinc, iron, and copper minerals. The annual output of this mine is about 335 short tons of lead. The Mitsui Mining Co., Ltd., is the largest producer, its output in 1915 having been 3,561, and in 1916, 8,098 short tons of pig lead. This is derived wholly from the Kamioka zinc-lead mine, in the Province of Hida, on a contact metamorphic deposit in limestone lenses enclosed in Archean gneiss near a quartz porphyry contact.

The only deposit exploited in Egypt is that known to the ancients, Gebel Rosas, now operated by the French company, Compagnie Française des Mines de Laurium. As regards the former empire of Russia, the lead production of Russian Poland and the Caucasus Mountains is small, the output in 1913 coming chiefly from the Caucasus Mountains and being made by the Elboruss Co., and the Compagnie d’Alagir (Belgian).

In the Altai Mountains, in Siberia, a zinc-lead-silver deposit, the Zmeinogorsk, formerly belonging to the Russian Mining Corporation (British), is now owned by a Russian company, Altai Mines, Ltd., though part of the capital is probably British. The Nerchinski district, in eastern Siberia, comprises many known deposits. The Akatonevski, Kadaenski, Algachinski and Klichinski deposits are veins, whereas many of the Zerentniski, Gasimoura Valley, Koultoumski and Maltzevski are lenticular masses of disseminated ore. In the Kadaenski deposits two massive disseminated ore bodies occur in dolomite between two veins. These deposits were controlled by the Imperial Cabinet, and their exploitation was being seriously considered by British and American capital shortly before the revolution. The deposits of largest present importance in Siberia are those of the Ridder Mining Co., controlled by the Irtysh Corporation of London, which has developed two mines, the Ridder and the Sokolni, on the same mineralized zone. The deposits are replacements by complex sulphide ore of members of a conformable series of slates, tuffs, and igneous sills. In 1916 the reserves were estimated at 945,000 tons of a grade of 31.2 per cent. zinc, 18.1 per cent. lead, 1.5 per cent. copper, 9.7 ounces of silver, and 0.47 ounces of gold; and also 2,229,000 tons averaging 6.7 per cent. zinc, 3.5 per cent. lead, 0.5 per cent. copper, 1.7 ounces of silver, and 0.7 ounces of gold per ton. Other known mineralized zones have not been developed, but the possibilities of the property are immense, being limited chiefly by general political and economic conditions.

A small quantity of lead is produced in Bulgaria from a few small deposits containing intimate mixtures of lead, copper and zinc minerals; usually either zinc or copper predominate.

The most important lead deposit in Sweden is the Sala, in Vestmanland, where irregular masses and veins of galena and blende with minor amounts of pyrite, etc. occur in limestone. Similar deposits occur at Lofas and Guldmedshyttan.

Hungary has no lead mines of importance, although galena occurs in some of the veins exploited, notably at Schemnitz, where the larger mines are the property of the Hungarian state.

Most of the ore from Bolivia exported to the United States comes from the Majo mine, which produced 884 tons, lead content, in 1912. This mine is in southern Bolivia in the region of La Quiaca.

The most important lead-producing area in Portugal is Merlota, near the Guadiana River, where silver-bearing galena and oxidized ores are found. Other districts are those of Villa Real, Vizen, Aveiro, Portalagre, and Beja. The deposits are similar to those of Spain.

The only deposit of importance in Rhodesia (South Africa) is the Rhodesia Broken Hill. The large ore bodies are, so far as developed, almost wholly oxidized. One ore body is estimated to contain 250,000 long tons of ore averaging 26 per cent. lead and 22.5 per cent. zinc; another ore body is estimated to contain 300,000 long tons, averaging 32 per cent. zinc, with little lead, but much iron oxide and carbonate. These ore bodies are controlled by British capital. Considerable difficulty has been experienced in developing a commercial treatment. Reports indicate this deposit is of greater magnitude than is generally recognized.

The most important lead deposit of Belgium, or rather of the neutral district of Moresnet adjoining Belgium, belonged to the Belgian company, Société de la Vieille Montagne at Moresnet. It was exhausted in 1882.

=Changes in Geographical Distribution of Production in the Near Future.=--No marked change in the pre-war rate of production of ores by the countries of Europe or northern Africa is anticipated when normal conditions are resumed. Most of the districts in those countries have been exploited a long time and have passed their zenith of production; many are approaching exhaustion. A possible exception to this statement is the Ciudad Real Province of Spain, which is being energetically developed by the Penarroya company. The division of Austria-Hungary will not materially affect the control of the lead industry.

The United States will continue to be the largest source of lead in the world, and the only change anticipated is a slight increase in the relative importance of the hard-lead output of the Western States.

The chief new factor in production will be the Bawdwin mines of Burma, which are being developed on a large scale for the production of 300,000 tons of ore annually.

Recent developments in the Altai Mountains of southwestern Siberia have proved immense bodies of complex zinc-lead ores. Their geographic isolation will prevent them from becoming an important factor in the world market for a long period, notwithstanding their large size and excellent grade. The extent of their exploitation will be determined largely by how far the Russian market is affected by internal social and political conditions. The loss of the Polish industrial region, with its market protected by stringent tariffs, materially restricts the extent of visible outlets.

In the future, but not soon, it is anticipated that there will be developments in the Andes region of South America of complex lead-ore deposits similar to those of the Western United States.

POLITICAL CONTROL

Political control of the lead resources of the world up to the outbreak of the war in 1914 seems to have been a minor factor in the industry, and to have made itself felt chiefly through imposition of protective tariffs or bonuses designed to stimulate domestic production, smelting, and refining. Such measures resulted in the establishment of lead smelting in British Columbia and were an inducement to the development of the Altai district of Siberia. As will be described later in detail, the growth of international commercial relations had permitted the establishment by German interests of organizations which, although not all-inclusive, gave effective control of the industry.

During the World War, however, political jurisdiction was largely invoked to restore control of national resources to citizens. This movement was particularly marked in the British Empire, where there now exists a joint political and commercial control. Alien interests have been eliminated by governmental action and the government retains a share in the control through its interest in marketing organizations or its financial participation in reduction works. In France, the consortium Société Minerais et Metaux, organized by government action, is the arbiter of the industry and comprises all the important French companies both at home and abroad. In the United States the Alien Property Custodian was active in eliminating all enemy-alien interests.

COMMERCIAL CONTROL

Copper, lead, and zinc form a class by themselves, with respect to industrial utility and tonnage produced, ranking after iron, which far outclasses them, as the most important base metals. The total yearly production of each throughout the world is considerably more than a million tons.

TABLE 53.--ORE PRODUCTION, SMELTING, AND CONSUMPTION OF LEAD IN 1913

(Tons of 2,000 Pounds)

-------------------+-------------------------------------------+ | Recoverable lead content of ores | | and concentrates | +---------------+-------------+-------------+ | | | | |Mine production| Exports | Imports | +---------+-----+-------+-----+-------+-----+ | | Per| | Per| | Per| | Net |cent.| Net |cent.| Net |cent.| Country | tons |[130]| tons |[130]| tons |[130]| -------------------+---------+-----+-------+-----+-------+-----+ Algeria | 12,900| 1.0| 12,900| 1.0| ... | ...| Australia | {244,500| 19.7|132,000| 10.6| ... | ...| | { [133]| | | | | | Austria-Hungary | 23,800| 1.9| ... | ...| 2,800| 0.2| Belgium | ... | ...| ... | ...| 56,000| 4.5| Bolivia | 1,100| 0.1| 1,100| 0.1| ... | ...| Bulgaria | 2,200| 0.2| 2,200| 0.2| ... | ...| Canada | 18,800| 1.5| ... | ...| ... | ...| China | 14,000| 1.1| 14,000| 1.1| ... | ...| Egypt | 3,200| 0.3| 3,200| 0.3| ... | ...| France | 9,600| 0.8| ... | ...| 21,300| 1.7| German S. W. Africa| 13,200| 1.0| 13,200| 1.0| ... | ...| Germany | 79,300| 6.4| ... | ...|120,300| 9.7| Great Britain | 20,300| 1.6| ... | ...| 13,300| 1.1| Greece | 20,300| 1.6| ... | ...| ... | ...| Holland | ... | ...| ... | ...| ... | ...| India | | | {[134]| | | | (Burma) | 6,500| 0.5| {2,200| 0.2| ... | ...| | | |{ [134]| | | | Italy | 24,900| 2.0|{ 1,000| 0.1| ... | ...| Japan | 4,200| 0.3| ... | ...| ... | ...| Mexico | 68,300| 5.5| 7,100| 0.6| ... | ...| Norway | ... | ...| ... | ...| ... | ...| Peru | 4,300| 0.3| 4,300| 0.3| ... | ...| Portugal | 600| ...| 600| ...| ... | ...| Rhodesia | 400| ...| 400| ...| ... | ...| | | | {[134]| | | | Russia | 3,100| 0.2| {2,000| 0.2| ... | ...| Spain | 209,200| 16.8| ... | ...| 9,900| 0.8| Sweden | 2,100| 0.2| 500| ...| ... | ...| Switzerland | ... | ... | ... | ...| ... | ...| Tunis | 31,100| 2.5| 31,000| 2.5| ... | ...| Turkey-in-Asia | 15,300| 1.2| ... | ...| ... | ...| United States | 411,900| 33.3| ... | ...| 13,200| 1.0| Other countries | ... | ...| ... | ...| 2,600| 0.2| -------------------+---------+-----+-------+-----+-------+-----+ World[135] |1,245,100|100.0|227,800| 18.2|239,400| 19.2| -------------------+---------+-----+-------+-----+-------+-----+

-------------------+-------------------------------------------+ | | | Primary pig lead | +---------------+-------------+-------------+ | Smelter | | | | production | Imports | Exports | +---------+-----+-------+-----+-------+-----+ | | Per| | Per| | Per| | Net |cent.| Net |cent.| Net |cent.| Country | tons |[130]| tons |[130]| tons |[130]| -------------------+---------+-----+-------+-----+-------+-----+ Algeria | ... | ...| ... | ...| ... | ...| Australia | 112,500| 9.0| ... | ...|101,900| 8.1| | | | | | | | Austria-Hungary | 26,600| 2.1| 12,500| 1.0| ... | ...| Belgium | 56,000| 4.5| ... | ...| 8,700| 0.7| Bolivia | ... | ...| ... | ...| ... | ...| Bulgaria | ... | ...| ... | ...| ... | ...| Canada | 18,800| 1.5| 6,400| 0.5| ... | ...| China | ... | ...| ... | ...| ... | ...| Egypt | ... | ...| ... | ...| ... | ...| France | 30,900| 2.5| 87,700| 7.0| ... | ...| German S. W. Africa| ... | ...| ... | ...| ... | ...| Germany | 199,600| 15.9| 46,800| 3.7| ... | ...| Great Britain | 33,600| 2.7|177,400| 14.1| ... | ...| Greece | 20,300| 1.6| ... | ...| 20,300| 1.6| Holland | ... | ...| 10,500| 0.8| ... | ...| India | | | | | | | (Burma) | 4,300| 0.3| ... | ...| 4,300| 0.3| | | | | | | | Italy | 23,900| 1.9| 12,000| 1.0| ... | ...| Japan | 4,200| 0.3| 17,000| 1.3| ... | ...| Mexico | 61,200| 4.9| ... | ...| 61,200| 4.9| Norway | ... | ...| 500| ...| ... | ...| Peru | ... | ...| ... | ...| ... | ...| Portugal | ... | ...| ... | ...| ... | ...| Rhodesia | ... | ...| ... | ...| ... | ...| | | | | | | | Russia | 1,000| 0.1| 63,700| 5.1| ... | ...| Spain | 219,100| 17.4| ... | ...|219,100| 17.5| Sweden | 1,600| 0.1| 1,200| 0.1| ... | ...| Switzerland | ... | ...| 6,400| 0.5| ... | ...| Tunis | ... | ...| ... | ...| ... | ...| Turkey-in-Asia | 15,300| 1.2| ... | ...| 15,300| 1.2| United States | 425,100| 33.8| ... | ...| 10,800| 0.9| Other countries | 2,600| 0.2| 34,100| 2.7| ... | ...| -------------------+---------+-----+-------+-----+-------+-----+ World[135] |1,256,700|100.0|476,200| 37.8|441,600| 35.2| -------------------+---------+-----+-------+-----+-------+-----+

-------------------+------------------------------------------- | Recoverable lead in ores | and pig lead +---------------+-------------+------------- | | | | Consumption | Net imports | Net exports +---------+-----+-------+-----+-------+----- | | Per| | Per| | Per | Net |cent.| Net |cent.| Net |cent. Country | tons |[130]| tons |[130]| tons |[130] -------------------+---------+-----+-------+-----+-------+----- Algeria | ... | ...| ... | ...| 12,900| 1.3 Australia | 10,600| 0.8| ... | ...|233,900| 18.7 | | | | | | Austria-Hungary | 39,100| 3.0| 15,300| 1.2| ... | ... Belgium | 47,300| 3.7| 47,300| 3.8| ... | ... Bolivia | ... | ...| ... | ...| 1,100| 0.1 Bulgaria | ... | ...| ... | ...| 2,200| 0.2 Canada | 25,200| 2.0| 6,400| 0.5| ... | ... China | ... | ...| ... | ...| 14,000| 1.1 Egypt | ... | ...| ... | ...| 3,200| 0.2 France | 118,600| 9.1|109,000| 8.7| ... | ... German S. W. Africa| ... | ...| ... | ...| 13,200| 1.0 Germany | 246,400| 19.1|167,100| 13.4| ... | ... Great Britain | 211,000| 16.4|190,700| 15.2| ... | ... Greece | ... | ...| ... | ...| 20,300| 1.6 Holland | 10,500| 0.8| 10,500| 0.1| ... | ... India | | | | | | (Burma) | ... | ...| ... | ...| 6,500| 0.5 | | | | | | Italy | 35,900| 2.8| 11,000| 0.1| ... | ... Japan | 20,400| 1.6| 17,000| 1.3| ... | ... Mexico | ... | ...| ... | ...| 68,300| 5.5 Norway | 500| ...| 500| ...| ... | ... Peru | ... | ...| ... | ...| 4,300| 0.3 Portugal | ... | ...| ... | ...| 600| ... Rhodesia | ... | ...| ... | ...| 400| ... | | | | | | Russia | 64,800| 5.0| 61,700| 5.0| ... | ... Spain | ... | ...| ... | ...|209,200| 16.7 Sweden | 2,800| 0.2| 700| ...| ... | ... Switzerland | 6,400| 0.5| 6,400| 0.5| ... | ... Tunis | ... | ...| ... | ...| 31,100| 2.5 Turkey-in-Asia | ... | ...| ... | ...| 15,300| 1.2 United States | 414,300| 32.1| 2,400| 0.2| ... | ... Other countries | 36,700| 2.8| 36,700| 2.9| ... | ... -------------------+---------+-----+-------+-----+-------+----- World[135] |1,290,500|100.0|682,700| 52.9|636,500| 50.9 -------------------+---------+-----+-------+-----+-------+-----

[130] Percentages of World production of recoverable lead content of ores.

[131] Percentages of World smelter production of pig lead.

[132] Percentage of mean of totals used in a and b.

[133] Total recoverable lead content of ore production reported, less lead content of Australian production in forms other than pig lead.

[134] Probably represents ore surplus rather than exports.

[135] Lack of proper balance in these totals shows error or incompleteness, or lack of comparability, due in part to lag in the statistics, which, however, show correctly the general situation.

The ownership or operative control of mines is a minor factor in the commercial control of the lead industry and in general is of importance only as determining the distribution of ore to smelters competing otherwise on nearly equal terms. Most of the large smelter interests engage in, or have subsidiaries engaged in, mining or have sufficient holdings in large mining companies to influence their smelting contracts. The actual basis of control of the industry is, therefore, often through combined ownership or control of mines and of reduction works.

The ownership or control of reduction plants has been the dominating factor in the commercial control of the industry. The production of each country in 1913, the principal lead reduction works of the world, and their affiliations and control are discussed below.

=United States.=--The control of the lead industry of the United States through ownership or control is vested in ten groups as follows:

1. The Morgan-Guggenheim group, comprising the American Smelting & Refining Co.; American Smelters Securities Co.; and their subsidiaries: Selby Smelting & Lead Co.; Tacoma Smelting Co.; Garfield Smelting Co.; Consolidated Kansas City Smelting & Refining Co.; Federal Lead Co.; Federal Mining & Smelting Co.; Western Mining Co.; Silver Lake Mining Co.; and the Yak Mining, Milling & Tunnel Co.

2. The St. Joseph Lead Co.

3. National Lead Co.; St. Louis Smelting & Refining Co.; United Lead Co.

4. The Rockefeller-Ryan group, comprising the International Smelting Co.--Tooele smelter, Utah; and the International Lead Refining Co.,--refinery at East Chicago, Ind.

5. The United States Smelting, Refining & Mining Co. group, comprising the United States Smelting Co.--Mid vale smelter, Utah; U. S. Metals Refining Co.,--electrolytic lead refinery at Grasselli, Ind.; Needles Mining & Smelting Co.,--zinc-lead custom concentrator at Needles, Calif.; Bingham Mines Co. and other mines in Utah (Bullion, Beck, Champion, Utah-Apex, Centennial-Eureka and Tintic); Sunnyside and Gold Prince mines at Silverton, Colorado, and formerly a half interest in International Metals Selling Co.; and the Leadville Unit.

6. The Day group, comprising the Northport Smelting & Refining Co.; Pennsylvania Smelting & Refining Co.; Hercules Mining Co.; Tamarack & Custer Mining Co.; and the Amazon-Manhattan mines et al.

7. The American Metal Co. group, controlling the Ohio & Colorado Smelting Co. (owning 65 per cent. of its stock), and the Balbach Smelting & Refining Co. (owning one-third of its capital stock and selling the entire output).

8. Hayden-Stone-Clark-Coolidge group, comprising the American Zinc, Lead & Smelting Co.; American Zinc Co. of Tennessee; American Zinc. Co of Wisconsin; American Zinc Co. of Illinois; Granby Mining & Smelting Co. of Missouri; and the Butte & Superior Mining Co.

9. The Eagle-Picher group, comprising the Eagle-Picher Lead Co., Joplin, Mo. with smelter at Joplin, Mo., and controlling the Galena Smelting & Manufacturing Co., Galena, Kan.; and the Webb City Smelting & Manufacturing Co., Webb City, Mo.

10. The Bunker Hill & Sullivan Mining & Concentrating Co., controlled by Bradley-Crocker interests, and probably representing a certain proportion of English capital.

11. The Desloge Consolidated Lead Co., which formerly operated its own smelter but now has its ores smelted on toll by the Federal Lead Co. and markets its own lead.

All of the above companies are owned and controlled by American citizens so far as known, except certain interests in the American Metal Co. and perhaps the Bunker Hill & Sullivan Mining & Concentrating Co.

The American Metal Co. has 70,000 shares of capital stock, of which 34,644 shares were owned by the Metallgesellschaft, one of the German “Trio,” 18,620 shares belong to Germans who have become naturalized American citizens and have had the management, and the remaining 16,736 belonged to Henry L. Merton & Co., of London, a firm that is in process of liquidation. The Alien Property Custodian took over the 34,644 shares referred to above and sold them at public auction. The control of the company is vested in three voting trustees selected by agreement between the Alien Property Custodian and the American shareholders.

Vogelstein & Co. at one time linked groups 5, 7, 8, and 10, chiefly through selling contracts. Vogelstein & Co. owned the International Metals Selling Co., formerly marketing the production of the United States Smelting, Mining & Refining Co., but this connection is now broken. A contract for sale of the entire output of the American Zinc, Lead & Smelting Co. was held by L. Vogelstein & Co., partly owned by Aron Hirsch & Sohn, another member of the great German metal combine. L. Vogelstein & Co. (Inc). was seized by the Alien Property Custodian and was controlled by five directors, two of whom were appointees of the Custodian.[136] The operative control of the Bunker Hill & Sullivan Mining & Concentrating Co. is vested in Americans, but Vogelstein & Co. sells the output. Groups 5 and 8 are probably linked to some extent by large stockholders in common, Clark & Coolidge of Boston.

[136] L. Vogelstein is reported to have sold his interests to the American Metal Co. and subsequently, early in 1920, to have acquired a fifth interest in that company.

As a result of the activities of the Alien Property Custodian, the ownership and control of substantially all the mines and reduction works in the United States are vested in American citizens. Further information regarding the activities of German interests in the American metal trade is given in the chapter on copper, pages 232-235.

Table 54 lists the important lead smelting and refining plants of the United States at the present time.

TABLE 54.--SILVER-LEAD SMELTERS IN THE UNITED STATES

---------+-------------------+---------------------+--------+--------- | | | | Annual Financial| | | Number |capacity Group No.| | | of |(tons of | Operating company | Location |furnaces| charge) ---------+-------------------+---------------------+--------+--------- 1 |American Smelters | | | |Securities Co. |Selby, Calif. | 3 | 210,000 1 |American Smelting | | | |& Refining Co. |Denver, Colo. | 7 | 510,000 1 |American Smelting | | | |& Refining Co. |Pueblo, Colo. | 7 | 380,000 1 |American Smelting | | | |& Refining Co. |Durango, Colo. | 4 | 210,000 1 |American Smelting | | | |& Refining Co. |Leadville, Colo. | 10 | 510,000 1 |American Smelting | | | |& Refining Co. |Murray, Idaho | 8 | 657,000 1 |American Smelting | | | |& Refining Co. |East Helena, Mont. | 4 | 306,000 1 |American Smelting | | | |& Refining Co. |Omaha, Neb.[137] | 2 | 82,000 1 |American Smelting |Perth Amboy, | | |& Refining Co. |N. J.[137] | 4 | 170,000 1 |Con. Kansas City | | | |Smelting & Refining| | | |Co. |El Paso, Texas | 6 | 380,000 10 |Bunker Hill & | | | |Sullivan Mining & | | | |Concentrating Co. |Kellogg, Idaho | 3 | 600,000 7 |Ohio & Colorado | | | |Smelting Co. |Salida, Colo. | 3 | 200,000 5 |U. S. Smelting, | | | |Refining & Mining | | | |Co. |Midvale, Utah | 7 | 530,000 6 |Northport Smelting | | | |& Refining Co. |Northport, Wash. | 2 | 216,000 6 |Pennsylvania | | | |Smelting Co |Carnegie, Pa. | 2 | 60,000 4 |International | | | |Smelting Co. |Tooele, Utah | 5 | 500,000 | | +--------+--------- | Total | | 77 |5,521,000 ---------+-------------------+---------------------+--------+---------

[137] Refinery also.

The following Table 55 shows the relative importance of the various financial groups controlling the production of lead in the United States.

TABLE 55.--FINANCIAL GROUPS CONTROLLING THE PRODUCTION OF LEAD IN THE UNITED STATES

---------+---------------------------------------+--------------- | | Percentage | | of production Financial| Company +----------+---- group | |Oct.-Nov.,| No. | | 1918 |1917 ---------+---------------------------------------+----------+---- 1 |American Smelting & Refining Co | 34.1 |37.7 3 |National Lead Co. (St. Louis Smelting &| | |Refining Co.) | 5.9 | 9.0 2 |St. Joseph Lead Co. | 20.1 |16.4 4 |International Smelting & Refining Co. | 3.7 | 6.5 5 |U. S. Smelting Refining & Mining Co. | 5.5 | 8.3 6 |Pennsylvania Smelting Co. | 6.2 | 7.2 7 |American Metal Co. | 1.8 | 2.1 8 |American Zinc, Lead & Smelting Co. | 1.7 | 1.3 9 |Eagle-Picher Lead Co. | 9.3 | 6.2 10 |Banker Hill & Sullivan Mining & | | |Concentrating Co. | 6.3 | 1.7 11 |Desloge Consolidated Lead Co. | 2.6 | 3.3 |Ontario Smelting Co. | 1.9 | 0.0 ---------+---------------------------------------+----------+----

The American Smelting & Refining Co., through the preponderance of its production and the wide distribution of its interests, dominates the domestic industry, although its proportion of the total output has decreased greatly during the past few years.

=Spain.=--More than 60 per cent. of the pig lead made in Spain comes from the smelters of the Penarroya company (French), which within the past few years has absorbed the Spanish smelters of Escombrera-Bleyberg at Esconbrera, and the two smelters of Figueroa, at Linares and Cartagena. This gives the Penarroya company a dominant position in the Spanish lead industry. English interests, E. J. Enthoven & Co., have a smelter producing about 25,000 short tons of lead annually. All the smelting companies have made a combination to stop competition in ore buying. The Spanish government imposes a duty of about $1.80 per ton on lead concentrates exported.

=Australia.=--Smelting plants in Australia that produce lead have the capacities shown below.

The annual capacity of the Port Pirie plant is now 165,000 short tons of pig lead.

TABLE 56.--SILVER LEAD SMELTERS IN MEXICO

=Mexico.=--Practically all the Mexican smelting works are owned and operated by American companies. Prior to the war several of these were controlled by German interests through the American Metal Co. (incorporated in the United States), but the action of the Alien Property Custodian eliminated all foreign control in those companies, which comprise Compañia Minera de Peñoles, Compañia de Minerales y Metales, and Compañia Metalurgica de Torreon, leaving only the Compañia Fundadora y Refinadora de Monterrey still under German control. The American Metal Co. normally controlled 60,000 to 75,000 tons of bonded Mexican lead and 12,000 to 15,000 tons of lead smelted in Mexico, together with over a thousand tons of antimonial lead.

The Aguascalientes and Velardeña plants are chiefly copper smelters. There are small lead smelters at Terrazas and Santa Rosalia, Chihuahua, but they are probably abandoned.

=British Isles.=--During the war the British lead-smelting capacity is reported to have been increased. Before the war a large amount of foreign lead bullion from Spain, Belgium and Germany was desilverized in the British Isles.

=Other Countries.=--The lead-smelting plants of France escaped destruction during the war, being outside the war zone. The capacity of the Pontgibaud plant was greatly increased. They are all French owned. The most important lead smelting plant in Italy is that of the Societa di Pertusola (English), with a pig-lead output in 1915 of 16,625 metric tons; the other plant is that of the Societa di Monteponi (Italian), with an output of 5,187 tons. The only lead smelting of Greece is that of the Compagnie des Mines de Laurium (French).

The only important lead smelter of Canada is that of Trail, British Columbia, which is controlled by the Canadian government. This plant includes a refinery using the Betts electrolytic process.

The only lead smelter in Turkey is one controlled by French interests, that of the Société des Mines de Balia-Kara-Aidin, at Kara-Aidin. The lead smelting plant of the Burma Mines Corporation, Ltd., at Bawdwin, Burma, has a capacity of 22,000 short tons lead.

In Siberia the Ridder Mining Co., controlled by the Irtysh Corporation, of London, has constructed 165 miles of railroad, which, together with river transport, brings the ore from the Ridder concession and the coal of the Ekibastus coal fields to the smelting plant at Ermak, which has a capacity of 15,000 tons of lead annually.

=Trade Combinations.=--National and even international control of the lead market has at times been attained through marketing organizations or trade combinations of reduction works, ore-buying and metal-selling agencies with interlocking directorates, joint ownership, and long-term contracts for ores, concentrates, and metals.

In 1909 the so-called Lead Convention, or officially the International Sales Association, was formed in Paris. It was composed of German, Spanish, and Belgian producers and metal-selling agencies controlling directly about one-half of the European production. Some companies not nominally in the association acted in concert with it. This convention was renewed in 1910 and again in 1913 for three years. The association was dominated by the same interests as the German Zinc Syndicate,--the Merton group, comprising the Metallgesellschaft, the Metallbank and Metallurgische Gesellschaft of Frankfort and the Merton companies of London; Beer, Sondheimer & Co., controlling a dozen German metal and chemical concerns, and Aron Hirsch & Sohn at Halberstadt. The Merton group of London and Frankfort were the selling agents of the association, and the dominant “Trio,” through the Australian Metal Co., controlled the lead exported as metal or concentrates from Australia.

In the United States and Mexico all lead exported was controlled by the American Metal Co., affiliated with the association, or the American Smelting & Refining Co., acting in concert with it. The German “Trio” maintained and was rapidly extending and strengthening its ascendancy throughout the world through banks, holding companies, affiliations with syndicates and cartels, interlocking directorates, joint share holdings and purchase in whole or in part of mines and smelters. Some of the English lead refineries were closely associated with the Convention, and all lead exported from the Port Pirie smelter was sold by Merton & Co. The association was able to fix the price of lead in Europe and thus affect the output and, it has been claimed, so manipulated the market that lead outside the Convention was controlled just as effectively as that inside. The membership was international, brought together by mercenary motives. That the strongest and most aggressive interests were German citizens was purely incidental.

As a result of the war, however, the production of Australian lead concentrates and bullion is permanently diverted from German control. The activities of the Alien Property Custodian tended to eliminate all German interests in the United States. Most of the Australian lead bullion production is now marketed by the Broken Hill Associated Smelters, Prop., Ltd., of whose capital stock the Broken Hill Proprietary owns one-third and the Broken Hill South, Broken Hill North, and Zinc Corporation each own two-ninths. The plant of this company is now the largest smelter in the world.

The nationalist movement in France resulted in the formation of trade associations known as “consortiums,” comprising the principal factor in each industry. These “consortiums,” were recognized by the government, and each was made virtually arbiter of its particular field. The consortium of the mineral industry has been perfected into the Société Minerals et Metaux, 154 Boulevard Hausmann, Paris. The official announcement states that this society is organized under the auspices of the French government in order to group the French metal producers operating both at home and abroad into a co-operative association for the purchase and sale of metallurgical products.

The participants comprise the principal companies in France producing or refining metals and also the mining and smelting companies controlled by French capital in Spain, Algeria, Tunis, and other foreign countries. A highly centralized organization of that part of the mineral and metal industry under French control is thus achieved for mutual protection and advantage in competition with other nationalities. Members of this organization will produce most of the ore from Algiers and Tunis and probably 75 per cent. of the Spanish lead bullion. The present annual output of the participating companies is about 200,000 metric tons of lead, 50,000 metric tons of zinc, and 40,000 tons of copper, besides iron, antimony, platinum, etc. The association comprises the following companies: Société Minière et Metallurgique de Penarroya; Société d’Affinage de Metaux; Compagnie des Mines d’Ain-Barbar; Association Minière; Société des Mines de Zinc d’Ain-Arko; Compagnie du Boleo; Compagnie Française des Mines de Bor; Corocoro United Copper Mines, Ltd.; Société des Mines de Fedj-el-Adoum; Société des Mines de Zinc de Guergour; Compagnie des Mines de Huaron; Société Minière du Kanguet; Compagnie des Minerais de Fer Magnetique de Mokta-et-Hadid; Comptoir Lyon Allemand; Société Anonyme des Mines de Malfidano; Compagnie des Mines d’Ouasta et de Desloula; Société des Mines de Parzan; Compagnie Industrielle du Platine; Société Anonyme des Mines et Fonderies de Pontgibaud; Société des Mines d’Antimoine de Rochetrejoux; Société des Anciens Etablissements Sopwith; Société Française d’Etudes et d’Enterprises; Société des Mines du Djebel-Ressas; Société Anonyme Française du Djebel-Hallouf; Société Anonyme des Mines et Usines de Peyrebrune; and Compagnie La Cruz.

One of the results of the war was the stimulation of co-operative enterprises between British companies, the movement being encouraged by the government, which in some cases participated financially. The British Australian Lead Manufacturers Proprietary, Ltd., was formed as a consolidation of the Australian interests of British firms, with the object of establishing a white-lead industry in that country. Those participating comprise: Alexander Ferguson & Co.; Cookson & Co.; Foster, Blockett & Wilson; Locke, Blockett & Co.; Locke-Lancaster; W. W. & R. Johnson & Sons, Ltd.; Mersey White Lead Co., Ltd.; and Walkers Parker & Co.

The Chloride Syndicate comprising the Zinc Corporation, Ltd., Burma Mines Corporation, and the Swansea Vale Smelter, Ltd., is conducting experimental work on the Ganlin process with the object of perfecting it.

Richard Tilden Smith, having acquired controlling interests in J. H. Enthoven & Sons, Locke-Lancaster, Walkers Parker & Co. and a one-third interest in the Burma Mines Corporation, became a strong link between these important companies and thus secured an arrangement with the Imperial Government for financial assistance with the new plant of the National Smelting Co., Ltd., at Avonmouth to the extent of £500,000 out of the total estimated cost of £750,000, the government being particularly interested in the production of by-product acid. The National Smelting Co. agreed to take 25,000 tons yearly of Broken Hill concentrate and smelt no foreign ore without government permission. Enthoven & Sons control through ownership the output of one of the Spanish smelters and through desilverizing and marketing contracts the output of the French Laurium company of Greece. An attempt to bring about a closer combination of all the above-mentioned English and Australian companies failed.

It is reported that in 1917 Vivian, Younger & Bond, and Morgan, Grenfeld & Co. were instrumental in forming a “Metal Bank” in London. Broken Hill Associated Smelters Prop. Ltd., and the Penarroya company were said to have agreed to market their production through this bank, but it is probable that the arrangement was never made effective. A Chemical and Metallurgical Bank has been formed in London, among the shareholders being Richard Tilden Smith. Its proposed field is not clear, but it will probably endeavor to influence the control of lead in the United Kingdom.

A British Metals Corporation was formed in 1918 by Vivian, Younger & Bond, Chas. Tennant Sons & Co., Cookson & Co., the British Aluminum Co., Morgan, Grenfeld & Co., and large stockholders of the Rio Tinto Co., with a capital of £5,000,000. The Imperial Treasury will be represented on the board of directors. The purposes are to finance British non-ferrous metal companies, bring all the production within the empire of those metals under one marketing organization and preserve British control. If plans are successfully carried out, the smelting both in England and on the Continent of Europe, should any British concentrates be allotted there, will practically be on toll, the metal remaining in the control of the Metals Corporation or the affiliated bank.

POSITION OF THE GREAT NATIONS

The accompanying table presents available statistics of production since 1913 in order to show the extent to which the industry in each country is controlled by domestic or foreign capital, and attempts to show the extent of commercial control by each of the great powers. Such statistics are at best only approximate; the control varies from year to year and the data are difficult to obtain and verify.

TABLE 57.--COMMERCIAL CONTROL OF THE WORLD’S OUTPUT OF PIG LEAD

----------+---------+----+-----+-------------------------------------- | Recent | | | | pig-lead| | | Financial control by | pro- | | Per +------+-------+-------+-------+------- | duction| |cent.| Home | | | | | (short | | of | cap- | United| Great | | Country | tons) |Year|world| ital | States|Britain| France|Germany ----------+---------+----+-----+------+-------+-------+-------+------- United | | | | | | | | States | 612,200|1917| 44.6| ... |612,200| | | Australia | 127,800|1913| 9.4| ... | ... |127,800| | British | | | | | | | | Isles | 12,600|1916| 0.9| ... | ... | 12,600| | Canada | 20,400|1916| 1.5| ... | ... | 20,400| | Burma | 20,000|1917| 1.5| ... | ... | 20,000| | France | 30,800|1913| 2.2| ... | ... | ... | 30,800| Italy | 24,000| ...| 1.8| 5,700| ... | 18,300| | Belgium | 39,400|1913| 2.9|15,000| ... | ... | 24,400| Venezuela | 200|1917| ...| ... | ... | ... | ... | 200 Bolivia | 2,400|1917| 0.2| 400| ... | ... | 2,000| Greece | 12,800|1916| 0.9| ... | ... | ... | 12,800| Japan | 12,300|1916| 0.9|12,300| | | | Peru | 3,000|1917| 0.2| 500| 500| 2,000| | Russia | 1,100|1913| 0.1| 1,100| | | | Chile | 6,000|1917| 0.4| 3,000| ... | 1,000| ... | 2,000 Mexico | 61,200|1913| 4.4| ... | 53,200| 8,000| | Spain | 157,000|1917| 11.4|20,000| ... | 25,000|105,000| 7,000 Sweden | 2,100|1915| 0.1| 1,100| ... | ... | ... | 1,000 Germany | 200,000|1913| 14.5| ... | ... | ... | ... |200,000 Austria- | | | | | | | | Hungary | 26,600|1913| 1.9|26,600| | | | +---------+----+-----+------+-------+-------+-------+------- Total |1,371,900| ...|100.0| |665,900|235,100|175,000|210,200 +---------+----+-----+------+-------+-------+-------+------- Per cent. | | | | | | | | of world | | | | | | | | produc- | | | | | | | | tion. | | |100.0| | 48.6 | 17.2 | 12.7 | 16.3 ----------+---------+----+-----+------+-------+-------+-------+-------

=United States.=--During the war the United States demonstrated that its lead-ore deposits were capable of a production greatly in excess of the normal. That the increase was not greater was chiefly because of insufficient incentive in the market price of lead, which did not attain the early inflation of many of the other metals; and later, when the price was right, was restricted by lack of refining capacity. The existing capacity was at times not fully utilized because of the congestion of railway traffic. The lead-ore deposits in the United States have large possibilities, but with the exception of the disseminated lead deposits of southeastern Missouri the developed ore reserves will supply production for only a few years. Control of the mines in the United States is vested almost exclusively in Americans or American companies, some of the latter, however, having foreign stockholders, chiefly British or Canadian.

The United States imports lead ores, to a small percentage of its total production, from Mexico, Canada, South America and Africa. The Mexican ore is largely imported to meet the especial needs of the El Paso lead smelter, and not because of lack of smelting capacity in Mexico. The smelting capacity of the United States has always been in excess of the actual production of ore and is now very greatly in excess of the normal production. The ownership of most of the important smelters has always been vested in American capital, and as a result of the activity of the Alien Property Custodian all of them are now owned and controlled by American citizens. A considerable amount of lead bullion is imported, chiefly from Mexico, for refining. Most of this is re-exported. United States capital through ownership of smelters controls the greater part of the pig lead produced in Mexico and Peru. The importation of ore and bullion for refining from Canada is restricted by the government bounty on lead smelted and refined in Canada. United States capital also controls a considerable percentage of the mines of Mexico and has some interest in the Burma Mines Corporation, and the Irtysh Corporation.

Notwithstanding the enlarged smelting capacity and the possibilities of production from American mines, it is not expected that there will be any considerable export of domestic lead after the period of readjustment following the World War.

=British Empire.=--The countries of the British Empire in the order of the importance of their lead output in 1913 are Australia, British Isles, Canada, Burma, and Egypt.

British capital controls the mines and smelters of the British Isles, Canada, Australia, Burma, and the Altai Mountains in Siberia, and, by ownership of mines and smelters, some 25,000 tons of lead annually from Spain and over 70 per cent. of the production of Italy. By contracts for desilverization and marketing it has controlled the greater part of the Spanish output and part of the production of Greece. It is reported also to control small tonnages of ore from Peru and Chile. In view of the recent increase of refining capacity in Spain by the Penarroya company (French), and the organization of all French interests into the Société Minerais et Metaux, future control by English capital of Spanish output above the 25,000 tons produced by the English smelter is doubtful, although it has been reported that the Penarroya company had agreed to market its lead through the new Metal Bank of London. Prior to the war much base bullion from Spain, Belgium, and Germany was imported and desilverized, and in large part re-exported.

The ore production of the British Empire is about 25 per cent. greater than its consumption, but insufficient smelting capacity has caused dependence on foreign-smelted lead. The smelting capacity has been increased, and the additional capacity contemplated will make the total equal the consumption. The empire can be made independent of the rest of the world should the policy of “Imperial preference” be adopted.

All the large interests in the lead industry of the British Empire have shown during the war period a strong tendency to co-operate and organize for mutual protection and benefit. A culmination of this movement is apparently the formation of the British Metals Corporation, intended to vest the marketing control of the production of the whole British Empire in one organization under governmental auspices.

Australia.--The Australian production of lead ore and concentrates, derived chiefly from New South Wales, makes Australia rank second in world production of lead ores. In 1913 little more than half the output was exported to Europe for smelting, the remainder being smelted at Cockle Creek and Port Pirie. The pig lead produced, less a small local consumption, was also exported.

Australian mines have always been owned by British and Australian capital. Prior to the war the marketing of concentrates and of all lead bullion exported was controlled by the Australian Metal Co., affiliated with the German metal “Trio” headed by the Metallgesellschaft. During the war, however, the governments of Great Britain and Australia annulled the long-time ore- and metal-purchasing contracts, and the ore producers and smelters have organized for mutual protection and to keep the industry permanently under exclusive British control. The capacity of the Port Pirie reduction works has been increased by capital contributed jointly by the principal mining companies, and the plant is now the largest lead smelter in the world.

British Isles.--The small output of lead ore in Great Britain is obtained from a few scattered deposits of little importance. Some ore is imported and smelted with the domestic production. The consumption of the British Isles is so large that very large imports of pig lead are necessary, amounting to 14 per cent. of the world’s production. All of the mines and smelters of the British Isles are owned and controlled, so far as known, by British capital.

Canada.--With the assistance, through bounties, of the Canadian government, the Trail smelter has become firmly established and is the only important lead producer of Canada. It handles most of the British Columbia output of ores, which otherwise would have to go to the United States for reduction. The Canadian consumption is, however, about one-third greater than the production.

Burma.--Although the production of ore and pig lead in the Northern Shan States by the Burma Mines Corporation was in 1913 an insignificant part of the world’s output, the company has developed its deposits so as to be capable of a very much greater yield, which may amount in the near future to 75,000 tons annually. This company is controlled by British with probably some American capital.

Egypt.--The small ore production of Egypt is exported for smelting and is controlled by French capital.

=Germany.=--Germany, a large producer of lead ores, imported in 1913 for smelting nearly 10 per cent. of the world’s output and in addition imported a considerable amount of pig lead, being the second largest consumer of lead in the world. Should Germany lose Upper Silesia, which produced nearly half the domestic ores, it will be still more dependent on imports to supply its smelters. Prior to the war the German lead industry was closely organized, much of the lead mining and smelting being conducted by departments of the state governments, although some of the largest concerns were private corporations. The German metal “Trio” headed by the Metallgesellschaft through the International Sales Association controlled directly about one-half the European production, comprising in this so-called Lead Convention, besides the German concerns, most of the Spanish and Belgian producers, most of the lead exported from the United States and Mexico, and the pig lead and concentrates exported from Australia. This system of control outside of Germany has now been permanently destroyed, and the magnitude and the organization of the German lead industry in the near future cannot be anticipated.

=France.=--In France the output of lead ore is small and is controlled, with probably one exception, by French capital. Some ores are imported for smelting, Tunis and Algeria being capable of supplying even more. To provide for the large consumption, France ranking fourth among lead-consuming countries, there is imported in the form of pig lead some 7 per cent. of the world’s output. Recently smelting capacity has been increased. French capital controls more than half the production of Belgium through ownership of smelters, and through ownership of mines and smelters controls more than half the production of Spain and most, if not all, of the output of Greece. It also controls the ore production of Egypt and most of the ores produced in Algeria and Tunis. Under government auspices a strong organization of all the metal-producing companies controlled by French capital in France and foreign countries has recently been effected under the name of the Société Minerais et Metaux, which controls the sale of all the production of its members, as well as acting as a purchasing agent for them.

=Belgium.=--Belgium produces no ores but smelts about 4¹⁄₂ per cent. of the world’s output, nearly the whole of which is consumed within her borders. A little less than half of this production is controlled by Belgian capital, the remainder by French interests. Belgian capital is also interested to a minor extent in Spain, Algeria, the Caucasus Mountains and Tunis. It is believed that a part of the Australian concentrates may be allotted to Belgium for smelting.

=Italy.=--The Italian ore production, amounting to about 2 per cent. of the world’s total, is smelted in that country. The product is consumed, together with about 50 per cent. more, imported as pig lead. More than three-fourths of the domestic output is controlled by English capital; nearly all the remainder is controlled by Italian capital, but other English, French and Belgian companies produce insignificant amounts of ore.

=Austria-Hungary.=--The Austro-Hungarian Empire produced and smelted ores to the amount of about 2 per cent. of the world’s output in 1913, and consumed this with about 50 per cent. more metal imported in the form of pig lead. The several lead-producing districts and smelters, some of which belong to the states of Austria and Hungary, with the partition of the empire fall within three or more distinct political jurisdictions, the lead production of none of which will be of importance. One of the important lead smelters is at Fiume.

=Spain.=--Spain ranks third in content of ores produced and second in smelter production. The domestic consumption being negligible, all of the lead is exported. Prior to the war most of the production went to England to be desilverized. During the war, however, the refining capacity of Spain was greatly increased, and it now seems likely that any silver lead which the domestic plants can not take care of will be shipped to France for desilverization. More than half the Spanish production is controlled by French capital, and to a minor degree by Belgian and German interests.

=Japan.=--Japanese lead-ore resources are meagre. The output of lead ore and pig lead in 1913 was about 25 per cent. of the domestic consumption. Since then ores and concentrates have been imported from China, Formosa, Korea, Siberia, and Australia, but importation of pig lead has still been necessary. The Japanese are endeavoring to secure control of ore deposits in China and Siberia, and supply the raw material for the increase of their domestic smelting and manufacturing industries. It is probable, however, that Japan will be dependent for many years on imports from other sources for most of the lead consumed.

SUMMARY

The chief uses of lead are as metal and in the form of white lead or basic carbonate, as a pigment. Metallic lead is used for water pipe, covering for electrical cables, lining acid chambers and vats, and for shot, bullets and shrapnel. Alloys with various other metals are used in type, bearings, and fuses. The red and orange oxides are used for pigments. The largest single form of consumption is white lead.

Lead and zinc ores are commonly associated and are widely distributed over the world. Galena is the chief lead mineral, the other ore minerals, cerussite and anglesite, being derived from it by oxidation. Galena is a persistent mineral, being found in nearly all types of ore deposits. The countries producing the most ore are, in order of importance, United States, Australia, Spain, Germany, and Mexico. Districts of major importance are Broken Hill, New South Wales; southeastern Spain; southeastern Missouri; and Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.

The developments in selective oil flotation, by which the detrimental zinc content is eliminated from complex ores and made an asset, constitute the greatest recent advance in the dressing of lead ores. Electrolytic refining is the greatest recent advance in the metallurgy of lead.

The readiness with which lead is reduced from its ores and its utility as a collector of the precious metals in smelting have resulted in a wide distribution of reduction plants. Nevertheless a large percentage of the world’s output of ores is transported from the countries of origin to others, for reduction near the market and where skilled labor and fuel are more abundant and cheaper.

The countries of largest smelter production are, in order, United States, Spain, Germany and Australia; those of much less importance are Mexico, Belgium, Great Britain, France, Austria-Hungary, Italy, Greece, Canada and, recently, Burma. Other countries are of little importance.

The countries of major consumption are, in order, United States, Germany, Great Britain, and France. The United States produces its own requirements, but the other three countries import ores for smelting and also pig lead in large quantity. Australia and northern Africa have supplied the bulk of the ores, and Spain, Australia, and Mexico most of the pig lead. This is the situation at last analysis, the actual trade movement being, of course, much more complex.

The political control of the world’s lead production, in terms of the lead content of ores, in 1913 was as follows: United States, 36.0 per cent.; British Empire, 23.9 per cent.; Spain, 6.4 per cent.; Germany, 5.9 per cent.; Mexico, 5.1 per cent.; and France, 4.0 per cent. Three powers thus control 76 per cent. of the production.

The ownership of mines is important chiefly as determining the distribution of ores to smelters. Ore-purchasing contracts may modify or annul the effect of political jurisdiction and mine ownership. The ownership or control of reduction plants has been the most effective basis for commercial control of the industry. In the United States the American Smelting & Refining Co. dominates the market, but controls directly only one-third of the output. In Spain the French company of Penarroya controls more than half the production. In Germany the “Trio” headed by the Metallgesellschaft controlled the domestic industry prior to the war, and through the “Lead Convention” extended its domination to half the European output and most of the exports of Australia, Mexico, and the United States. This control was, however, never absolute. In Australia at present the Broken Hill Associated Smelters controls the marketing of most of the pig lead exported.

Joint political and commercial control has been established in the British Empire and France. During the war, political jurisdiction was quite generally invoked to modify or eliminate commercial control, particularly with regard to alien-enemy interests.

The various combinations of British companies to insure British control of the resources of the empire, particularly of Australia and Burma, culminated in the formation of the British Metals Corporation for the sale of the output. A representative of the Imperial Treasury will be on the board of directors and either the Metal Bank of London or the Chemical & Metallurgical Bank may finance its operation, unless it absorbs their functions. This organization is doubtless intended to take the place of the Metallgesellschaft as the dominant factor in the lead industry of the world. It will have much influence, as British capital controls all the production of the British Isles, Australia, Burma, Canada, and normally Siberia, most of that of Italy, part of that of Spain and Mexico, and perhaps of Greece. Probably the British Isles will not in the future desilverize as much foreign lead as formerly, so that the importance of this basis of commercial control will be greatly decreased.

The Société Minerais et Metaux, comprising all producers controlled by French capital, under government auspices is selling and purchasing agent for its members, and controls all the French and most of the Grecian production, more than half of that of Spain and Belgium, besides the ores of northern Africa and of Egypt.

Since the elimination of alien-enemy holdings by the Alien Property Custodian, United States capital controls substantially all the domestic production and nearly all that of Mexico, besides some ores imported from Mexico, Canada, and South America. Notwithstanding large ore reserves and reduction capacity, the United States is expected, after the period of readjustment, to supply its domestic needs, but to export little lead, as was the case prior to the war.

The position of Germany will depend largely upon arrangements for foreign ore supply. Some Mexican ore production may still be under German control. Belgium is wholly dependent on foreign ore, which presumably will be obtained largely from Australia; and with more than half her production controlled by French capital, she will be under British and French domination; but she consumes most of her smelter output. Italy consumes 50 per cent. more than the domestic production, which is chiefly controlled by English capital. None of the states formed by the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire will be of importance in the lead industry.

The commercial control of the smelter production of lead, calculated from the latest statistics available, is approximately as follows: United States, 48.6 per cent.; British Empire, 17.2 per cent.; Germany, 15.3 per cent.; and France, 12.7 per cent.; or a total for the four powers of 93.8 per cent. of the pig-lead output of the world.

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XVI. ZINC

BY FREDERICK B. HYDER

USES OF ZINC

Metallic zinc, or spelter, as the commercial metal is often known in the trade, is chiefly used in the form of rolled sheets; in galvanizing; in alloys forming brass and bronze; and in the desilverization of lead bullion. Rolled sheets are used for roofs, tanks, conduits, and protective linings. Iron and steel objects are dipped into baths of molten spelter and coated with the metal or galvanized, being thereby protected from oxidizing agencies. Other methods of applying this protective coating are also in use.

Zinc and copper unite in all proportions, forming alloys known as brass which are of widespread industrial application. There is only one definite alloy; it corresponds approximately to CuZn₂, contains 33 per cent. copper and 67 per cent. zinc, is hard and brittle and of little practical value. All other brasses may be considered as solid solutions of this definite alloy in an excess of one of its constituents. Brasses in use vary in zinc content from 20 to 85 per cent. and differ greatly in their properties according to the composition. Alloys of zinc and aluminum have valuable properties, especially those containing 25 to 35 per cent. zinc. Other alloys used contain, besides copper and zinc, either lead, tin or nickel.

The Parkes process of desilverizing lead bullion has superseded the older Pattinson and cupellation process, except where bismuth is present, owing to the avidity with which zinc robs the bullion of gold, silver, copper and tellurium. This purification may be made as perfect as desired or only to a commercially profitable point, generally being brought down to a content of one-half ounce of silver per ton of lead.

Among the miscellaneous uses of zinc are these: ornamental castings; in galvanic batteries; in photo-engraving; in plates hung in boilers to prevent formation of scale; precipitation of gold in the cyanide process; in the form of powder, as a reducing agent in organic chemistry, especially in the reduction of indigo-blue and in a paint for structural steel. Zinc is also used in the form of numerous salts, such as the chloride as a wood preservative, and the sulphate, employed in medicine, dyeing and glue manufacture.

Zinc oxide, produced both from the metal and from ores, is used as a pigment both in combination with white lead and barytes, and as a competitor of them. Considerable amounts of oxide are also used in the rubber manufacturing industry. Lithopone (an intimate mixture, obtained by chemical precipitation of zinc sulphide and barium sulphate) is of growing importance as a pigment.

All the chief uses of zinc, comprising galvanizing, rolled sheets, brass-making and the desilverization of lead bullion, may be considered essential. Brass belongs with steel in the category of indispensable materials of modern industry. No satisfactory substitute as regards both physical qualities and cost is available for many important parts of machinery and for manufacturing purposes. Its wide use depends on a number of qualities. The excellent sharp castings made from certain brasses are readily machined or otherwise finished and electro-plated if desired. The electrical conductivity of brass is good. Certain brasses are easily rolled into sheets and cut and stamped in desired shapes. Lubricated surfaces of steel on brass make satisfactory and durable bearings.

The other large uses of zinc depend on its resistance to oxidation and on the possibility of rolling it into fairly thin sheets. In both these qualities, however, it is surpassed by other metals, notably nickel and tin. Alloyed with lead it may be rolled into a substitute for tin-foil. It is in some cases a fairly satisfactory, cheap substitute for metals of higher quality. In times of scarcity or high prices, substitution of metals of inferior quality is feasible, and in many cases zinc may be temporarily dispensed with altogether. Its field is therefore largely fixed by commercial conditions of supply and price, which determine broadly the total consumption and especially the percentages devoted to the various uses. It may be assumed, however, that the percentages for the domestic consumption in the United States in 1910 represent approximately those of normal peace times. In that year, of the total consumption, 60 per cent. was used in galvanizing; 20 per cent. in brass-making; 11 per cent. in rolled sheets; and 1 per cent. in lead desilverization; leaving 8 per cent. for miscellaneous uses. During the war the percentage used in galvanizing was greatly reduced and that used for brass-making much increased. The use of rolled sheets will increase.

A large part of the European production in normal times is rolled into sheets used chiefly for roofing.

CHANGES IN PRACTICE

In the extraction of zinc from its ores the most important changes in practice during recent years have been adaptations of retort smelting for the purpose of utilizing zinc concentrates from complex ores, the increased production of zinc oxide and lithopone through the application of volatilization methods to the re-treatment of retort residues and base ores, and the electrolytic and electro-thermic processes of extraction of the metal.

The most revolutionary advance has been the development of the oil flotation, the electro-magnetic, and electro-static processes for the concentration of ores. These processes are being widely introduced and in connection with electrolytic reduction are particularly adapted to the production of spelter of the highest quality from complex ores. As the electrolytic and electro-thermic processes find their field only where power is relatively cheap, the tendency is to put installations where hydro-electric power is available, effecting a redistribution of zinc-smelting centers.

GEOLOGICAL DISTRIBUTION

Zinc and lead are commonly associated in mineral deposits, sometimes intimately mixed, sometimes so segregated that one metal predominates, but ores of one are seldom free entirely from the other. The geological and geographical distribution of the two metals is therefore nearly identical.

The sulphide ores, chiefly sphalerite or blende, are the most important, but in the oxidized zone they are often altered to carbonates--smithsonite, calamine and hydrozincite. The oxides--franklinite, willemite and zincite--are important in only one district in New Jersey. The carbonates, although they carry a low percentage of zinc, often occur in concentrated ore bodies, and yield readily to metallurgical treatment. Therefore, calamine-smithsonite ores form a large proportion of the production of many important districts, but blende will hereafter be of increasing importance in the world production.

Zinc ores occur in deposits of several distinct genetic types. In the order of their importance they are:

(a) Deposits formed in sedimentary rocks, without apparent connection with igneous rocks, as bedded replacements usually of limestones and dolomites. The ores of this type usually contain lead (galena) and iron (pyrite or marcasite) minerals, often those of manganese and cadmium, sometimes those of arsenic, cobalt and nickel, but seldom gold, silver, copper, or antimony. Barite and fluorite are sometimes present.

The deposits of this type are of world-wide distribution. Their greater purity and the simplicity of the treatment necessary, particularly of the ores in their oxidized zones, have caused them to be exploited first and most extensively and to be until recently the dominant factor in the world production of zinc. To this type belong the deposits of the Mississippi Valley and Silesia, which together produced 34 per cent. of the world’s output in 1913.

(b) Veins associated with igneous rocks and disseminated sulphide replacements of igneous rock. In this group come the deposits of Butte, Leadville, and the Coeur d’Alene, and the disseminated deposits of the Bawdwin (Burma Mines Co.), Ridder (Siberia) and Salmon River (B.C.). These ores are usually complex, comprising minerals of zinc, lead, copper, iron, gold and silver, and often arsenic, antimony and other metals. In one group, the silver-lead deposits, zinc seems a minor factor, but with depth replaces lead as the predominant metal. Deposits of these complex ores have in recent years become important sources of zinc through recognition of the zinc ores in their oxidized zones, through zinc becoming the dominant metal with increasing depth at many mines, and especially through improvements in methods of concentrating complex ores and extracting metal from the concentrates. Ores of this type will be of increasing importance in the future because of their world-wide distribution.

(c) Igneous metamorphic deposits containing franklinite, willemite, zincite, a little blende, and a gangue of calcite, rhodonite, garnet, pyroxene, hornblende, magnetite and tremolite. This type is characteristic of the Franklin and Adirondack deposits of the northeastern metallographic province of the United States and is also found at Magdalena and Hanover, New Mexico and the Horn Silver mine, in Utah.

(d) Metamorphosed deposits. Originally these may have been of any of the preceding types but are now disguised by regional metamorphism. The best example is the important deposit of Ammeberg, Sweden. Blende there occurs disseminated in bands in gneissoid granulite, which also contains bands of disseminated pyrrhotite and arsenopyrite.

GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION

The chief zinc ore deposits of the world are in the countries listed in the table below; the order of the countries is that of their importance in the industry in 1913, as nearly as can be estimated from incomplete data.

The three major metallographic provinces of the world as indicated by present exploitation are those of Broken Hill, N.S.W., Silesia, and the Mississippi Valley.

The condition of the zinc industry in the principal countries, in 1913, is shown in Table 59.

=United States.=--The zinc deposits of the United States may be assigned to three metallographic provinces, which in the order of their present importance are: the Mississippi Valley province; the Western province; and the Northeastern province.

Judged by present knowledge, the Mississippi Valley province is one of the three major zinc-bearing metallographic provinces of the world. It occupies an area underlain with slightly disturbed Paleozoic limestone, ranging from Ordovician to Lower Carboniferous in age, that comprises most of the great mid-continental valley of the Mississippi in the states of Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Wisconsin, Iowa, also Tennessee and the western part of Virginia. Igneous rocks are generally absent. There are three principal subprovinces: the Ozark province, comprising Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas; the upper Mississippi valley, comprising Wisconsin, Northern Illinois, and Iowa; and the regions of Tennessee and Virginia.

TABLE 58.--CHIEF ZINC-ORE DEPOSITS OF THE WORLD

-----------+---------------------------------+------------------ Approximate| | Percentage of order | Country |world’s production | | in 1913 -----------+---------------------------------+------------------ 1 |United States | 35.0 2 |Germany | 25.0 3 |Australia | 15.0 4 |Italy | 5.0 5 |Algeria | 3.0 6 |Japan | 2.0 7 |Spain | 2.0 8 |Russia (including Russian Poland)| 2.0 9 |France | 1.5 10 |Greece | 1.0 11 |Sweden | 1.0 12 |Mexico | 1.0 13 |Austria | 1.0 14 |Tunis | 1.0 15 |Indo-China (Tonkin) | 16 |Great Britain | 17 |China | 18 |Bolivia | 19 |Canada | 20 |India (Burma) | 21 |Egypt | 22 |South Africa | 23 |Peru | -----------+---------------------------------+------------------

In the Ozark subprovinces the Joplin district is most important. The ores lie at three horizons in flat-lying lower Carboniferous limestones. In the upper horizon, below the surface, the ore lies in clayey chert breccias, and galena predominates. The middle horizon, or “sheet ground,” carries mixed galena and blende, which cements brecciated chert. The ore is low grade, the average recovery of zinc being 1.9 per cent. This horizon has been the most important source of ore. The third and lowest horizon, as yet little exploited, contains disseminated ores. Thirty mills were busy in the Joplin district in 1918. The Athletic Mining & Smelting Co. was the largest producer, operating the Athletic mine, at Duenweg, the Bertha A., at Webb City, and Mutual mine, at Oronogo. Miami Zinc Syndicate, affiliated with the Butte & Superior and American Zinc, Lead & Smelting Co.; the Commerce Mining & Royalty Co.; the Century Zinc Co.; and the Tri-State Mining Co., are large operators. Much of the production is by lessees and small operators.

TABLE 59.--ZINC INDUSTRY IN 1913

------------------------+-------------------------------------++ | || | Available zinc in ore ++ | (short tons) || +---------+---------+--------+--------++ | | | | || Country | Produced| Smelted |Exported|Imported|| ------------------------+---------+---------+--------+--------++ United States | 305,500| 310,500| 8,500 | 13,500|| | | | | || Australasia | 206,000| 4,000| 202,000| ... || British Isles | 50,000| 65,000| ... | 15,000|| Canada | 24,000| ... | 24,000| ... || Burma, Indo China, etc. | 18,000| ... | 18,000| ... || France and French Africa| 69,000| 63,000| 6,000| ... || Italy | 40,000| ... | 40,000| ... || Belgium | 11,000| 218,000| ... | 207,000|| China | 5,000| 2,500| 2,500| ... || Greece | 12,000| ... | 12,000| || Japan | 10,000| 8,000| 2,000| ... || Russia | 35,000| 13,000| 22,000| ... || Holland | ... | 27,000| ... | 27,000|| Mexico | 30,000| ... | 30,000| || Norway | 15,000| 10,000| 5,000| ... || Spain | 50,000| 15,000| 35,000| ... || Sweden | 10,000| 6,000| 4,000| ... || Austria-Hungary | 24,000| 24,000| ... | ... || Germany | 163,500| 312,000| ... | 148,500|| Other | ... | ... | ... | ... || +---------+---------+--------+--------++ Total |1,078,000|1,078,000| 411,000| 411,000|| ------------------------+---------+---------+--------+--------++ ------------------------++------------------------------------------- || Spelter (short tons) ++-----------------+-------+-------+--------- || Produced | | | ++---------+-------+ | To be | Annual || | Sec- | For | im- | con- Country || Primary | ondary| export| ported| sumption ------------------------++---------+-------+-------+-------+--------- United States || 310,500| 50,000| 21,000| | 339,500 || | | | | Australasia || 4,000| ... | ... | ... | 4,000 British Isles || 65,000| 6,000| ... |143,500| 214,500 Canada || ... | ... | ... | 20,000| 20,000 Burma, Indo China, etc. || | | | | France and French Africa|| 63,000| 20,500| ... | 5,500| 89,000 Italy || ... | ... | ... | 12,000| 12,000 Belgium || 218,000| 3,500| 7,500| ... | 84,000 China || 2,500| ... | ... | 7,500| 10,000 Greece || | | | | Japan || 8,000| ... | ... | 4,000| 12,000 Russia || 13,000| ... | ... | 23,500| 36,500 Holland || 27,000| 3,000 | 25,500| ... | 4,500 Mexico || | | | | Norway || 10,000| ... | 10,000| | Spain || 15,000| ... | 8,500| ... | 6,500 Sweden || 6,000| ... | 6,000| ... | Austria-Hungary || 24,000| 3,000| ... | 17,500| 44,500 Germany || 312,000| 18,500| 75,000| ... | 255,500 Other || ... | 1,500| ... | 45,000| 46,500 ++---------+-------+-------+-------+--------- Total ||1,078,000|106,000|283,500|278,500|1,179,000 ------------------------++---------+-------+-------+-------+---------

In Arkansas the ores are of similar character and mode of occurrence and are found in the same formation and also in the Ordovician limestone. The Lavender Mining & Milling Co. is the largest operator and the production has been largely carbonate ores.

The Upper Mississippi region comprises deposits in nearly horizontal limestones of Ordovician age. Three-fourths of the output of this district is made by five companies: the Mineral Point Zinc Co., a subsidiary of the New Jersey Zinc Co., with seven mines; the Vinegar Hill Zinc Co., with six mines; the Wisconsin Zinc Co., a subsidiary of the American Zinc, Lead & Smelting Co., with four mines; the Frontier Mining Co., with five producing mines; and the Cleveland Mining Co., with two mines. Other important companies are Burr Mining Co., Block House Mining Co., M. & A. Mining Co., B. M. & B. Mining Co., and Oliver Mining Co., a subsidiary of the U. S. Steel Corporation. All of the mines are equipped with milling plants. The production of the district shows a steady growth.

The zinc deposits of southwest Virginia and northeastern Tennessee occur as disseminated replacement breccia along crushed and faulted zones in folded Cambro-Ordovician limestones, and also as oxidized ores in clays residual from the weathering of the same limestones. The gangue is calcite and dolomite. The American Zinc Co. is the largest operator in Tennessee; it has a milling capacity of 3,000 tons daily and zinc-blende ore reserves greater than 6,000,000 tons averaging between 4 and 5 per cent. zinc, from which 60 per cent. zinc-blende concentrates are made. This company is a subsidiary of the American Zinc, Lead & Smelting Co.

The Western province comprises most of the western states; it extends north into British Columbia and south into Mexico. The chief subprovinces are those of Leadville, Butte, and Coeur d’Alene.

The Leadville deposits are found in strata varying in age from Archean to Cretaceous, which have been intruded by igneous rocks. The ores are mainly replacements of limestone and occur in large masses. This district first became of importance in zinc production upon the recognition of smithsonite and calamine in the large masses of oxidized ores. Of recent years sulphides form an increasing part of the production, now coming largely from deeper levels. The ores carry gold, silver, manganese, copper and sometimes bismuth. The United States Smelting Refining & Mining Co., the Empire Zinc Co., a subsidiary of the New Jersey Zinc Co.; the Western Mining Co., the Downtown Mines Co., the Wellington Mines Co., at Breckenridge; and the Mary Murphy mine, at Chalk Creek, are the largest operators in this region.

The Butte ores occur as veins in igneous rocks. The area in which zinc ores predominate surrounds that of important copper veins on three sides. On the border of the two areas, zinc-silver ores predominate in the upper levels and copper in the deeper workings. Many of the present zinc mines were formerly worked for silver. These complex zinc ores have been made available by the successful application of oil flotation and electrolytic deposition. The Black Rock mine of the Butte & Superior Mining Co., the Elm Orlu of W. A. Clark & Son, the Alice, and several other mines of the Anaconda Copper Mining Co., and the North Butte Mining Co. are among the most important producers. The twelve mines yielding zinc in 1915 together have immense reserves. The ores all carry lead and silver and some pyrite, and many contain copper and gold.

The Coeur d’Alene subprovince comprises a number of mining districts in Idaho, at least five being zinc producers. The Interstate-Callahan, in the Beaver district, is the largest zinc mine in the state. The ore is remarkable for the small percentage of minerals other than sphalerite, averaging 28 per cent. zinc.

The Northeastern province comprises important deposits at Franklin, New Jersey, and in the Adirondack Mountains in New York, and others of minor importance in the New England states. It is characterized by deposits of igneous metamorphic origin in Pre-Cambrian limestone. The Franklin deposits, in New Jersey, consist chiefly of franklinite, willemite and zincite in a gangue of calcite, rhodonite, garnet, pyroxene, magnetite and hornblende. Willemite is separated magnetically from these ores and used to produce a very high-grade spelter free from lead and cadmium and therefore in great demand for certain purposes. The other classes of ore are smelted for the production of zinc white and spiegeleisen. These mines, owned and operated by the New Jersey Zinc Co., have produced more than 1,500,000 tons of zinc in the form of spelter and zinc oxide. The Edwards-Balmat district, in St. Lawrence County, New York, comprises an area two to three miles wide and fifteen miles long, of Pre-Cambrian limestone. The ore occurs in lenses and is a mixture of sphalerite, pyrite and a little galena with a gangue of dolomite. Separation is effected by magnetic tables. The typical ore contains: sphalerite, 25.5 per cent.; galena, 1.43 per cent.; pyrite, 12.4 per cent.; barite, 3.9 per cent. The ore reserves of the Northern Ore Co., the largest operator, are known to exceed one million tons.

=Germany.=--Imperial Germany comprised most of one metallographic province of major importance, Silesia, and other districts ranking as follows: Upper Silesia; Rhenish Prussia; Westphalia; Saxony; Hanover; and Nassau.

The major part of the mineral province of Upper Silesia lay within the boundaries of Germany in 1914. Once it was part of the Kingdom of Poland, except for portions included in the old empires of Russia and Austria. The pre-war production of zinc ores from Russian Poland was entirely from this metallographic province. The deposits, which contain lead and zinc together, occur in Triassic formation overlying Carboniferous rocks that carry important seams of coal. This juxtaposition of ore and fuel has furnished an ideal basis for the great smelting industry that has been developed, and facilitates the smelting of low-grade ores. The ores are said to average 17 per cent. zinc and 5 per cent. lead. They come from two ore horizons. The lower is characterized by blende, with a little galena and marcasite; the upper or lead horizon comprises a very persistent sheet of galena 0.05 to 0.30 meters thick, which generally is underlain by red calamine. The blende deposits are extensive and will be productive for a long time.

In Rhenish Prussia, zinc ore (smithsonite) deposits are found in strata of Devonian age. These deposits are approaching exhaustion. The chief zinc deposits of Westphalia are in Devonian strata. The historic mines at Freiberg (Erzgebirge), in Saxony, produce a small quantity of blende from the concentration of galena ores. The blende carries considerable iron and silver and some of it contains traces of tin. These mines are controlled by the Saxon government.

A considerable quantity of blende ore is concentrated as a by-product in the dressing of the lead ore of the Upper Harz, Hanover. The ore of Rammelsberg, in the Lower Harz, occurs in a bed interstratified with lower Devonian slates and sandstones; it is an intimate mixture of blende, galena, pyrite, chalcopyrite, and barite and some calcite and quartz. Zinc is produced as a by-product of lead ores in the valley of Lahn (Nassau), where a series of strong veins are found in Lower Devonian strata.

=Australia.=--The zinc resources of the Commonwealth of Australia are chiefly in New South Wales and Tasmania. The former has been the chief source of zinc in the past, but the Tasmania deposits are now being rapidly developed and equipped for production.

The most important source of zinc ore in New South Wales is the great Broken Hill lode, where operations began in 1884. The country rock comprises crystalline schists and gneisses. Between the oxidized and primary sulphide ores was a thin zone of secondary sulphides. The early operations in the district were for lead, and immense dumps accumulated of zinc-bearing ores sorted out or of zinc-bearing tailings from the concentration of the lead ores. In 1903 these dumps were estimated at 5,687,400 tons carrying 18.6 per cent. zinc. With the development of demand for zinc sulphide ores and of oil flotation methods of separation and concentration these dumps became important sources of zinc concentrates, but many of them are approaching exhaustion. The sulphide ores are a close mixture of galena and zinc blende, carrying silver. There are two classes of these ores, distinguished as silicate-gangue ore, and calcite-gangue ore. The silicate gangue ore bodies carry rhodonite, garnet and quartz and are richer in zinc and silver than those of calcite gangue.

Eight mining companies are now at work. In the order of the importance of their output and ore reserves, these companies are: Broken Hill South Silver Mining Co.; Broken Hill North Mining Co.; Zinc Corporation; Sulphide Corporation; British Broken Hill Proprietary Co.; Broken Hill Proprietary Co., Block 10; and Broken Hill Proprietary Co., Block 14. The estimated ore reserves of all the mines approximate 12,000,000 tons.

The Broken Hill South Silver Mining Co. has ore reserves estimated at 3,350,000 tons, and is the largest producer. Broken Hill North, Amalgamated Zinc (de Bavay), Zinc Corporation, and Barrier South Ltd. are controlled by Govett and associates, a group of Australian capitalists. The Amalgamated Zinc Co. in 1913 treated 498,289 tons of tailings, obtaining 140,098 tons zinc concentrates, carrying zinc, 48.9 per cent.; also lead concentrates amounting to 1,584 tons, carrying 57.1 per cent. lead. The Zinc Corporation, a company formed by Bewick, Moreing Co., has ore reserves estimated at 1,504,211 tons, averaging 14.8 per cent. lead, 9.2 per cent. zinc, and 2.5 ounces of silver per ton. The mine of the Broken Hill Proprietary Co. is, according to last reports, nearly exhausted.

The principal deposits of Tasmania are those of the Primrose, Hercules, and Tasmania Copper Mines, all owned by the Mount Reed Rosebery Co., affiliated with the Mount Lyell Mining & Railway Co. The state geological staff estimates reserves at 1,272,500 tons averaging 29.79 per cent. zinc, 8.89 per cent. lead, 12.16 ounces of silver and 0.17 ounces of gold per ton.

=Italy.=--The zinc production of Italy is derived from the Iglesias district of Sardinia, and the Province of Bergamo. The Iglesias district is in the southeastern part of the island of Sardinia. The ores are oxidized and mostly worked by open pits. They are mined and milled by two Italian companies, Societa di Monteponi, and the Societa di Pertusola. The ores have usually been smelted in Germany, England or Belgium. The Bergamo mines, in the Province of Lombardy, are worked by the English Crown Spelter Co., which ships the ore to Swansea, Wales, for smelting.

=Algeria.=--Algeria produced 82,256 tons of zinc ore in 1913. Of the 78,973 tons whose origin is known, 31 per cent. of the total was extracted by Belgian companies and the remainder was produced by French operators.

=Japan.=--The only important zinc-producing district in Japan is the Province of Hida. The principal companies are the Osaka Zinc Mining & Smelting Co., Takata & Co., the Rhuara Mining Co., and the Mitsui Mining Co. The largest producer is the Kamioka Mine of the last named, which produces annually about 10,000 tons. The Osaka Mining Co. also produces from Korea (Chosen) about 15,000 tons of ore annually.

The annual smelting capacity in Japan, with all projected construction completed, is estimated at 300,000 tons of zinc ore, whereas the domestic output of ore is about 50,000 tons. The difference has been imported chiefly from Siberia, China, Tonkin and Australia. In the future it is expected that the foreign ores will come chiefly from China and Siberia. The domestic spelter production has reached about 60,000 tons annually and the domestic consumption 29,000 tons.

=Spain.=--Zinc ores are produced in the provinces of Santander, Murcia, Tereul, Biscay and Guipuzcoa. The only district of importance is that of Santander, where there is a zinc smelter owned by the Compagnie Royale Asturienne des Mines (French). Some of the ore is smelted in France. Most of the Spanish ores are calamine and occur almost without exception in limestone. Eighty per cent. of the Spanish production comes from Santander and Murcia. In the latter the mines are worked primarily for lead.

=Russia.=--The zinc output of the Russian Empire was derived from Russian Poland, eastern Siberia, the Altai Mountains in southwestern Siberia, and the northern Caucasus Mountains. The Polish deposits are part of the Silesian field. The ores are largely carbonates and silicates. Some of the mines and plants were owned by the Russian government, others apparently by French companies. In eastern Siberia, the Tyuticha mine has a calamine orebody containing at least 200,000 tons averaging 48 per cent. zinc. Some ore has come from the Ussurisk district. It is believed that the Mitsui Mining Co. has made arrangements to ship ores from this district to Japan for treatment.

In the Altai Mountains of southwestern Siberia the Ridder Mining Co., controlled by the Irtysh Corporation, Ltd., of London, has developed two large deposits on the same mineralized zone, with ore reserves estimated in 1917 at over 3,500,000 tons. The possibilities of this property are immense. The company has acquired the Ekibastus coal fields, constructed about 165 miles of railroad and provided river transport, thus bringing the ore and coal together at a smelting plant having a capacity of 15,000 tons lead and 5,000 tons spelter annually.

In the northern Caucasus Mountains, the Sadon mine, belonging to the Société d’Alagir (French), has been worked for a long time. The ores from this mine are smelted locally.

=Other Countries.=--The zinc-ore production of France comes from several scattered districts. Of the 45,929 long tons reported in 1912, nearly all came from six mines which are all controlled by French capital with perhaps some Belgian participation.

The only important source of zinc in Greece is the famous Laurium deposit, which was worked in ancient times. The ancients, however, rejected, as far as possible, the zinc ores. These deposits are now controlled and operated by a French company, the Compagnie Française des Mines de Laurium, which also has reopened the ancient workings of Gebel Rosas, near the Red Sea, in Egypt.

The chief zinc mines of Sweden are the Ammeberg, the Rylls Wytland and the Sala. At the Sala immense piles of tailings made in centuries of operation, containing quantities of zinc, can now be treated, as well as zinciferous areas left in mining silver-lead ores. The important Ammeberg deposit consists of bands and lenses of disseminated blende in gneissoid granulite and is exploited by the Société de la Vieille Montagne (Belgian).

The zinc production of Mexico has come chiefly from the states of Nuevo Leon, Chihuahua and Sonora. Various zinc deposits have been worked in Nuevo Leon by German and American capital. Most of them are within 50 miles of Monterrey. Zinc-producing districts are scattered over the State of Chihuahua. In the Santa Eulalia district, El Potosi Mining Co., controlled by Americans, works the mine of the same name, which has carbonate ores to a depth of 1,700 feet. The Buena Tierra, in the same district, is controlled by British capital. The principal mines in the Parral district are owned by Americans and British companies, including the American Smelters Securities Co., American Zinc Extraction Co., and San Francisco Mines of Mexico, Ltd. (British). The Carnegie Lead & Zinc Co. owns the largest zinc mine in Sonora, located near Cananea. The Calumet & Arizona Co. and the Mexican Metal Co. own zinc deposits in the Arizpe district. All of these companies are American.

Zinc ores are produced in Austria in the provinces of Carinthia, Styria, Carniole, Tyrol and Galicia. The Raibl and Schneeberg mines of Carinthia are government owned, and the ores are smelted at the government works at Cilli. Tyrolean ores were shipped to Frankfort-on-Main and Aix-la-Chapelle. Styrian ores were shipped to Silesia and Rhenish Prussia for smelting.

The considerable production of calamine with some blende from Tunis is under French political and commercial control. The chief zinc ore producers appear to be French companies, in general paying a royalty of 5 per cent. of the net proceeds to the government of Tunis. The total production for 1916 was 12,544 tons.

Four districts of Indo-China produce zinc ores with an aggregate total annual output of about 46,000 tons.

The largest zinc mine in Great Britain is the Nenthead, in Cumberland, worked by the Société de la Vieille Montagne (Belgian). The second largest producer is the Carshield mine, in Northumberland. With the exception of the Nenthead mine all the important producers are, so far as known, owned and operated by British capital.

The chief mine in China is the Shui K’ou Shan, under control of the Hunan Board of Mines. Prior to the war this mine was dominated by German capital, which had provided machinery and shipped the product to Europe. Japanese have sought diligently and with partial success to secure control of this mine.

The chief zinc-mining district in Bolivia is Huanchaca, the production of which has recently decreased because of great quantities of water entering the workings. The largest operator is the Compañia Huanchaca de Bolivia, the capital and control of which is French. Its zinc production is incidental, the principal metal produced being silver.

The zinc production of Canada is chiefly from British Columbia, but a small amount is from Ontario and Quebec. The only production of any moment is from the southern part of British Columbia, where the Slocan district is of greatest importance. British, Canadian and American capital are largely interested. In 1915, the mines of the Slocan district were estimated by the management of the Trail smelter to be capable of producing 10,000 to 15,000 tons of ore carrying 40 to 45 per cent. zinc. Apparently this was in addition to the possible production from the Sullivan mine, owned by the Consolidated Mining & Smelting Co., Ltd. (Trail smelter), which had proved reserves of 3,500,000 tons of galena-sphalerite ore. The principal mines of Ontario and Quebec produced 580 tons of zinc, or one-thirtieth of the production of Canada. These are operated at least in part by American capital, and the ores are smelted by the Zinc Co., Ltd., owned by Americans.

The chief deposits of India are those of the Bawdwin mines, located in the Northern Shan States (Burma). There was estimated December 31, 1917, 4,033,000 tons lead-zinc ore assaying 24.7 oz. silver, 27.4 per cent. lead, and 19.1 per cent. zinc. The essential constituents of the ores are galena and sphalerite with a little pyrite and chalcopyrite. The lead and zinc concentrates are available for the customary methods of smelting. A zinc-distilling and sulphuric acid plant is being constructed at Sakohi, with the aid of the Indian government, to treat the table zinc concentrate. The company operates a lead smelter at Nam-Tu, 11 miles from the mines. The Bawdwin deposits may be expected to be an important factor in the world’s production of zinc in the immediate future. They are owned by the Burma Mines, Ltd., an English corporation of the R. Tilden Smith-Govett-Hoover interests, in which some American capital is interested.

The only zinc deposit of note in Egypt is the Gebel Rosas, operated by the Compagnie Française de Laurium. This deposit is located near the Red Sea and was worked in ancient times.

The only deposit of importance in South Africa is the Rhodesia Broken Hill. The large ore bodies are, so far as developed, almost wholly oxidized. One ore body is estimated at 250,000 long tons, averaging 26 per cent. lead, 22¹⁄₂ per cent. zinc, and another at 300,000 long tons, averaging 32 per cent. zinc, with little lead, but much iron oxide and carbonate. They are controlled by British capital. Considerable difficulty has been experienced in developing a commercial treatment.

In Peru a French company, the Association Minière, has interests in the Compagnie des Mines de Huaron.

DEVELOPMENTS AND CHANGES IN KNOWN GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION IN THE NEAR FUTURE

So far as information is available no marked change in the rate of production in the countries of Europe and northern Africa seems probable. Most of the districts in those countries have been exploited over a long period and have passed their zenith of production; many are approaching exhaustion. The decrease in most of them will, however, be gradual. The most important change in Europe probably will be the transfer to Polish jurisdiction of the whole of the Silesian field, making the new state of Poland, if established as proposed, the largest single source of zinc ore in Europe.

In the United States, which will continue to be the largest producer of zinc in the world, the greatest increase in relative importance may be expected from the western metallographic province, particularly in the northwest, in the Butte and Coeur d’Alene districts. The Leadville district has already passed the zenith of production and has dropped to second place after Butte, which is capable of still further increase.

In Australia the Broken Hill district may be expected to yield about 450,000 tons of concentrates annually for some three years, after which the output should drop to about 300,000 tons. The increase of production from Tasmania will largely depend upon the construction of electrolytic zinc plants, but the island will be a factor in production in the immediate future.

The greatest new factor in the world’s output of zinc will be the Bawdwin mines, in Burma, which within a short time will be equipped to produce about 300,000 tons of ore annually or about 75,000 tons of high-grade zinc concentrates and 100,000 tons of low-grade concentrates or middlings for treatment by the Ganlin process. The extent to which the zinc concentrates from this ore will be treated in India will be determined by the development of the local market for sulphuric acid. The remainder of the concentrates will be treated in England.

Recent developments in the Altai Mountains of southwestern Siberia have proved immense bodies of complex zinc-lead ores. The extent of their exploitation will, however, be determined largely by the extent of the Russian market as affected by social and political conditions. Removal of the stringent tariff on importations from abroad to the manufacturing centers of Warsaw, Petrograd and Moscow might greatly restrict the market for the output of these mines. Their extreme geographic isolation will prevent the deposits from becoming an important factor in the world market for a long period, notwithstanding their large size and excellent grade.

The utilization of the Rhodesia Broken Hill deposit in South Africa will be delayed by the difficulty of separating the oxidized lead and zinc minerals, the lack of fuel, and geographic and commercial isolation.

POLITICAL CONTROL

Political control of the zinc resources of the world up to the outbreak of the war in 1914 seems to have had only a minor effect upon the industry. Economic factors made ineffective any control not international in scope. A very large percentage of the zinc ores of the world were transported from the country of production to another for treatment, in some cases even being re-exported, sometimes after calcination, for the purpose of utilizing the sulphur content in the production of acid. Tariffs were imposed by some countries, as, for example, by the United States, on certain classes of zinc ores. Such measures had some effect on production in Mexico and Canada. Russia had imposed heavy import duties which subsidized domestic production and stimulated exploration and development. The chief European countries importing and smelting zinc ores admitted them free of duty.

During the World War, however, political jurisdiction was largely invoked to restore control of national resources to citizens of the given country or its allies. This movement was particularly marked in the British Empire, wherein there now exists a joint political and commercial control. Alien interests have been eliminated by government action and the government retains a share in the control through interests in marketing organizations or through financial participation in treatment works. Canada has established a small bounty on zinc produced in Canada from domestic ores and given financial aid to attempts to establish domestic smelting and refining plants.

In the United States the Alien Property Custodian has been active in eliminating all alien enemy control. His appointees will control many important companies for several years. Such action as has been taken does not appear to have disturbed such centralization of control as had been effected.[138]

[138] See Chapter on Copper, pages 232-235, for discussion of German interests in the American metal trade.

COMMERCIAL CONTROL

Copper, lead and zinc form a class by themselves as regards industrial utility and tonnage produced, ranking after iron, which far outclasses them, as the most important base metals. The annual production of each is considerably more than a million tons. In view of the industrial importance of zinc and the fact that brass, an alloy of copper and zinc, is an indispensable material in modern industry, it is not strange that the great industrial nations have contrived many expedients in the endeavor to control the zinc industry.

The ownership and operative control of the mines has been a minor factor in the commercial control of this industry. Economic factors force the location of retort smelting plants in industrial districts adjacent to coal fields, the most important factors being availability and cost of fuel and labor, and proximity to a market for spelter. A lack of fuel and scarcity or high cost of labor has prevented smelting in some regions producing considerable ore. On the other hand, the smelting done in some countries has been entirely disproportionate to their ore output. The revival of nationalist sentiment as a result of the World War may make ownership and operative control a more important factor in the future.

Electrolytic and electro-thermic reduction of ores makes possible the economic production of spelter where previously impossible and may bring about some decentralization of the industry.

Ownership or control of the reduction plants has been an important basis for control of the industry. The most effective control has been exercised through marketing organizations or trade combinations of reduction works, ore-buying and metal-selling agencies, with interlocking directorates, joint ownership and long-term contracts for ores, concentrates and metals. In recent years these became world-wide in their scope and completely dominated the industry.

=United States.=--Below are listed the most important zinc smelting companies in the United States, together with the percentage of the total reduction capacity that each controls:

Percentage of production controlled New Jersey Zinc Co. 13.4 American Metal Co. 15.2 Grasselli Chemical Co. 10.1 Anaconda Copper Mining Co. 10.0 United States Steel Corporation 7.7 American Smelting & Refining Co. 7.2 American Zinc, Lead & Smelting Co. 5.7 Beer, Sondheimer & Co. 4.7 L. Vogelstein & Co. 1.7 Various independents or of unknown affiliation 24.3

The close affiliations of L. Vogelstein & Co., Beer, Sondheimer & Co., the American Metal Co., and their subsidiary companies, comprising 27.3 per cent. of the smelting capacity, and various ore producers, with their metal-selling contracts with other smelters, enabled them to dominate the American metal market in the interest of the German “Trio.” The Alien Property Custodian took over all three companies during the war and eliminated all alien-enemy ownership and control by disposing of German-owned stock at auction.

The American Metal Co. completely owns the American Zinc & Chemical Co., South American Metal Transport Co., Bartlesville Zinc Co., and South American Metal Co.; it has large holdings of stock in the Ohio and Colorado Smelting & Refining Co., Compañia Minera de Peñoles, Compañia de Minerales y Metales, Compañia Metalurgica de Torreon, Compañia Minera Palmo y Cabrillos, Fundicion de Guayacan, Balbach Smelting & Refining Co., and Nichols Copper Co., some of which operate in Mexico and South America. The capital stock of the American Metal Co. comprised 70,000 shares, of which 34,644 were owned by aliens affiliated with the German “Trio”; 18,620 shares belong to American citizens who have had control of the management, and the remainder belonged to the Merton interests, of London, which has been reorganized by the British government, eliminating alien ownership. The alien-owned shares have been sold by the Alien Property Custodian and the control of the business for a period of five years was vested in a board of five trustees named by him.

The National Zinc Co. was owned by Beer, Sondheimer & Co., one of the German “Trio,” which also owned other metal-producing companies in the United States and Cuba.

The operative control of the American Zinc, Lead & Smelting Co. has been acquired by the Butte & Superior Mining Co., dominated by Hayden, Stone & Co., of New York and Boston. A large interest in the American Zinc, Lead & Smelting Co. was held by L. Vogelstein & Co., formerly the representative of the German Metallgesellschaft in the United States. The American Zinc, Lead & Smelting Co. controls the Wisconsin Zinc Co.; the American Zinc Co., of Illinois; the American Zinc Co., of Tennessee; and the American Zinc Ore Separating Co.

The New Jersey Zinc Co., an American concern, controls the New Jersey field, and, through its subsidiary, the Empire Zinc Co., owns and operates a number of mines in the western states and Mexico, and the Mineral Point Zinc Co., of Wisconsin, one of the three largest producers in that region, and four zinc smelters.

The Anaconda company operates a number of zinc-producing mines in the Butte district and has erected electrolytic plants for the treatment of its own concentrates, one of 25-tons’ capacity as an experimental plant at Anaconda and a plant of 200-tons’ daily capacity at Great Falls, Montana. It has treated some of the production of other companies, notably of the Butte & Superior Mining Co. It is an American company under American control but has many European stockholders.

=Germany.=--The ambition of German commercial interests to control the metal markets and resources of the world was more nearly realized in the case of zinc than of any other metal.

The German Zinc Syndicate (Zinkhüttenverband) was organized in 1909, by three powerful interests: (1) The Merton group, comprising the Metallgesellschaft, the Metallbank and Metallurgische Gesellschaft, all of Frankfurt, and the Merton companies of London; (2) Beer, Sondheimer & Co., which through the Tellus stock company controlled over a dozen metal and chemical concerns; and (3) Aron Hirsch & Sohn, at Halberstadt; and was immediately joined by all the important Silesian and Rhenish-Westphalian zinc concerns. The organizers were made exclusive selling agencies for the syndicate and purchases from any foreign sources were made in unison. The syndicate immediately made agreements with Austrian and Belgian producers including the Vieille Montagne, which has mines, works and agencies in many parts of the world. It was also joined by a Dutch concern, Zincs de la Campine. The syndicate embraced altogether 18 firms and regulated both their output and prices. By the end of 1912 this German syndicate controlled directly one-half of the world’s output of zinc and three-fourths of the European production.

Two Belgian and some French works formed another syndicate. A third was formed by six English works, and the competition of United States firms drove all three into the International Zinc Syndicate, which endured up to April, 1914. The International regulated the output of its members but did not fix exact prices. Through the American Metal Co., and affiliated companies, the German syndicate was rapidly becoming a factor of importance in the control of American, Mexican, and Australian zinc production at its source. The German syndicate maintained its dominancy and was rapidly extending and strengthening it throughout the world through banks, holding companies, affiliations with syndicates and cartels, interlocking directorates, and joint shareholdings.

As a result of the war, the Australian zinc concentrates are permanently diverted from German reduction works, and all German control is eliminated. The activities of the Alien Property Custodian have tended to eliminate German interests in the United States. The re-establishment of the nation of Poland may take from Germany all the Silesian deposits and reduction plants, leaving only those of the Rhenish-Westphalian, Harz and Erzgebirge regions, with only one-third the former domestic production of ore. Poland should be twice as important as Germany in the zinc industry, unless Germany should be able to import ores and concentrates on a large scale.

=Australia.=--At the outbreak of the World War the Australian zinc industry was in the grip of the great German zinc syndicate, described in more detail above under “Germany.” This controlled the world’s spelter market, determined output and prices and manipulated the market in the interests of Germany. This was possible through long-term contracts for zinc concentrates, in which form nearly the whole zinc product was exported for reduction in Belgium and Germany. Only 10 per cent. of the concentrates was smelted at Port Pirie or in England.

During the war these contracts were cancelled by the Australian and British governments and the work of reconstructing the industry on a purely Australian and British basis was undertaken, the idea being to provide for the treatment, so far as possible, of all ores in Australia, so that they could be marketed in their finished state. The Australian government first formed a metals exchange, through which all metals produced in Australia must pass for sale. The Zinc Producers’ Association Proprietary, Ltd., was registered May 20, 1916, in Victoria, Australia, to market products of the member companies producing zinc ores, concentrates, and metals in the Commonwealth of Australia and Tasmania, all of which have sold their entire output to the association for fifty years. The shares, 100,000 of £1 each, are held by the following companies: Amalgamated Zinc (De Bavay’s); Broken Hill Proprietary, Block 14; Zinc Corporation; Broken Hill Proprietary; Electrolytic Zinc Smelters; Junction North; North Broken Hill; Sulphide Corporation; British Broken Hill; Broken Hill Associated Smelters; Broken Hill Junction; Broken Hill South Silver; Broken Hill Proprietary, Block 10; Mount Lyell Mining & Railway Co.

The Australian federal government, acting through the Zinc Producers’ Association, contracted to sell to the British government the whole output of zinc concentrates in Australia for the period of the war and ten years thereafter. Previously the Prime Minister had contracted for the sale to the imperial government of 100,000 tons of zinc concentrates and 45,000 tons of electrolytic zinc and spelter for ten years. The arrangement provided for the British government taking the stocks of zinc concentrates on hand December 31, 1917, less a definite percentage reserve, and thereafter 250,000 tons per annum for the period of the war, and 300,000 tons annually for the following nine years. Provision was also made for supplying the requirements of the Australian zinc-refining works and the fulfilling of Japanese contracts during the period covered by the British contract. Under normal conditions the Australian output of zinc concentrates, averaging from 46 to 48 per cent. zinc, is about 450,000 tons per annum, valued at $25,000,000.

The effect of the above arrangements is to transfer permanently the control of the Australian zinc industry from German to British citizens under a system jointly commercial and political. The mines and works always were owned by British and Australian capital.

The Zinc Producers’ Association is co-operative in character, guaranteeing to all members equality of treatment irrespective of tonnage. The commonwealth is represented on the board. The federal government is also encouraging in every possible way the establishment of reduction works, particularly electrolytic zinc works. It has been reported that the Burma Corporation was a stockholder of the Zinc Producers’ Association, but this report has not been satisfactorily confirmed. In case it should be true the association may ultimately control the sale of 85 to 95 per cent. of the zinc ores of the British Empire. Having smelting capacity for a considerable part of their production and acting as a unit in selling the surplus, the Australian zinc producers should hereafter be in a strong position in dealing with German, Dutch and Belgian smelters. The smelting capacity will not be largely increased in the near future.

=France.=--The nationalist movement in France during the war resulted in the formation of trade associations known as “consortiums,” comprising the principal factor in each industry.[139]

[139] For a description of the consortium covering the mineral industry, the Société Minerais et Metaux, see the Chapter on Lead, pages 284 and 285.

POSITION OF THE GREAT NATIONS

Since the elimination of the alien-enemy interests in the American Metal Co., L. Vogelstein & Co., and Beer, Sondheimer & Co., the industry in the United States is controlled and the mines and works are owned by American capital, which also controls some zinc production in Mexico, Canada and Peru. Future production and consumption will probably balance as before the war. There is now excess smelting capacity, but it has been conclusively demonstrated that the country is capable of supplying the ore for even greater capacity. The United States will retain first place as a producer. During the period of readjustment some concentrates may be shipped to Belgium and Holland.

With the permanent diversion of the Australian concentrates, and the probable loss of the Silesian deposits and reduction works, Germany will lose its second place in the industry. With only the Rhenish, Westphalian, Harz, and Erzgebirge districts as sources of domestic ores, the supply will be reduced to one-third of that produced before 1914, which was only two-thirds of all the ore smelted in the country. Unless ores or concentrates can be imported, Germany will be only a small factor in zinc production. Whereas in 1912 Germany had 50,000 tons of spelter available for export, importation may now be necessary. As a result of the treaty of peace the Polish industry may be dominated by French capital.

Not over 5 per cent. of the ore smelted in Belgium is of domestic production. The mines are owned by French and German companies. The works are owned by French, Belgian and Germans in about equal proportions. Part of the Australian concentrates will be allotted to Belgium for smelting. The largest single factor in the Belgian industry, the Société de la Vieille Montagne, owned and worked mines in Belgium, Moresnet, Germany, Sweden, England, Algiers and Tunis and reduction works in Belgium, Germany and France. Although formerly a member of the German zinc convention this company seems to be controlled by Belgian capital affiliated with the strongest Belgian financial interests. Several other Belgian companies have important interests in France, Spain, Algiers, and Tunis. Close affiliation seems to exist, and may be expected to continue, between French and Belgian capital in the zinc industry.

Let us now consider the British Empire. The domestic production of zinc ores in the British Isles is insignificant, but the smelting works have made England an important factor in the industry, although before 1914 they produced only 32 per cent. of the zinc consumption of the empire. The capacity of these works, which are British owned, has been largely increased and new plants are being constructed to treat the concentrates from Australia and Burma, from which sources a supply more than sufficient is assured by the contracts of the imperial government with the Zinc Producers’ Association of Australia. The imperial government is interested in some of the plants. Reduction plants will also be in operation in Australia, Tasmania, India, and Canada. The excess Australian concentrates are to be allotted to French and Belgian works. With the organization now in effect, British domination of the European zinc industry seems certain.

The mines and works of Australia are entirely controlled by English and Australian capital. An organization under Australian government control has been made the sole marketing agency for the producers. The mines of India and Burma are English controlled and the smelter being constructed at Sakchi is partly financed by the Indian government. The mines of Canada are mostly British owned, although there are some American interests. The potential capacity of the mines is large. In spite of government subsidies, the capacity and future of the reduction works is uncertain.

French capital controls all the domestic works and mines of France; also those of Greece, Indo-China, Tunis, most of the mines of Algiers, where some Belgian capital is also interested, part of the Belgian and Polish mines and reduction works, some of the Spanish mines and smelters, and probably the Caucasus mines in Russia. France should be an important factor in the industry during the near future.

The largest mines of Italy are owned by Italian companies and some domestic reduction works are under construction by them. The chief producing company in northern Italy is English.

In Japan, Japanese capital owns all the domestic mines and works; also those of Chosen (Korea), and is rapidly securing control of the deposits of China and eastern Siberia. The present smelting capacity is greater than domestic consumption and much larger than the domestic ore supply. Ore is imported from China, Siberia, Indo-China and Australia.

As to Russia, the ownership of deposits in the Polish regions was divided between Russians and French before 1914, and this condition presumably will be restored, modified by Polish political control. The Russian interests were doubtless under German influence. The Altai Mountains region is controlled by British capital and its development depends wholly upon how internal social and political conditions affect the domestic market to which the product of this region is limited by geographic isolation. Eastern Siberia seems to be rapidly coming under the commercial control of the Japanese.

Holland has no mines but has considerable smelting capacity. It is dependent on its neighbors for coal also. Its future is difficult to forecast. The mines and works of Spain are largely under French and Belgian control, which may be modified by contracts with English interests. The control in Norway and Sweden is not definitely known. It is nominally by local capital but some English and German interests are probable. The Sulphide and the Zinc corporations, both British, are reported interested in the Hydraulic Power & Smelting Co.

The mines and works in Austria, which were owned by the Austrian government and Austrian companies, perhaps under German domination, will now be distributed among two or three political jurisdictions. Little ore is imported or exported, and the region as a whole is not an important factor in the industry.

The mines in Mexico are largely owned by Mexicans and Americans. German control is reported to be strong and growing. The possibilities of ore production are large.

SUMMARY

The essential uses of zinc are: in brass, the alloy with copper, an indispensable material in modern industry; in galvanizing as rolled sheets; and in desilverizing lead bullion. The consumption is greatest in galvanizing. The amount used in the form of rolled sheets will increase.

Zinc and lead are commonly associated in their ores and are widely distributed over the world, but the countries of largest ore production are, in order, United States, Germany, and Australia. Burma will soon be of importance. Siberia can produce much ore in the near future, but exploitation will be retarded by political conditions and geographic isolation. Canada, Mexico, Chile, Peru and Bolivia may be expected to increase their output.

The successful commercial application of electro-magnetic, electro-static, and more especially oil flotation processes to the separation and concentration of complex ores has made available vast resources, adding to the list of regions of ore production and materially affecting their relative importance.

Economic factors, particularly availability and cost of fuel and skilled labor in retort smelting and market for spelter, determined the location of reduction works in populous industrial districts adjacent to coal fields. The mineral resources, however, in many instances occur in countries either undeveloped industrially or without abundant and cheap fuel, and a large percentage of the zinc ores are transported from the producing country to another for treatment. In the order of their importance the countries making the most spelter are: the United States, Germany, Belgium, Great Britain and France.

Commercial control of the industry has been based chiefly on the control of reduction plants and ore-buying and metal-selling organizations rather than on ownership of deposits, and to be effective it necessarily became international in scope. Before 1914 an organization, apparently international in character, but really dominated by Germans, had through control on this basis achieved a commanding position in the industry, influencing output and prices quite effectively. During the World War, however, political jurisdiction was largely invoked to restore control of the resources of a country and industries to citizens of that country or its allies. This movement has been particularly marked in the British Empire, wherein there now exists a joint political and commercial control through the Zinc Producers’ Association and contracts in which the governments are participants, and in France, where the Société Minerais et Metaux, under government auspices, comprises all the principal mining and metallurgical companies controlled by French capital and is the arbiter of the metal industry.

A decentralization of the industry and redistribution of reduction works is to some extent resulting from the successful application of electrolytic reduction and to the dissemination of knowledge of the practice of retort smelting.

The British Empire as a unit should be able to dominate the industry in Europe during the near future. France, through political and commercial control of Algeria and Tunis, and large financial control in Belgium, Spain and Poland, will be in a strong position. Belgium, with minor but widespread financial interests in mines and works in France, Germany, England, Sweden, Spain, Algiers and Tunis, is an important factor in the European situation. Its interests appear closely affiliated with those of France. The United States, with large reduction capacity and ore reserves, while maintaining its position as largest producer, is expected to supply domestic consumption but to export little, as was the case prior to the war. The position of Germany will depend mainly upon the supply of foreign ore, which may have to be imported largely from Mexico and the United States.

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XVII. TIN

BY JAMES M. HILL[140]

[140] The writer hereby expresses his thanks to Adolph Knopf, of the United States Geological Survey, and R. R. Horner, of the United States Bureau of Mines, for their assistance in the preparation of this article.

USES OF TIN

Tin, ordinarily considered one of the minor metals, is nevertheless a metal of prime importance in the world’s present state of development. In 1913 the value of the world’s output of tin was $131,000,000, which was greater than the value of the world’s output of either lead or zinc. Without tin it is very doubtful if the present methods of food packing and distribution could have been accomplished. The principal use of tin is in the manufacture of tin plate, from which are fabricated the so-called “tins” or “tin cans” that everyone knows. The second largest consumption of tin is for the alloys, solder and babbitt made with lead, and brass and bronzes made with copper. Minor amounts of tin are used for making fine metal tubing, tin foil, and collapsible tubes for packing such materials as dental and toilet creams, artists colors, etc. Tin is consumed by the makers of silk, principally to give weight and “rustle” to their product.

In 1917 the consumption of tin in the United States was approximately 93,000 tons,[141] of which 19,000 tons was recovered from scrap materials. Of the total consumption 31,000 short tons was used for making tin plate, 20,400 short tons for solder, 13,800 short tons for bearing metals, (babbitt, bronzes, etc.,), and 27,700 short tons for the many minor uses, items of which are 1,000 tons for the silk industry, 5,000 tons for foil, 4,000 tons for collapsible tubes, 3,000 tons for white metal.

[141] In this report the figures for tons refer to metric tons (2,204 pounds avoirdupois) unless otherwise stated, and are given in round numbers because errors in statistics and in conversion do not warrant closer figuring.

It is difficult to distinguish between the essential and the non-essential uses of tin in the industries. Surely tin plate is essential, yet some saving of tin containers was made during the war shortage by curtailing the use of tin and substituting paper and other substances for packages carrying non-perishable products. Solders, bearing metals, and bronzes are unquestionably essential, but variation in alloy specifications made possible, during the war period, a considerable saving of tin without detriment to the results. In fact some of the standards set under the emergency were superior to those used before. Aluminum foil is to some extent replacing tin foil, but no suitable substitutes have been found for tin in the manufacture of collapsible tubes, which are necessities.

GEOLOGICAL DISTRIBUTION

Over 70 per cent. of the tin produced in the world is won from placer deposits, although in the last few years the exploitation of tin-bearing lodes has become of considerable importance. Tin ores are intimately connected with siliceous igneous rocks. Practically all of the known lode deposits are either in or lie near siliceous igneous rocks such as granite, granite-porphyry, quartz-porphyry or monzonitic types. In Mexico and the United States unimportant tin deposits have been found in rhyolite. In only one or two places in the world are tin lodes known where siliceous igneous rocks do not show on the surface, and in these places geologic evidence points to the presence of granitic rocks at no great depth. In the world’s chief centers of tin production--the Malay Peninsula, Bolivia, Australia, Nigeria, Cornwall, and South Africa--the granitic rocks are everywhere in evidence, and the tin lodes are so closely related to these granites that there is no question of their origin.

Fluorine-bearing minerals such as fluorite and topaz, tourmaline, and the tungsten mineral, wolframite, are found in practically all tin deposits. Molybdenite and bismuth minerals are present in many tin deposits, though their distribution is not so general as that of the former minerals. Copper, lead, zinc, and iron sulphides, the latter often arsenical, are common in tin lodes, and quartz and feldspar are the chief gangue minerals.

It is generally accepted that the tin lodes were formed near the close of intrusive activity by the final differentiates of the acid magmas. These final solutions are notable for their pneumatolitic action and their ability to cause the profound change of granite to greisen and the formation of stanniferous pegmatite and quartz veins. Greisen, an alteration product of granite, consists of quartz, mica and varying amounts of topaz and tourmaline. It is commonly developed along fractures, and in favorable places large masses of rock may be greisenized.

Tin deposits are most often found as lodes, both fissure and pegmatitic, or stockworks, but some segregations are known. A peculiar pipe-like form of deposit is found at places in the Transvaal and Tasmania.

Generally tin deposits he close to the contact of intrusive and intruded rocks and are mainly found near the top of the intruding mass. It therefore follows that in deeply eroded granite masses the chance of finding lode tin deposits is smaller than where search is made in the tops of granitic intrusions. It has also been noted that deposits in intruded rocks generally lie where the dip of the intrusive contact is low and are rarely present along a steeply dipping intrusive contact.

Practically the sole ore mineral of tin is cassiterite (tin oxide), which carries 78.6 per cent. of the metal. Cassiterite is known commercially by various names, such as tinstone, black-oxide of tin, black tin, or, where it occurs in placers, stream tin. The tin concentrates from placer mining normally carry 60 to 75 per cent. metallic tin, 70 per cent. being a fair average. The concentrates from the mills treating Bolivian lode tin make a product called barilla that averages about 62 per cent. tin; the concentrates produced from lodes in Cornwall average about 65 per cent.; and from the lodes and placers of the Malay Peninsula carry about 72 per cent. tin.

In many parts of the world the lodes do not carry sufficient tin to be worked profitably. In Cornwall and in Tasmania, lodes carrying about 1 per cent. of tin are being mined; but in general a content of 1 to 2 per cent. tin is the lower limit for commercial lode mining. In Bolivia the tin lodes average 5 to 8 per cent. tin and some bodies of ore carrying as much as 40 per cent. tin have been opened. In the places where low-grade tin ores have been mined the by-products, principally arsenic and wolfram, have helped to pay expenses, and most of these mines are advantageously situated with respect to transportation and supplies. In the placers of the Malay Peninsula, including Banca and Billiton, and those of Australia, which are worked by dredges, the tin content ranges from one-half pound to as high as 3 pounds, but averages less than a pound of cassiterite to the cubic yard. Advantageous location and cheap labor make profitable exploitation possible.

GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION

As will be seen from the map, Plate IX, tin deposits are found in every part of the world, though an inspection of Table 60 and figure 9 will show that the deposits within the British Empire are the most important sources of the world supply. Bolivia and the Dutch East Indies have been the chief producers of tin outside of the British Empire, though China and Siam are steadily gaining importance as tin producers.

=British Empire.=--The British Empire has tin deposits in England, Asia, Australia, and Africa. The largest production is from the deposits in the Malay Peninsula. The African deposits, those in Nigeria and the South African Union, yield the second largest output of the empire, the Australian deposits rank third, and the Cornwall deposits, formerly the largest producer of tin in the world, now rank fourth.

Malay Peninsula.--The Federated Malay States and the British Protected Malay States occupy the southern end of the Malay Peninsula. This region, which is entirely British controlled, produced for many years one-half of the world’s output of tin, but in the last few years the output has declined steadily. The decline seems to be due to the exhaustion of the easily worked placer deposits, though in 1917 and 1918 an additional cause was the scarcity of labor.

TABLE 60.--WORLD’S OUTPUT OF METALLIC TIN, 1913-1918, IN METRIC TONS[142]

(Metal obtainable by smelting from concentrates)

----------------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+------- Country | 1913 | 1914 | 1915 | 1916 | 1917 | 1918 ----------------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+------- Cornwall | 5,370| 5,140| 5,060| 4,770| 4,000| 4,000 Nigeria | 2,950| 4,590| 4,630| 5,150| 7,070| 7,000 Union of South Africa | 2,050| 2,000| 2,050| 1,900| 1,540| 1,500 Federated Malay States| 50,930| 49,820| 47,520| 44,570| 40,470| 37,970 British Protected | | | | | | Malay States | 1,800| 2,700| 4,170| 4,450| 4,500| 4,500 Australia | 8,160| 5,520| 5,680| 5,550| 4,970| 4,900 +-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+------- Total British Empire| 71,260| 69,770| 69,110| 66,390| 62,550| 59,870 Percentage world | | | | | | total | 52.6 | 54.1 | 53.7 | 52. | 47. | 45.8 | | | | | | Banca | 15,940| 14,630| 13,660| 14,460| 13,540| 11,000 Billiton and Singkep | 5,300| 6,090| 6,760| 6,780| 7,300| 9,200 +-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+------- Total Dutch | 21,240| 20,720| 20,420| 21,240| 20,840| 20,200 Percentage world | | | | | | total | 15.4 | 16.1 | 15.4 | 16.7 | 16. | 15.5 | | | | | | China | 8,390| 7,120| 8,000| 7,630| 11,800| 12,000 Siam | 6,660| 6,740| 8,520| 8,960| 8,600| 8,600 Bolivia | 26,760| 22,360| 21,900| 21,330| 28,320| 28,000 Other countries | 1,400| 1,500| 1,500| 1,700| 1,800| 2,000 +-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+------- Total other control | 43,210| 37,720| 39,920| 39,620| 50,520| 50,600 Percentage world | | | | | | total | 32. | 29.8 | 30.9 | 31.3 | 38. | 38.7 +-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+------- World total |135,710|128,210|129,450|127,250|133,910|130,670 ----------------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------

[142] KNOPF, A., “Tin in 1918,” U. S. Geological Survey, “Mineral Resources of the United States in 1918.”

The largest tin-smelting center of the world is Singapore, where the Straits Trading Co., and the Eastern Smelting Co., both British owned, and a Chinese-owned smelter, have a combined capacity of 58,000 metric tons of metal a year.

A large number of the Malaysian mines are worked by Chinese, though much English and Australian capital is invested in tin mining companies in the Peninsula, and the financial control of the industry is in the hands of British subjects. Political control is exercised by a prohibitive export duty ($285 per ton) on all tin ore exported for treatment except to the Straits Settlements, United Kingdom, or Australia.

As will be seen from Table 60 the Federated Malay States produce much more tin than the Protected States. Practically all of the tin in the Peninsula is taken from placer deposits, some of which are still worked by hand methods, though part of the black tin is now being mined by dredges.

The backbone of the Malay Peninsula is composed of granite which is intrusive into limestone, shale, and quartzite. Tin has been found in place in practically all of the rock formations. Owing to the intense weathering and erosion of the tin-bearing formations great accumulations of detritus, more or less mixed with clay, all of which carry cassiterite, are found in almost all parts of the Peninsula. The original deposits are so softened by weathering that they can be worked by hydraulic methods.

The provinces of Perak, Selangor, Pahang, and Negri Sembilan, in the Federated Malay States, produce tin. The following table shows their relative importance.

TABLE 61.--PRODUCTION OF TIN IN THE FEDERATED MALAY STATES IN 1917

Metric tons Perak 25,075 Selangor 10,595 Pahang 3,750 Negri Sembilan 1,055

In Negri Sembilan, quartz veins in decomposed pegmatite are worked by hydraulicking and the mixed tin-tungsten concentrate obtained is further separated by magnetic machines. The principal mines are near Titi and Seremban.

Pahang, on the eastern side of the mountains, has many widely scattered tin deposits, both lodes and placers. The chief workings at present are in the mountains near the Selangor boundary, at Bentong, Tras, and Machi. Some mining is also done at various places along the Kuantan River and its tributaries. Transportation is a serious item in working tin mines in Pahang.

Kuala Lumpur is the center of the more important tin-mining operations in Selangor. Both decomposed lode-stuff and gravels are being worked. Near Serendah soft greisenized granite is worked by monitors. Near Tanjong, Malim, and on the Kalumpang and Selangor rivers in the northern part of the state both gravels and decomposed vein materials are worked.

The Kinta district, in the State of Perak, is the most important tin-producing area in the Federated States. A structural valley eroded in soft limestones between granite ridges is the location of most of the workings. The valley is filled with clays and boulder clays carrying tin, and the present stream channels are also stanniferous. Mining is in progress around 15 or more settlements in this district; much of the mining is by open cuts and dredges, but some lode mining is done on pipes in limestones. Next in importance to Kinta is the Larut district, northwest of the former. Placer deposits are the chief source of tin in the district but lodes are worked at Selama and Blanda Mabok. In the south of Perak, at Bruseh, stockworks in schist are worked by hydraulicking, yielding about three-fourths of a pound to the cubic yard of material worked.

Development of the tin deposits in the Protected Malay States has been hampered by transportation difficulties. Until recently the alluvial tin was won by crude native methods. The principal producing comes from the states of Johore, Kedah, Kelantan, Perlis, and Trengganu.

Near Setul, in the State of Perlis, peculiar gravel-filled caves in limestone have been mined for tin. Some of these caves have been followed for four or five miles. In the State of Trengganu, lode mining under European management is under way. The lodes seem to be decomposed stockworks in granite.

An insignificant amount of tin is mined from the beach deposits on the Island of Malacca, Straits Settlements. The tin was derived from schists intruded by granite in which there are many stanniferous veinlets.

Africa.--As will be seen from Table 60, the principal production of tin in Africa is from British Nigeria. The district was worked by natives in the early days, but no important production was made until 1904, after the subjugation of the Emir of Bauchi. The production of Nigeria has grown steadily till it reached 8,500 tons of concentrates in 1917. Seemingly all of the mines are controlled by British capital and the exports have been largely to the smelters in England.

The alluvial deposits of Nigeria are in the valleys of the Bauchi Plateau. Soda granite and pegmatites, intrusive into older crystalline rocks, seem to be the source of the cassiterite that has been concentrated by the present streams. Sluicing is the principal mining method, though some deposits are suitable only for dredging. Tin is also known in northern Nigeria in the Ningi and Burra hills, and other localities. In southern Nigeria tin has been found near Akwa-Ibami, in the Uwet district.

The tin output of the Union of South Africa is chiefly from the Waterberg-Zaaiplaats district, in the western Transvaal, a little tin being mined in Swaziland and the Cape province. The production has ranged from 2,950 tons to 3,450 tons of concentrate a year, most of which before the war went to England for smelting, but since 1915 to the Straits Settlements. A small smelter, rated at 250 tons a year, was built at Zaaiplaats in 1917; it is expected to supply the tin needed in South Africa.

The Waterberg district contains several tin fields. Tin ores are found in the Red Granite and Waterberg felsites, sandstones, and conglomerates. In the former the ores occur in pipes, in irregular bodies of altered granite, disseminated in the granite, in impregnations along fissures, and in pegmatites and quartz veins. In the Waterberg series the tin ores are in lodes, and in irregular lenses and pockets whose position is determined by fissures or bedding planes.

In the Potgietersrust district the principal mines are largely pipe deposits in the Red Granite. These pipes, which are very erratic in direction, range from a few inches to 20 feet in diameter; some have been followed for 3,000 feet. The filling material varies greatly, ranging from slightly altered granite to a greenish homogeneous rock; the outer zones are tourmaline-quartz rock. In the smaller pipes the cassiterite is fairly evenly distributed but in the larger pipes it occurs near the outer edges.

In the Nylstroom district the principal mines are working ore deposits in felsites and shales of the Lower Waterberg series. The deposits are brecciated country rock cemented by quartz, tourmaline, cassiterite, and fluorite.

The Warmbaths field includes several mines located along the junction of the Red Granite and the felsites. Tin is found in lodes in both types of rocks and some alluvial tin has been mined. In the Rooiberg field, the tin deposits are practically all in fissures in quartzite intruded by Red Granite. Tin occurs in the Red Granite 40 miles north of Pretoria.

In the Cape Province, near Kuils River, cassiterite is found disseminated in granite and in veins at the contact of granite and slates. Most of the small amount of tin won has been obtained from gravels derived from these deposits.

In northwestern Swaziland alluvial deposits have been worked for a number of years, producing around 500 tons of concentrates a year. At Forbes Reef, schists and slates have been intruded by granite and tin lodes are found near the contact of the two formations.

Tin has been reported in placer deposits in the Winnebah district and in pegmatite dikes in the Mankofa and Mount Mankwadi districts of the Gold Coast. Tin has been found in placer concentrates from streams in Nyasaland. Tin deposits seemingly of little value have been found in the Enterprise district, east of Salisbury, and in the Ndanga district, east of Victoria, in Rhodesia. These deposits are stanniferous pegmatites which are found in schists near granite.

Australia.--Tin is produced in the following provinces of Australia: Tasmania, Queensland, New South Wales, West Australia, Northern Territory, Victoria, named in the order of their importance. In 1907, the output of Tasmania was about 14,000 tons of concentrates, but production since then steadily declined until it became nearly stationary at 3,000 tons annually for the last few years, and it is believed that this output can be maintained for some time.

There are tin-smelting works at Launceston, in Tasmania; Woolwich, near Sydney, New South Wales; and Irvinebank, near Herberton, Queensland, capable of producing over 4,200 tons of metallic tin a year. Of recent years tin concentrate is being sent to the Straits Settlements (Singapore) for smelting. The exports of metallic tin from Australian ports in 1917 came to about 3,100 tons.

Practically all of the mining companies are controlled by Australian and English capital, and as the tin is smelted either locally or at Singapore the total Australian output can be considered as under the direct political and commercial control of England.

The total production of tin ore from Tasmania[143] from 1880 to 1918, inclusive, is stated to be approximately 128,200 tons.

[143] Tasmania, Report Secretary for Mines for the year ending December 31, 1918, p. 46.

The most important tin mine is Mount Bischoff, 45 miles southwest of Emu Bay. The deposits, discovered in 1871, are credited with a total production of about 75,000 tons of tin ore. There are several deposits, soft altered quartz porphyries intrusive into schists. Topaz and cassiterite are disseminated in the porphyries, and veins carrying tin and wolframite, together with pyrite and arsenopyrite, are found both in the porphyry and schists.

The Shepherd and Murphy mine, near Middlesex, is in a zone of metamorphism at the contact of granite, intrusive into sandstone and quartzite. Tin, tungsten, and bismuth are produced from this ore. Placer tin deposits on the Ringarooma River (Derby district) supply about 1,000 tons of tin concentrates a year. The principal placer mines are the Pioneer and Briseis. Near Gladstone, placers and lode deposits carrying tin and tungsten are worked. At the Anchor mine, in the Blue Tier district, a tin-bearing granite averaging one-half per cent. tin is worked, but mining has not been profitable. The Renison Bell, Dreadnought-Boulder and Montana mines, in the North Dundas field, are in slates cut by dikes of quartz porphyry. Zinc, lead, and iron sulphides are important in the lodes. In the Heemskirt district, southwestern Tasmania, the tin deposits are in granite and in overlying slate and sandstone. At the Federation mine the ore is in a pipe measuring 25 by 15 feet at the surface, but contracting to only 1 by 5 feet at 115 feet down.

Tin was first produced in Queensland in 1872, and the total output, including 1917, is estimated to be about 144,008 tons. The chief producing districts are Herberton, Cooktown, Chillagoe, near the port of Cairns; Stannhills, Kangaroo Hills, and Stanthorpe, the latter being near the New South Wales border. In the Herberton-Cooktown districts the tin occurs in greisenized granite intruded into slates, schists, and quartzite; bismuth and tungsten minerals are associated with it. Placer deposits are worked by hydraulicking, and in places the tin-bearing greisen is broken down by hydraulic giants. In the Stannhills field, near Croydon, cassiterite is found in veins in granite with galena, sphalerite, and chalcopyrite. The Kangaroo Hills, 100 miles south of Herberton, produces both lode and placer tin. In the Stanthorpe district most of the output is from placer deposits, some of which are buried under basalts.

Tin was first mined in New South Wales in 1872, and the total production, including the output of 1917, is estimated at 84,230 tons of tin and 34,510 tons of tin concentrates.

The chief producing districts are the Vegetable Creek and Emmaville-Tingha-Inverell region, in the northeast near the Queensland border, and the Ardlethan district, 40 miles west of Temora, in the south. In the Emmaville-Inverell region the erosion of stanniferous greisenized granite, intrusive into slates, has resulted in a widespread distribution of tin placers, both in the present streams and in what are believed to be Tertiary stream beds that are now capped by lavas. The Vegetable Creek mines, near Emmaville, are typical of the older placer deposits. Since 1900, dredging has become important, and it is estimated that the dredge production up to 1917 was 18,854 tons of concentrates. Lode mining, although not as important, has been done in this district in pipes and stock works in granite; the typical fluorine-bearing gangue minerals are common, and tungsten, bismuth, copper, and lead minerals are found.

Tin was discovered in the Ardlethan district in 1912 in lodes in granite and schist. Molybdenum, bismuth, and tungsten are commonly associated with tin in the greisenized granite lodes. The Barrier district, in the western part of the province, has not been a large contributor, because of lack of water. Cassiterite is found in dikes of coarsely crystalline granite intrusive into greisen and mica schist.

In West Australia the most important tin-producing districts are Greenbushes, near the southwest, and Pilbara, on the northwest, though there has been a very small recovery of tin in the Murchison goldfield, and Coolgardie. In the Greenbushes district cassiterite is found in pegmatite and quartz-tourmaline veins in granite, but the tin won is from stream deposits and from laterite. In the Pilbara field the alluvial tin has been derived from pegmatite dikes that cut granite and metamorphic rocks.

The production of tin in Northern Territory has amounted to about 200 tons a year, most of it being obtained from pegmatitic deposits in granite in the vicinity of Burrundie.

A few tons of tin concentrates are saved each year in the operation of gold placers in the Northeastern and Gippsland divisions of Victoria.

India.--The principal output of tin in India is from the Mergui and Tavoy districts, southern Lower Burma; Tharton and Amherst districts, northern Lower Burma; and the Southern Shan States. The production amounts to about 150 tons of metallic tin a year, and is sent to the Straits Settlements for smelting.

In the Mergui district cassiterite is found in alluvial deposits near granite hills, the granite being intrusive into sedimentary rocks of uncertain age. Tin ore is also found in pegmatite and quartz veins. In the Tavoy district tin is obtained as a by-product of wolfram mining. The deposits occur in pegmatite and quartz veins cutting granite and sedimentary rocks. In the Tharton district the tin-bearing alluvium is said to be rich and its development is awaited with interest. Production of tin began in 1912 from the deposits of Bawlake State, Karenni, Southern Shan States, and in 1917 these deposits were the chief producers in India.

Cornwall.--In the extreme southwest of England is the famous Cornwall tin region, which includes the Camborne, St. Austell, and Liskeard districts, in Cornwall, and the Tavistock district, in Devon. The mines have produced about 8,000 tons of concentrates a year, but at present the output seems to be diminishing; in 1915 the production of metallic tin was approximately 5,000 tons, but in 1918 was only about 4,000 tons.

Tin mining in Cornwall dates back to prehistoric times. In the sixteenth century the mines produced about 700 tons of tin a year; the maximum output was reached in the period 1860 to 1890, when about 10,000 tons was produced annually. It is estimated that the total output of tin from this district is approximately 1,750,000 tons. The mining companies are without exception controlled by British capital.

The second largest tin-smelting capacity in the world is in the Cornwall district. The following companies, Williams Harvey & Co., Penpoll, Cornish Tin Smelting Co., Copper Pass, Redruth Tin Smelting Co., and the London Smelting Co. operate smelters having a combined output of approximately 31,100 tons of tin a year.

The tin deposits of Cornwall and Devon lie about five masses of granite, which are intruded into slates (killas) and greenstones. Quartz porphyry dikes are closely connected with the granite, and the tin lodes are found in both slates and granite, being particularly abundant near intrusive contacts with low dips. The principal lodes are wide zones of fissured rock that are tourmalinized, the less important fissures containing tin and gangue minerals. Copper and tungsten minerals are produced from these lodes, and arsenic is an important by-product of smelting. The lodes in slates are as a rule richer in copper than in the granite, and in depth the lodes contain a larger proportion of tin than nearer the surface. The mines about the Camborne granite mass yield about 85 per cent. of the tin mined, those about the Lands End granite mass 12 per cent., and the mines about St. Austell, Bodmin Moor, and Dartmoor about 1 per cent. each.

Practically all of the tin produced in recent years has been from lodes, but placer tin was mined near St. Austell. The lodes have been worked to a depth of 3,000 feet, which seems to be about the greatest depth to which commercially profitable ore extends. As considerable ground above this level remains to be developed, the district should be productive for some time.

=Other Nations.=--Outside of the British Empire the principal tin deposits of the world are in Bolivia, the Dutch East Indies, China, and Siam, named in the order of their importance as producers in 1918. There are small outputs of tin from deposits in Japan, Spain, Portugal, and the United States, and tin deposits are known in Germany, Italy, Russia, Belgian-Congo, and Southwest Africa.

Bolivia.--Practically all of the tin ore shipped from Bolivia is mined from lodes. Mining began late in the last century. Exports are in the form of barilla, a tin concentrate carrying 60 to 65 per cent. and averaging about 62 per cent. tin. The output has been steadily increasing, and since 1913 Bolivia has been the second largest producer of tin in the world. (See Table 60, and Figure 9). The majority of the companies working in Bolivia are controlled by Chilean or local capital, though a little English, French, Swiss, and German capital was invested in Bolivian tin mines before the war. Recently English and American capital has become interested in the deposits.

Prior to the war practically all of the barilla was sent to Germany and England to be smelted, but lately exports have been to the United States and England. A small Chilean-owned smelter, estimated capacity 900 tons a year, has recently been built at Arica to handle the concentrates from one of the larger mines.

There are four important tin-producing districts in east central Bolivia, in the provinces of Potosi, Oruro, and La Paz. The region lies on the high plateau (elevation, 12,000 feet) and the principal mines are near or in the mountains on the east of the pampa rather than in the western range of the Cordillera. Schists, slates, and quartzites have been intruded by acid igneous rocks, and the tin deposits are found in the granites, the quartz porphyries, and the sedimentary rocks near the contacts. The quartz veins are strong and carry between 3 and 8 per cent. tin in most of the productive mines, though some bodies of ore have carried as much as 40 per cent. tin. Some of the mines were worked for silver by the Spanish, but the silver ores seem to be limited to the upper zones, the lodes becoming relatively richer in tin at depth. Wolframite and bismuth are won as by-products at some of the mines. Pyrite, sphalerite, chalcopyrite, and galena are usually abundant in the tin ores, and tourmaline and fluorite are not uncommon.

The Bolivian deposits are of considerable future importance. Many mines and prospects, either through lack of knowledge or finances, have not been developed; the local management of most of the mines has been notoriously poor; and it is thought that with proper technical direction the output of tin can be greatly increased.

Dutch East Indies.--On the islands of Banca, Billiton, and Singkep, south of the Malay Peninsula, are important tin mines. As will be seen from Table 60 the output of tin from these islands has been approximately 21,000 tons a year. Mining began on Banka about 1718, but the Billiton deposits were not worked until about 1860. The mines of Banka are worked by the government, but on Billiton and Singkep the deposits are leased by private concerns, mostly Dutch. At Banka the Dutch government operates smelters having a yearly capacity of 16,000 tons. The concentrates produced on Billiton and Singkep are in part sent to the Straits Settlements for treatment, but some are smelted locally.

Practically all of the tin mined in the Dutch East Indies is from placer deposits, some of which are alluvial. There is, however, a little lode mining on Billiton. The cassiterite was formed in greisenized granite and sediments, and the original deposits are similar to those of the Malay Peninsula. A little tungsten and gold are obtained as by-products of the tin mining.

China.--Tin deposits in the Mengtze district, near Kochiu, Province of Yunnan, southeastern China, have been worked for many years. During recent years about 8,000 tons of tin have been exported, and it is known that considerable tin ore produced from these deposits is smelted locally, the metal being consumed in China. The exports go out through the French port of Haifong. The mining industry is entirely under Chinese control. Most of the tin ore is obtained by placer and open-cut methods from decomposed granitic and pegmatitic lodes which are found near the contact of granite that is intrusive into limestone. There are less important tin deposits in the Fuchuan and Tungchwan districts, the former producing a very pure metal.

The tin concentrates exported go mostly to Hong Kong and the Straits Settlements for treatment, so the Chinese tin output is more or less at the disposal of England.

Siam.--In that part of Siam lying in the Malay Peninsula, tin deposits, similar in origin and occurrence to those in the British provinces, are being worked, and as shown by Table 60 are yearly becoming larger factors in the world’s output. The largest operations are near Renong and Tongkah, where dredging by British companies is active. The chief producing companies are Tongkah Harbor Tin Dredging Co., Tin Benbong, Bangnon Valley, Ronpibon Extended, Beebook Dredging Co., and Katoo Syndicate.

Japan.--The tin-producing localities in Japan are near Kagoshima, Satsuma, on Kyushu Island; about 50 miles north of Kobe in Tajima province; and near Nayegi, Mino Province, near the center of the main island. Placer deposits near Nayegi have yielded some tin, seemingly derived from pegmatite dikes in granite. The Akinobe mine, in Tajima Province, was developed as a copper mine, but about 1912 tin and tungsten minerals were found in the ore. The veins are in slates and quartzites intruded by diorites. It is said that in 1917 about 40 tons of mixed tin-tungsten ores was produced daily. A small smelter at Ikuno handles the tin concentrates and produces about 250 tons of tin a year. The Susuijama mine, in Satsuma, produces tin from veins, in shales and sandstones, that also carry lead and zinc. Apparently the output is smelted and used locally.

Spain.--In the provinces of Salamanca, Zamora, Orense, Pontevedra, and Coruña, northwest Spain, there are tin deposits. Lode deposits are found near the contact of granite intrusive into schists and gneisses, and placer deposits have been worked since ancient times. In 1913 about 6,700 tons of ore is said to have been produced, but since then the output has been around 100 tons a year.

Portugal.--In Portugal, just south of the Spanish border, tin lodes in granite and slates have been found and placer deposits worked in the gravels adjacent to the lodes. The yearly output of these deposits is around 300 tons. It is reported that American capital is interested in some of the Portuguese tin and tungsten deposits.

United States.--In the United States the domestic output is only nominal, being equivalent to 60 to 100 tons of tin a year. The productive deposits, placers worked by dredges, are in the York district of Seward Peninsula, Alaska. They occur near the contact of granite intrusive into limestones, in peculiar rocks of contact metamorphic origin.

Cassiterite has been mined from gravels derived from pegmatite dikes intrusive in pre-Cambrian rocks of the Black Hills near Tinton and Hill City, South Dakota, and various attempts have been made to mine the lode deposits. These deposits are of more scientific interest than commercial importance. A little stream tin has also been mined on the North Carolina-South Carolina boundary near King’s Mountain, the cassiterite being an original constituent of pegmatite dikes intrusive into pre-Cambrian schists. At Irish Creek, Rockbridge County, Virginia, there are known stanniferous veins in coarse granites. In the Franklin Mountains 14 miles north of El Paso, Texas, quartz veins in granite carrying cassiterite were worked at one time but have not been productive of late. In the Temescal Mountains, Riverside County, California, small quartz veins carrying cassiterite are found in acid granitic rocks that are intrusive into metamorphosed sediments. Considerable work was done in this locality in the years 1880 to 1890, but the irregularity of the deposits and their low tin content do not hold much promise for future production.

Prior to the war the United States, although the largest consumer of tin in the world, produced practically no tin ore, and imported only metallic tin, having no smelters for treating tin ore. Since 1916 smelters have been erected by the American Smelting & Refining Co., and the Williams Harvey Corporation, their estimated capacity being 18,000 tons of tin a year. Presumably these smelters must rely largely on Bolivian concentrates.

Germany-Austria.--Germany has produced practically no tin ores in recent years, though the country had a smelting industry, estimated at about 16,000 tons of tin a year, dependent on foreign ores. The normal imports of tin ore before the war were 17,000 to 18,000 metric tons a year, most of which came from Bolivia.

In the Erzgebirge, on the German-Austrian frontier, in the Altenberg-Zinnwald district, there was formerly some tin mining. The deposits, which are typical greisen lying near the tops and sides of bodies of granite intrusive into schists and gneisses, have made almost no production for several years and they are considered to be exhausted.

Italy.--At Campiglia Marittima, Tuscany, iron and tin have been produced from veins in limestone and shale. The output is variable and cannot be relied upon.

Russia.--In the former Empire of Russia tin has been found in the Trans-Baikal Province, Siberia, and in the Urals and Finland in European Russia. The Siberian deposits are placers in the basin of the Onon River. A German company was formed before the war to work lode tin deposits near Olovianoy, southwest of Nerchinsk, in the Urals. The Finnish deposits are at Pitkaranta, north of Lake Ladoga. The ores are a mixture of magnetite, cassiterite, and chalcopyrite, occurring in altered limestone and schist.

Belgian Congo (Katanga).--Alluvial tin derived from veins in granite and intruded sedimentary rocks has been found along Lualaba River and on Busanga Ridge. There are no records of production, but the field holds considerable promise.

Southwest Africa.--Cassiterite occurs in pegmatite, intrusive into granite, in the Erongo Mountains east of Brandberg, and some placer tin deposits have been worked. On the whole the region does not seem to be particularly promising.

PROBABLE CHANGES IN KNOWN GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION

It seems reasonably certain that England is in a position to keep producing a large part of the world’s tin for some time, the lessening output from the Malaysian provinces being offset by the increased production of the African colonies. Both Cornwall and Australia, it is believed, will be able to maintain for a number of years a rather steady output of about the present size.

Bolivia will doubtless be able to increase her output of tin, and probably both Siam and China can be expected to produce larger quantities in the future. Production of the Dutch East Indies can probably be maintained at about its present rate for a number of years.

POLITICAL CONTROL

As will be seen from Table 62 and Figure 10, Great Britain controls politically over 50 per cent. of the tin output of the world, in that her political influence is absolute in England, Africa, Australia, and all of her colonial possessions on the east side of the Indian Ocean; and there can be little doubt that the strong British policy with regard to the eastern colonies is also potent with respect to Siam and China.

Holland controls the tin output of the East Indian island colonies, in which there are smelting works that seem capable of taking care of most of the ore mined. Holland consumes little tin herself and has approximately 16 per cent. of the world’s supply at her disposal. Prior to the war Holland was a large distributor of tin, but during the war tin from her colonies was sent direct to America and England, the largest consuming countries.

China has a rather feeble political control of the output of the Yunnan tin mines, but as that part of her production which reaches the rest of the world is exported through French territory, largely through English middlemen, her actual control is not particularly great.

Siam controls some important tin fields. The very strong British influence on the Malay Peninsula, coupled with the fact that the Siamese ore is smelted in the Straits Settlements, seems to indicate that British policy will largely dominate the tin-mining industry of Siam.

Bolivia, using little tin and producing nearly a quarter of the world’s output, is really the only considerable producer that can act more or less independently. Her mines are mostly controlled by Chilian-Bolivian capital and she has the world for a market. It would seem that Bolivian barilla might be smelted locally, but as Bolivia has no fuel, the tin smelting capacity of Bolivia amounts thus far to almost nothing. Her nearest market at present is the United States, but the future will show whether Bolivian ore will continue to be smelted in the United States, as during the past few years, or will be sent to England and Germany, as before the war.

The relation of political control of tin deposits and tin smelting is shown in the following table, and diagrammatically in Figure 10.

TABLE 62.--POLITICAL CONTROL OF TIN DEPOSITS AND SMELTERS BASED ON ESTIMATES FOR 1918

-------------+-------------+-------------+---------------+---------- | Control of | | Control of | |tin deposits,| | tin smelters, |Percentage |annual output|Percentage of|annual capacity| of world Country |(metric tons)| world output| (metric tons) | capacity -------------+-------------+-------------+---------------+---------- Great Britain| 59,900 | 45.5 | 88,300 | 57.3 Holland | 20,200 | 15.2 | 16,000 | 10.2 China | 12,000 | 9.3 | 12,000 | 7.4 Siam | 8,600 | 7.0 | | Bolivia | 28,000 | 21.3 | 2,700 | 1.6 Germany | ... | ... | 16,000 | 10.2 France | ... | ... | 1,500 | 0.7 America | ... | ... | 18,000 | 12.4 All others | 2,000 | 1.7 | 500 | 0.2 +-------------+-------------+---------------+---------- Total | 130,700 | | 154,000 | -------------+-------------+-------------+---------------+----------

COMMERCIAL CONTROL OF TIN MINES

British capital is the dominant controlling factor of approximately 57 per cent. of the world’s tin output, and through affiliations with capital of other countries it has a partial control of about 15 per cent. more. British capital is dominant in all of the British possessions and Siam, and through buying agencies practically controls the export tin from China. Bolivian tin mines are the only ones in the world in which British control is not strongly felt. The largest part of the Bolivian output is under the financial control of Chilean financiers, with local capital the next strongest factor. French and German money has been invested to a limited extent in Bolivian mines.

Recently the firm of Guggenheim Brothers, of New York, connected with the American tin-smelting industry, has acquired certain tin mines in Bolivia.

COMMERCIAL CONTROL OF TIN SMELTING

British capital controls tin smelters with a yearly capacity of approximately 88,300 tons of tin a year. These are situated in England, Straits Settlements, and Australia. The tin deposits of undoubted British control can produce ore to furnish only 62,550 tons, so that England has a smelting capacity of 15,750 tons a year in excess of her supply.

The Dutch control the smelters, having a capacity of 16,000 tons, of their East Indian colonies, but the annual output of ore from these colonies is equivalent to 20,200 tons of tin, so that an excess of 4,200 tons must be smelted elsewhere, and most of this goes to the smelters in the Straits Settlements, which are English owned.

Chinese capital controls smelters that are seemingly capable of handling the entire output of China, about 12,000 tons of tin a year.

American capital, since the war, has developed tin smelters in the United States and Bolivia, which have an annual capacity of 18,000 metric tons. This capacity is being enlarged and should be able shortly to take care of the entire Bolivian tin output, provided it receives the ore. But Chilean capital has built a smelter at Arica which could handle about 10 per cent. of the Bolivian output, and if this smelter is favored by Chilean mine owners the American smelters may find themselves short of ore.

German capital is interested in tin smelters in Germany that have a producing capacity of 15,000 tons a year. All of the ore treated must be imported, but it hardly seems possible that much ore from outside sources can be expected for some time, as the smelting capacity of the world exceeds the output of the mines.

The tin-smelting capacity of the world is approximately 154,000 tons, whereas the world’s production of tin ore is equivalent to approximately 130,700 tons. It is evident that, unless greater production is forthcoming, some smelters will be idle, and it is a reasonable surmise that neither the British nor Dutch smelters will lack ore. The United States, owing to its favorable situation with respect to Bolivian supply, may hope to have a large part of its smelter capacity at work, though there is some question whether enough ore will be available to assure the maximum operation of the tin smelters in the United States.

POSITION OF THE TIN-CONSUMING COUNTRIES

Great Britain produces more tin than she consumes and is therefore in a position to dispose of tin to the rest of the world. From a study of import and export tables it seems that England consumes about 20,000 tons of tin a year and that she imports about 55,000 tons and therefore has 35,000 tons for export. She is in position through her large political and commercial control of tin deposits and smelters to practically dictate the world’s tin policy.

The Dutch colonies produce about 16 per cent. of the world’s tin, and as Holland is normally a very small consumer of tin, she has supplied a considerable part of the tin used in Germany and the United States.

Prior to the war a considerable tin-plate industry, dependent on foreign tin, was built up in southern Russia. The consumption was about 8,000 tons of tin a year, which was largely supplied by Great Britain, Holland, and Germany. If this industry is maintained Russia will still be under the necessity of importing considerable tin.

Tin users in Germany, who, before the war, apparently consumed about 22,000 tons of tin, must purchase all supplies from others. Before the war the principal supply of tin ore was Bolivia, and of metallic tin the Dutch East Indies. It seems reasonable that Germany’s supply of Bolivian ore may be curtailed in the future, as the United States is now in position to treat the ore, and freight rates should favor shipments of Bolivian barilla to the United States rather than to Germany. Whether the German tin-smelting industry will survive or not remains to be seen.

France has a small tin-smelting industry, treating about 1,500 tons a year. The apparent consumption is about 7,000 tons of tin a year, most of which was formerly imported from British India, England, and the Dutch East Indies.

The United States annually consumes over 80,000 tons of tin, including secondary metal, and produces from domestic ores about 100 tons. Prior to the war, metallic tin was obtained through England and Holland, as there were no tin smelters in this country. During the war there was established a tin-smelting industry, which is dependent entirely on foreign ore, most of which so far has come from Bolivia. The estimated capacity of tin smelters in America is about 18,000 tons a year or about 20 per cent. of the estimated yearly requirement. A combination of English, Bolivian and American capital is interested in one of these smelters, and also in Bolivian tin mines, and probably this smelter can be supplied. There is, however, considerable question whether the other smelters can obtain supplies of Bolivian ore. Certainly they will have competition from both English and German smelting concerns, which will be somewhat offset by cheaper freight to the United States than across the Atlantic. This difference is probably not large, and it would seem that if American smelters are to get Bolivian tin ore their charges must be low. A surer method of meeting their ore requirements would be to obtain financial control of enough ore deposits in Bolivia to supply the demand.

Evidently the United States must in the future, as in the past, import considerable quantities of tin from both Great Britain and Holland. It is to be hoped that the tin trade routes established during the war may be maintained and that American consumers will not have to pay the additional charges necessitated by Eastern tin going to Europe and back to the United States.

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XV. LEAD

XVI. ZINC

XVII. TIN