XVIII. MERCURY
BY F. L. RANSOME
USES OF MERCURY
Under normal conditions the chief uses of quicksilver (mercury) or its salts, stated in order of decreasing importance, are as follows: In the manufacture of drugs and chemicals, including calomel and corrosive sublimate; in the manufacture of certain chemicals, such as glacial acetic acid, phthalic acid and phthalic anhydride, into which mercury itself does not enter; as mercury fulminate ((C:N.O₂)Hg, ¹⁄₂H₂O), made by treating mercury with alcohol and nitric acid, which is used as a detonator for high explosives, and, though less than formerly, in small-arms ammunition.
The discovery of mercury fulminate by Howard in 1799 led to the invention of the percussion cap in place of the old flint-lock, and fulminate still remains the best-known and most-used detonator for gunpowder and high explosives. It is often combined with other substances, particularly an abrasive such as powdered glass, to increase its sensitiveness, and with compounds or mixtures that themselves have the property of detonating, such as sulphide of antimony and chlorate of potassium. Recently a large part of the mercury fulminate in detonators for modern high explosives has been replaced by picric acid, trinitrotoluene, or tetranitromethylamine, whereby a much stronger initial effect is obtained, and one part of mercury fulminate is made to detonate a charge that would have required six times as much fulminate used alone. Other substances have been found, which seem likely to replace mercury fulminate entirely for certain uses. One of these is lead azide, a salt of hydronitric acid. Large dry crystals of this salt are so sensitive as to explode when brushed with a feather, but smaller crystals are less sensitive.
As mercuric sulphide, mercury forms the brilliant red pigment vermilion. The metal is employed extensively in electrical apparatus, including rectifiers for changing alternating into direct current, mercury vapor lamps, and storage batteries. In the manufacture of felt hats from rabbits’ fur, mercuric nitrate is used to roughen the hairs so that they will adhere together, a process technically known as “carroting.” Metallic quicksilver is employed in the amalgamation of gold and silver ores, although of late years the wide application of the cyanide process has decreased this use. The metal is also utilized in the manufacture of instruments, thermostats, gas governors, and other appliances. Mercury enters into the composition of some anti-fouling marine paints for ship bottoms, a modern and at present rapidly increasing use. The mercury for this purpose is generally employed as red mercuric oxide, its efficiency depending upon the gradual conversion of the oxide to the poisonous bichloride by the sodium chloride of salt water. Mercury is also used in certain compounds for preventing boiler scale, in cosmetics, and in dental amalgam. Silver nitrate has to a large extent replaced mercury in silvering mirrors. A small quantity of quicksilver, not more than two or three flasks annually, is used in floating certain types of revolving lights in lighthouses. Quicksilver is also used as the cathode in certain electrolytic processes for manufacturing chlorine and caustic soda from common salt. Mercuric oxide parts with oxygen readily and is a useful oxidizing agent in certain chemical processes. An important modern utilization of this property is in the manufacture of glacial acetic acid by the oxidation of acetylene.
Experiments to determine the possible advantages of using mercury vapor with steam in turbine power generators are reported to have been encouraging and a 4,000-kilowatt unit has been built by the General Electric Co. to test further this application. Except for incidental losses, the mercury so used is recoverable, but if in practice the increase of power is as much as the experimental work has indicated a large consumption of the metal is likely to result.
The production of quicksilver in this country in 1917 was 35,954 flasks (of 75 pounds) and in 1918 it was 32,883 flasks.
GEOLOGICAL DISTRIBUTION
The ores of quicksilver, like those of most metals, show on the whole a close association with igneous rocks and with zones of fissuring. More commonly than with other metals, with the possible exception of antimony, they are associated with volcanism as opposed to plutonic igneous activity and were deposited comparatively near the surface. It follows that quicksilver deposits as a rule are found in regions of Tertiary and Quaternary volcanic activity which have not been subjected to long and deep erosion, that they are more likely to be in the younger geologic formations than in the older rocks, and that as a class, compared for example with the hypogene ores of gold or copper, do not extend to great depth. It must be noted, however, that there are some conspicuous exceptions to these generalizations. Although the California deposits are in a region of late volcanic activity and many of them are closely associated with active hot springs, the ore bodies that are now most productive, those at New Idria (Idria post office) and the great deposits, at New Almaden, that formerly yielded so richly, have no obvious connection with volcanism. The greatest quicksilver mine in the world, that at Almaden, Spain, has no known connection with volcanism or massive igneous rocks, has been worked to a depth of 1,150 feet, and the ore bodies have been found to grow larger and richer downward. The deepest quicksilver mine in the world is the New Almaden in California, worked to a depth of 2,200 feet. The part of the mine below the 600-foot level was abandoned at a time when the price of quicksilver was low, but it is doubtful whether, under any conditions that can now be foreseen, it will be profitable to reopen and work the deep levels of this mine.
Although most of the known quicksilver deposits are in regions of geologically late volcanic eruptions it is probable that ores of quicksilver were deposited during or closely following epochs of similar igneous activity in the older geologic periods, but that many of them have been removed by erosion. Some of the deposits in the older rocks, which do not appear to be related to Tertiary or later volcanic eruptions, may have had such earlier origin.
The quicksilver deposits of the Adriatic region in Europe, including those at Idria, in Austria; Avala, in Serbia; and Monte Amiata, in Italy, have been shown by De Launay to belong to a single metallogenetic province characterized by Tertiary eruptions. Similarly, the somewhat scattered occurrences of quicksilver in Alaska, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Nevada, Utah, California, Arizona, Mexico, Peru, and Chile coincide in part with the belt of Tertiary and Quaternary volcanic activity along the western sides of the continents of North and South America. The deposits at Almaden, Spain, in the Donetz basin, Russia, in Asiatic Turkey, and in China appear to be isolated occurrences that can not at present be assigned to recognizable provinces of eruptive activity and metallization.
Quicksilver deposits are not confined to rocks of any particular kind or of any particular geologic age.
At Oviedo the ore averages 0.33 per cent. and yields arsenic compounds as by-products. At Idria the ore yields 0.65 per cent. The ore of the Abbadia-San Salvatore, the principal mine in the Monte Amiata district, in Italy, yielded about 0.9 per cent. in 1915. In California few mines have over 2 per cent. ore, and the average yield of the ore worked is about 0.5 per cent. The lowest yield that was profitably obtained in that state in 1917 was 0.185 per cent. The ores worked in Texas are generally of higher grade than those mined in California. In the principal mine of the Terlingua district, Texas, the won tenor of the ore in 1916 was 2.5 per cent. and in 1917, 3.9 per cent.
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION
=Europe.=--The largest and richest deposit of quicksilver ore known is at Almaden, in central Spain. There are three nearly parallel ore bodies standing vertically side by side, each consisting of a portion of a bed of quartzite of Silurian age, impregnated with cinnabar. The ore bodies have been mined to a depth of 350 meters. The production in 1917 was probably about 25,000 flasks. The mine is said to have ore opened up that insures a future production of at least 40,000 metric tons of quicksilver. Other productive deposits in Spain are those near Oviedo, where the ore, which contains cinnabar, pyrite, orpiment, and realgar, is said to average about one-third of 1 per cent. of quicksilver, with arsenic compounds as by-products. According to a report from Vice Consul General H. A. McBride, written in Barcelona in 1911, the principal companies operating in the Oviedo districts were the Oviedo Mercury Mines Co., Ltd., of London, the Sociedad Fabrica de Mieres, of Oviedo, and the Sociedad Union Asturiana, of Mieres. The production from the district in 1915 was 608 flasks (20.7 metric tons). A third group of deposits lies on the south slope of the Sierra Nevada in the provinces of Granada and Almeria, southern Spain. The production from Granada in 1915 was 41 flasks (1.4 metric tons).
A small quantity of quicksilver was produced in Portugal in the nineteenth century from a mine not far from Lisbon. Cinnabar occurs at a number of localities in France and also in Corsica, but the deposits are not of economic character.
In South Germany, north of Zweibrucken, are quicksilver deposits that had considerable importance near the end of the thirteenth century, but at the beginning of the World War the mines had been closed for many years. Zinc ores mined near Bensberg, east of Cologne, yield annually about 90 flasks of quicksilver, won as a by-product in zinc smelting. In the former Austrian Empire the principal deposit is at Idria, about 28 miles from Trieste. The ore body occurs chiefly as an impregnation of Triassic dolomite and shale. The output in Austria in 1916, probably all from Idria, is believed to have been about 25,000 flasks. Reserves capable of yielding 20,000 metric tons, or 587,733 flasks, are known. At latest reports these mines were in the possession of Italy. At Zips, in northern Hungary, quicksilver is obtained as a by-product from iron ore (siderite) that carries mercurial tetrahedrite and some cinnabar. The production in 1913 was 2,615 flasks.
To the west of Idria, quicksilver deposits belonging to the same general belt of metallization extend into northern Italy. The principal deposit of this belt in Venetia is the Vallalta. The mine produced 9,550 flasks (325 metric tons) between 1856 and 1870, but has long been idle. The most productive deposits of quicksilver in Italy are those of the Monte Amiata district, in Tuscany, about half way between Rome and Florence. Monte Amiata is apparently a post-Pliocene volcano, and traces of recent volcanic activity survive. The most productive mine is the Abbadia-San Salvatore, which yields about 65 per cent. of the output from the district, which in 1917 amounted to about 29,300 flasks.
At Mount Avala, near Belgrade in Serbia, deposits of quicksilver ore have been known since 1883, which resemble many of those in California. The Avala deposits were worked between 1889 and 1895, but seemingly have not been productive in late years.
The only quicksilver deposits of note in European Russia are those in the Donetz coal basin, southern Russia. The essential mineral is cinnabar, accompanied by stibnite and pyrite. The deposits were discovered in 1879, the maximum output, 18,102 flasks (616 metric tons), was reached in 1897, and work was abandoned in 1911, but has been resumed since in a small way.
=Asia.=--The Konia mine, in south-central Asia Minor, is in silicified limestone. The quicksilver occurs as cinnabar and most of the ore carries from 1 to 2.5 per cent. of the metal. The known reserves were estimated in 1908 at 13,000 metric tons of 1 per cent. ore. The production in 1911 was only 90 flasks of 75 pounds. The Kara-Burnu mine, said to be the only important quicksilver mine in Turkey, is situated southeast of Smyrna. In 1906 and 1907 the mine was producing about 3,000 flasks annually, but of late years the output has declined and in 1912 amounted to only 811 flasks (31 metric tons).
The Ildekansk quicksilver mine, in southeastern Siberia, east of Lake Baikal, has gained notoriety from the fact that political exiles were condemned to mine the ore. The deposit appears to be of slight economic importance.
That quicksilver deposits occur in the Province of Kweichow, south-central China, has long been known, but the locality is remote from ordinary routes of travel and comparatively little is on record concerning their character. The ore bodies of the Wan San Chang mines are the most extensively worked. For several years prior to 1905 the output averaged about 4,000 pounds of quicksilver a month. This would be equivalent to about 640 flasks annually. More recent figures of production are not available.
=North America.=--The quicksilver deposits of North America are confined to the Cordilleran region from Alaska to Central America. The most productive deposits are in California and western Texas. In Alaska minerals containing quicksilver have been found in a number of the placer-mining districts, but deposits in place have been discovered in the central Kuskokwim region only. The ore occurs as cinnabar accompanied by stibnite, quartz, and a ferruginous dolomite. Development has been hindered by transportation difficulties, and only a few hundred pounds of quicksilver have been produced for local consumption. In Washington quicksilver ores have been prospected in various places, but the production is as yet inconsiderable. In Oregon cinnabar is widely distributed, but only one deposit (at Blackbutte, in Lane County) is at present productive. In the Black Butte mine the ore averages about 0.25 per cent. of quicksilver, and the quantity available above the 500-foot level is estimated by the company at about 150,000 tons. The production of Oregon in 1917 was 388 flasks, all but 3 flasks being from the Black Butte mine.
In California the principal deposits occur in the Coast Ranges within a belt that is about 400 miles long and has a maximum width of about 75 miles. The known deposits within this area are numerous. About twenty-five of these are at present productive, while probably three times that number which were once productive are now idle. With a few exceptions, the deposits of this main quicksilver belt are in rocks of probable Jurassic age, or in serpentine which is the alteration product of peridotites. The most notable exceptions are the deposits of the Oceanic mine, San Luis Obispo County, and of the Sulphur Bank mine, in Lake County. Many of the most productive mines of the past have yielded no quicksilver from underground work for years.
The most productive mine in California at present is the New Idria, in San Benito County, which in 1917 yielded 11,000 flasks out of a total for the state of 23,733 flasks and for the United States of 35,954 flasks. The New Idria ore comes from two mines, the New Idria proper and the San Carlos. The New Idria has been extensively opened to a depth of about 1,000 feet. In the San Carlos practically all of the known ore lies within 200 feet of the surface. The two mines contributed nearly equally to the total production in 1917, and the average winnable tenor of the ore in that year was 0.32 per cent. It has been estimated that in the two mines there is available 2,400,000 tons of ore averaging 0.253 per cent. of quicksilver.
The New Almaden mine is in Santa Clara County. At present, all the levels below the 800-foot are under water and of late years very little ore has been taken from the old mine. Most of the recent production of the New Almaden Co., Inc., which for 1917 amounted to 2,683 flasks, has come from the El Senador mine, northeast of the old mine, and from quicksilver recovered from ground under old furnaces and condensers. In the New Almaden, the El Senador, and in the neighboring New Guadalupe, which produced 3,100 flasks in 1917, the ore occurs as irregular bodies in serpentine. Close to the mine now being worked by the New Guadalupe Mining Co., and owned by the same company, is the original Guadalupe mine, once highly productive but now long idle.
The Oceanic mine, in San Luis Obispo County, ranked fourth in productiveness in California in 1917, with an output of 1,246 flasks. The ore occurs as an impregnation of sandstone. The average winnable tenor of the ore in 1917 was 0.185 per cent. Other mines in California which yielded from 500 to 1,000 flasks in 1917 are the Great Eastern, the Cloverdale, and the Culver-Baer, all in Sonoma County. Those whose output was between 400 and 500 flasks are the St. Johns, and the Helen, in Lake County.
Nevada contains many widely scattered deposits of quicksilver ore, no one of which has yet been worked on an extensive scale, although a few have been fairly productive for short periods. The ores occur in rhyolite of Tertiary age and in limestone or associated sedimentary beds of various ages from Paleozoic to Mesozoic. The total yield from Nevada in 1917 was 997 flasks, nearly half of which came from the Farnham and Drew mine, east of Mina, which closed for lack of ore near the end of the year. The next mine in point of yield, the Goldbanks, in Humboldt county, is also at present non-productive.
In Texas the principal quicksilver deposits are in the Terlingua district, in Brewster County. The ore occurs along fissure zones in Cretaceous limestones and shales, generally in proximity to intrusive rock. The principal mines are the Chisos, Mariposa, Big Bend, and Dallas.
In Mexico quicksilver deposits in the states of San Luis Potosi, Guerrero, and Durango are said to be yielding considerable quicksilver, even in the present disturbed condition of the country. A quicksilver dealer, testifying at the Tariff Commission hearing in San Francisco, on June 26, 1918, said that 400 flasks a month was being exported into the United States, but a considerable part of this was probably reclaimed quicksilver that has been used in the amalgamation of silver ores.
=South America.=--Quicksilver deposits are known in Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, Brazil, Argentina, and Peru, but only those in Peru seem to be of present economic importance, and the production of that country in 1916 was only 62 flasks (2.1 metric tons). The most famous deposits in Peru are those at Huancavelica, particularly those of the Santa Barbara mine, on the east flank of the western chain of the Andes. These have been worked since 1566 and are said to have yielded 46,500 metric tons (1,366,480 flasks of 75 pounds) before 1790. The production in the 19th century has been estimated at 3,500 metric tons (102,865 flasks). The ore bodies are numerous, irregular, and occur in stratified rocks that are cut by igneous rocks. In 1916 the greater part of the quicksilver-bearing ground in the Huancavelica district was purchased by E. E. Fernandini, of Lima, and there appears to be some prospect of a resumption of active mining.
CHANGES IN KNOWN GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION IN THE FUTURE
As with most metalliferous ores that have been formed later than the deposition or solidification of their inclosing rocks, the ores of quicksilver are most likely to be found in regions of eruptive activity and complex geologic structure, especially in regions of comparatively late volcanic disturbance. It follows that new deposits are most likely to be discovered within the areas of Tertiary or post-Tertiary volcanic activity, as in the Cordilleran belts of North and South America, the eastern coast of Asia, certain parts of Oceania, and the shores of the Mediterranean. Alaska, Mexico, and the western part of South America seem to offer the greatest possibilities of future productivity, but there is little probability of any important changes in the sources of quicksilver taking place in the near future. The value of a quicksilver deposit can be ascertained as a rule only by mining exploration, and in very few quicksilver mines can any safe estimate be made of “undeveloped” ore. The known facts afford no secure basis for predicting that in the near future some now unimportant district will, within the next ten years, wrest the supremacy in production from Spain, or compete with Austria, Italy, California, or Texas. As regards the principal known sources, it appears that the high-water mark of productivity in California has long been passed, although the mines are still capable of increasing their present production under sufficient stimulus. The Italian output has been increasing of late years, but whether this represents the discovery of new ore bodies or indicates a longer life for the Monte Amiata district is uncertain. A permanent improvement in the political conditions in Mexico, with a continuance of the present, or higher, prices, would probably lead to a notable increase in yield from that country. There is some probability also that Peru may again become an important source of quicksilver.
CHANGES IN PRACTICE
The quicksilver industry is less likely to be modified by changes in mining methods than by improvements in metallurgy. Although very simple in principle, the treatment of quicksilver ores, owing to the mobility and elusiveness of the metal both in the liquid and vaporized condition, is beset with many practical difficulties.
Coarsely broken ore is generally treated in various types of simple shaft furnaces, the fuel being either mixed with the charge or burned in a firebox. Finely broken or pulverulent ore, however, such as forms the larger part of the material from most quicksilver mines, requires different treatment. In Europe the common type of furnace for fine ore is the Spirek and in the United States the Scott-Hütner, or, as more commonly called, the Scott furnace. In both, the ore descends by gravity over tiles of fire-clay so shaped and placed as to permit the flame to pass back and forth through passages under tiles, the passageways or flues being formed partly by the tiles and partly by the ore itself. From the furnace the mercury-laden vapors are conducted through a series of condensing chambers of brick, iron, wood, or other material, in which the metal collects.
When intelligently operated, the Scott furnace is remarkably economical and efficient; but its construction is expensive and requires specially skilled masons. Moreover the furnace is difficult to repair, and once erected can not be moved. These are serious disadvantages to the man of small capital who is developing a new mine, and he usually has to fall back on retorts which are expensive to operate and are unsatisfactory except for relatively small quantities of rich ore.
Of late years attempts have been made in California and Texas to use slightly modified rotary cement-kilns for treating quicksilver ores. This innovation is promising and seems likely to prove successful. Such a furnace, although it may not displace the Scott under some conditions, does not require elaborate masonry structure, and its use may lead to a considerably increased production from the smaller mines.
The condensing systems used with quicksilver furnaces differ greatly and at no two mines in the United States are they identical. The brick condensing chambers formerly so extensively used with the Scott furnace are expensive to build; also the bricks are poor conductors of heat and absorb large quantities of quicksilver. The recent tendency in California has been to replace the brick chambers with large boxes or cylindrical tanks of wood. European practice, followed by one mine in Oregon and one in Texas, favors condensers constructed of vitrified earthenware pipe. The whole question of quicksilver condensation calls for study and skillful experiment. The establishment of a standard of practice would increase production by elimination of much of the loss and discouragement that come from inefficient individual efforts to collect the mercury from the furnace vapors and gases in the most complete and economical way.
POLITICAL CONTROL
The quicksilver industry offers two conspicuous examples of the direct political control of mineral resources. The Almaden mine, whose output is such as in normal times to determine the market for quicksilver, has been owned and worked by the Spanish government since 1645, and the Idria mine up until the close of the war was owned by the Austro-Hungarian government.
The Spanish government, on the basis of competitive proposals, contracts with the successful bidder for the sale of the quicksilver for periods of ten years. For a number of successive periods the contract has been awarded to the Rothschilds of London, the present one dating from June 1, 1912. The contractors bind themselves to sell, in London, the greatest possible quantity of quicksilver, which they take f.o.b. at the reduction plant at Almaden, at prices above 7 pounds per flask, They receive a commission of 1¹⁄₄ per cent. of the amount of the sale; 6 shillings for each flask shipped from Spain to London; and 10 per cent. of the amount by which the sales price exceeds 8 pounds 2 shillings per flask. The Spanish government reserves from the operation of this contract 500 flasks[144] annually for the national requirements of Spain. By this arrangement, although the mine is owned by Spain, the market has been controlled in London. During the war the sale of Almaden mercury was taken over by the Admiralty through Messrs. Rothschild. The quantity received in London from Almaden in 1917 was about 25,000 flasks.
[144] Increased to 10,000 flasks in 1919.
The Konia mine, in Asia Minor, reverted to the Turkish government in 1912, but its output, as previously noted, is inconsiderable.
The quicksilver mines of the Monte Amiata district, Italy, although less obviously illustrative of political control than those just mentioned, should perhaps be referred to in the present connection. German capital has been dominant in their development in the late years before the war, and the most productive mines are credibly reported to have been owned wholly or in part by the German Emperor. With the entry of Italy into the war they were seized by the Italian government. The Italian mines produced about 28,000 flasks, of which from 12,000 to 15,000 flasks were purchased by the British Admiralty.
COMMERCIAL CONTROL
Under present practice the reduction of quicksilver ores is almost invariably at the mine, both mine and reduction works being under the same ownership. They must therefore be considered together for the purpose of the present inquiry.
The most conspicuous example of commercial control is that exercised by the Rothschilds of London, who do not own the resources that give them this pre-eminence. The yield of the remarkably rich Almaden mine, whose annual output surpasses that of any other mine and in 1916 exceeded that of any country except Spain (whose ore, even when carelessly worked, yields quicksilver at low cost, and whose known reserves are large), enables the Rothschilds, in time of peace and subject to the minimum fixed price in their contract, to determine the price at which quicksilver shall be sold in the world’s markets. Another but much smaller factor in making London the leading quicksilver mart of the world is the control by British capital of the principal mines in the Oviedo district, in northern Spain.
In the United States, the country which ranks next to Spain as a producer of quicksilver, the mines are all owned by corporations or individuals, and so far as known, there is at present no formal combination or understanding between these owners to control output or sales. Some years ago most of the leading producers in California formed the Eureka company, which acted as selling agent and to some extent was able to control prices. Often referred to by those outside of it as the “quicksilver trust,” this organization was abandoned after a brief existence. The firm of Haas Brothers, of San Francisco (distinct from Haas Brothers, of New York), took a leading part in the Eureka company, and since its dissolution has fulfilled many of the functions that the company was to perform. The firm owns stock in the leading mine on the Pacific Coast and acts as selling agents for the New Idria Quicksilver Mining Co., whom it charges 1 per cent.[145], whereas it charges others 2¹⁄₂ per cent. It also buys the metal for itself, usually from the smaller producers, at prices generally much below the current market quotation, and is to supply operators with empty flasks, but only on condition that Haas Brothers shall buy the product or sell it on commission. Other brokers who handle important quantities of quicksilver on the Pacific Coast are Atkins, Kroll & Co., and the Braun-Knecht-Hiemann Co., both of San Francisco. So far as known these two firms have no ownership in quicksilver mines and sell only on commission.
[145] This connection is reported to have been broken in 1919.
The quicksilver mines in Texas are owned by American citizens or American corporations. The ore from each is independently worked and the quicksilver is sold by the individual producers.
The mercury deposits of Mexico are owned, as far as is known, by native Mexicans. British capital is probably interested in some of the larger mines. The formerly productive quicksilver mines at Huancavelica, Peru, have been purchased by E. E. Fernandini, of Lima, and may again contribute to the world’s supply.
So far as known to the writer of this article, patents, secret processes or trade agreements play no part in the control of quicksilver resources.
During the war Germany and her allies controlled the quicksilver deposits of Australia, Serbia, Turkey and probably European Russia. Only the Idria deposit, and perhaps the Zips deposit, in Austria, are important, and the available annual supply for the Teutonic allies was probably 25,000 to 30,000 flasks. The Entente allies controlled the deposits of the United States, yielding about 36,000 flasks annually; of Italy, yielding about 28,000 flasks; and controlled, although they did not own, the deposits of neutral Spain, yielding from 30,000 to 41,000 flasks annually. The Chinese mercury deposits were possibly drawn upon to some extent by Japan, who, like Britain and France, has no deposits of her own that are worth mentioning.
SUMMARY
The chief uses of mercury and mercury compounds, in general order of decreasing importance, are as follows: In the manufacture of drugs and chemicals, including calomel, corrosive sublimate, and glacial acetic acid; as a detonator for high explosives; as vermilion pigment; in electrical apparatus, thermostats, gas governors, and other appliances; in the amalgamation of gold and silver ores; in anti-fouling marine paint; in compounds to prevent boiler scale; in cosmetics; and in dental amalgam. There are comparatively few applications of mercury where a substitute could not be employed, although the substitute might not be as economical or as satisfactory.
In general the ores of quicksilver do not extend to great depths and show on the whole a close association with Tertiary and Quaternary igneous rocks that have not been subjected to long and deep erosion. There are some notable exceptions, however, to these generalizations. New deposits of mercury are most likely to be discovered on the eastern coast of Asia, in certain parts of Oceania, on the shores of the Mediterranean, or in the Cordilleran belts of North and South America. The known facts afford no secure basis for predicting that there will be within the next ten years any marked shift from the present main sources of supply to some newly discovered deposit.
The richest mercury deposits are at Almaden, central Spain; at Idria, Austria-Hungary; and in the Monte Amiata district of Italy. Other productive deposits are situated near Oviedo and Granada, Spain; in the Donetz coal basin, Russia; near Aidin, Turkey; in the province of Kweichow, China; in Oregon, California, Nevada, and Texas; in San Luis Potosi, Guerrero, and Durango, Mexico; and in Peru. Many deposits at present unproductive are known in other parts of the world.
The political control of the quicksilver deposits corresponds for the most part with geographic location. The rich deposits of Almaden, in Spain, and Idria, in old Austria-Hungary, are government-owned. The Spanish government, on the basis of competitive proposals, contracts with the successful bidder for the sale of the quicksilver for a period of ten years. The contract has been awarded to the Rothschilds of London for a number of successive periods. This control of the output of the Spanish mines gives the Rothschilds a control of the world’s quicksilver market. The Spanish government reserves a sufficient number of flasks annually for the national requirements of Spain. The Konia mine, in Asia Minor, has been the property of the Turkish government since 1912. It is believed that the most productive mines of the Monte Amiata district, Italy, were owned wholly or in part by the German Emperor; with the entry of Italy into the war they were seized by the Italian government. The mines of the United States are all controlled by corporations or individuals. It is believed that the mines of Mexico are owned by Mexican citizens, although British capital may be invested in some of them. The mines at Huancavelica, Peru, have been purchased by Señor E. E. Fernandini, of Lima.
XIX. BAUXITE AND ALUMINUM
BY J. M. HILL
USES OF BAUXITE AND ALUMINUM
Bauxite, aluminum oxide, besides being the chief ore of aluminum, has an important use in the manufacture of artificial abrasives which are of wide application in all metal-fabricating industries. Bauxite is also the basis of an extensive chemical industry, being the crude material from which alum, aluminum sulphate, and several other chemicals used for water purification, dyeing, and tanning are made. A rapidly growing use for bauxite is in the manufacture of bauxite brick for furnace linings. The more essential uses of bauxite are for the manufacture of aluminum and abrasives, though it seems doubtful whether the utilization of bauxite for chemicals could be much restricted. The use of bauxite for refractories is relatively small. In 1917 nearly 65 per cent. of the domestic output of bauxite went into aluminum, nearly 13 per cent. was taken by manufactures of aluminum salts, 19 per cent. was consumed in the manufacture of bauxite abrasives, and 3 per cent. was used by makers of bauxite refractories.
The uses of aluminum are myriad, chief among them are in the manufacture of parts of internal-combustion engines, and the fabrication of industrial and household utensils.
CHANGES IN PRACTICE OF ALUMINUM MANUFACTURE
Heretofore bauxites low in silica (2 to 5 per cent. SiO₂) have been used for the preparation of alumina for the manufacture of aluminum. Many experimenters have endeavored to utilize low-grade (high-silica) bauxites, or aluminum silicates for the recovery of alumina. These experiments show that it is chemically possible to produce low-silica alumina from many aluminous materials, but not on a commercially profitable basis. It seems reasonably certain that one or more of the methods of handling low-grade bauxite or even aluminous silicates will be developed to the commercial stage, even under ordinary conditions, in the near future. That event should tend to revolutionize the aluminum industry, as clays and shales carrying from 25 to 35 per cent. Al₂O₃ are of widespread occurrence. Whether it would materially lower the price of aluminum is more doubtful, for the costs of manufacture would be raised by the increased cost of treating the low-grade crude material.
GEOLOGICAL DISTRIBUTION
The European bauxite deposits are in folded sedimentary rocks, mainly of Cretaceous age. In the United States bauxite deposits are surficial and have resulted from the alteration of either sedimentary kaolin (aluminum silicate) or kaolin derived from the weathering of syenite or of dolomitic limestones. In the tropical fields, which have as yet been little exploited and are in fact little known, the bauxites seemingly are surficial deposits derived from the alteration of feldspathic rocks.
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION
The chief bauxite deposits of Europe are in the provinces of Var and Herault, in southern France, though other deposits are known in Bouches du Rhone and several other southern provinces. In central Italy bauxite has been mined for some years. In Germany low-grade bauxite has been mined in the Vogelsberg Mountains, Hesse, near Königswinter, in the lower Rhine country, and is known in Hanover. In the former Empire of Austria-Hungary there are extensive bauxite deposits in the Bihar Mountains and in the provinces of Istria, Croatia, and Dalmatia. Bauxite is also known in northwestern Russia, about 200 miles southeast of Petrograd. Bauxite has been mined for a number of years from beds in northwestern Ireland.
In the United States, bauxite has been mined for years in central Arkansas, northwestern Georgia, northeastern Alabama, and southeastern Tennessee, and more recently from the central Georgia field, which is being extended into west-central Georgia.
In South America, extensive deposits of good bauxite have been found in British and Dutch Guiana, and it is reported that there are evidences of bauxite in eastern Venezuela, western French Guiana, and northeastern Brazil.
In Africa, bauxite of good quality is reported to have been developed near the coast of French Guinea and to have been found in a number of inland localities in that colony. Vague rumors are current of large areas of bauxitic laterite[146] at many places in equatorial Africa.
[146] Laterite is the general name for rock of any kind that is in a thoroughly softened and decomposed state, due to alteration or weathering at the surface.
In the literature of the geology of India there are many references to bauxitic laterites, and it is reported that recently some of the Deccan bauxite deposits are being exploited.
In southwestern and eastern Australia some of the laterites are reported to be bauxitic, though so far as known no bauxite has been developed.
There is a persistent rumor, without confirmation, that bauxite has been discovered recently in China. As to this deposit no information is available.
The table below shows the world’s production of bauxite for a number of years. Although the figures give an idea of the relative importance of the deposits with respect to consuming centers, it is not believed that they represent relative importance with regard to the future. It seems unavoidable to conclude that the tropical countries hold immense reserves of bauxite and that some day the aluminum industry will be nearer the tropics than it is at present.
TABLE 63.--WORLD’S OUTPUT OF BAUXITE, 1910-1916
(Output in tons)
------------------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+ Country | 1910 | 1911 | 1912 | 1913 | ------------------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+ United States |148,932|155,618|159,865|210,241| France |192,913|250,818|254,851|304,407| United Kingdom (Ireland)| 3,792| 6,007| 5,790| 6,055| Italy | 4,524| 5,600| 6,596| 6,843| India | 66| 12| 950 | 1,184| +-------+-------+-------+-------+ Total |350,277|418,055|428,052|528,730| ------------------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+
------------------------+-------+-------+------- Country | 1914 | 1915 | 1916 ------------------------+-------+-------+------- United States |219,318|297,041|425,100 France |([147])|([147])|([147]) United Kingdom (Ireland)| 8,286| 11,723| 10,329 Italy | 3,844| 6,504| 8,746 India | 514| 400| 750 +-------+-------+------- Total | | | ------------------------+-------+-------+-------
[147] No statistics available.
The production of bauxite in the United States in 1917 was 568,690 long tons.
POLITICAL CONTROL
France and the United States hold within their boundaries the largest deposits of bauxite that have been worked in the past. England controls, through her colonial possessions, a large share of the equatorial areas that probably contain much of the undeveloped bauxite. France and Holland each have possessions in the tropics in which bauxite is known, and it seems probable that bauxite may be found in the colonies of Portugal and of Belgium and in those formerly controlled by Germany.
It is reported that England has placed certain restrictions on the acquisition of bauxite deposits in India and Guiana by foreign individuals or corporations. It is known that she has restricted the destination of bauxite exported from British Guiana. The Dutch government is understood to have examined recently the bauxite deposits of Dutch Guiana, probably with a view to restricting acquisition of property not already acquired. Evidently there is some understanding between the British, French, and Italian governments which permits the sending of French bauxite to the aluminum works of both Italy and England.
The aluminum works of the world are largely under the political domination of the United States, England, France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy and Norway. The producing capacity of the various countries has been estimated as follows:[148]
PRODUCING CAPACITY OF ALUMINUM WORKS
Short tons United States and Canada 87,500 France 20,000 Switzerland, Germany and Austria 20,000 Norway 16,000 England 12,000 Italy 7,000 Japan 250 ------- Total 162,750
[148] HILL, J. M., “Bauxite and Aluminum in 1916;” United States Geological Survey; “Mineral Resources of the United States,” Part I, 1917, p. 167.
The actual output of the plants included in the above table does not represent full capacity, and it seems more reasonable to assume that the production at present is probably nearer 150,000 tons a year than the total given. There is little question that the United States and Canadian plants are producing over half of the world’s supply of aluminum. It is reported that during 1917 and 1918 extensions of the British and Italian works brought their output nearly to the rated plant capacity.
COMMERCIAL CONTROL
It is safe to say that the aluminum industries of the various countries control to a large extent the bauxite deposits of the world. The principal aluminum companies are as follows: Aluminum Company of America, British Aluminum Co., L’Aluminium Française, Aluminum Industries A. G.
It is commonly known that before the war agreements between these four companies stabilized the prices of aluminum throughout the world. At present (1919) the outlook is that the Aluminum Company of America should be in position to dominate the aluminum industry of the world for some years through the expansion of its electrical plants and its initiative in acquiring newly discovered deposits of exceptionally pure bauxite in South America. It seems quite conceivable that the British and French and possibly the German interests may seek to adjust their relations so that they can offset the American dominance.
United States and Canada.--The great bulk of the bauxite deposits of the United States seems controlled by the Aluminum Company of America, through its subsidiaries, the American Bauxite Co. and the Republic Mining & Manufacturing Co. There are small holdings of bauxite lands controlled by the National Bauxite Co., a subsidiary of the E. I. du Pont de Nemours Co., and by the Norton Co., of Worcester, Mass., makers of artificial abrasives. Aside from these more important holders, there are a few independent operators of bauxite mines, but their combined output is so small that it can be disregarded.
All of the aluminum works of the United States and Canada are controlled by the Aluminum Company of America, which is dominated by the Mellen banking interests, of Pittsburgh, Pa.
The Guianas.--It is reported that the Aluminum Company of America controls about 2,030,000 acres of bauxite land in the British and Dutch colonies. In British Guiana the ownership is seemingly in the Canadian Bauxite Co. Associated with the Aluminum Company of America in the British Guiana holdings is the Merrimac Chemical Co., of Boston. It is also reported that the Norton Co., of Worcester, Mass., has acquired in Dutch Guiana small holdings of bauxite lands. There are no works utilizing bauxite in Dutch Guiana.
France.--Prior to the war, some of the large deposits of high-grade bauxite in the Province of Var were controlled by the “Bauxites de France,” a German enterprise, but this control was naturally suspended at the beginning of hostilities, and it will probably not be resumed. The French bauxite industry is largely in the hands of the French producers of aluminum mentioned below, though some deposits are said to be controlled by the British Aluminum Co. through its control of the Union des Bauxites company.
The French aluminum industry is centralized under one selling agency, L’Aluminium Française, in which the following five companies participate:
Compagnie des Produits Chemiques d’Alais et de la Camargue, Société Electro-Metallurgique Française, Société d’Electro-Chemie, Société des Forces Motrices de l’Arve, Société Electro-Metallurgique de Pyrenees.
It is said that the stock of the selling company is owned by participating companies in proportion to their output of aluminum, which would indicate that the control of l’Aluminium Française rests with the first two companies above.
Great Britain.--The bauxite deposits in County Antrim, Ireland, are seemingly controlled exclusively by the British Aluminium Co. The British Aluminium Co. is the sole producer of the metal in England, operating plants at Foyers and Loch Leven, in the British Isles, and plants in Norway.
Norway.--All the bauxite used by the aluminum works in Norway is of French or British origin. There are no deposits of bauxite in the country. The British Aluminium Co. controls the aluminum plants at Higeland and Strangfiord through the Anglo-Norwegian Co. The Compagnie des Produits Chemiques d’Alais et de la Camargue (French) largely controls the Société Norvegienne des Nitrures, which operates aluminum works at Arendal and Tyssedal. A Norwegian company, the Norske Aluminum Co., has been recently organized to make aluminum.
Italy.--There is little information concerning the ownership of the Italian bauxite deposits, but presumably they are controlled by the producers of aluminum. The principal aluminum manufacturer is the Societa Italiana per la Fabricazione dell’Alluminio, which is under Italian-French control.
The new aluminum company, L’Allumino Italiano, recently organized in Italy, if reports are true, may be in part controlled by German and Swiss interests. As the company was organized during the war, it does not seem reasonable to suppose that German participation would be permitted.
Central Powers.--Apparently most of the aluminum industry of these countries is controlled by a German-Swiss company, Société Swisse pour l’Industrie de l’Aluminium, or Aluminum Industrie, A. G., which operates plants at Neuhausen, Chippes, Navisance, and Borgne, in Switzerland; at Rheinfelden, Germany, and at Lend and Rauris, in Austria. A small quantity of aluminum is also made by the German firm, Gebrüder Guilini, at its plant at Martigny. It is reported that the Aluminum Fabrik-Martigny, A. G., has recently been formed with G. Guilini at its head, which is possibly a reorganization of the former concern.
SUMMARY
By far the largest and most important use of bauxite is for the extraction of aluminum, a metal used mainly in the manufacture of parts for internal-combustion engines and of industrial and household utensils. Bauxite is also used in the manufacture of artificial abrasives, as a source of certain aluminum salts, and in the manufacture of refractory bricks. The first two uses, the manufacture of aluminum and abrasives, are the most essential, though it would be difficult to restrict to any great extent the use in the chemical industry.
The principal bauxite deposits of the world are in the provinces of Var and Herault, southern France; in the former empire of Austria-Hungary; in Arkansas, Georgia, and Alabama; in British and Dutch Guiana; and in northwestern Ireland. Minor deposits are located in Germany, Russia, Venezuela, French Guiana, Brazil, Africa, Australia, and probably China. It is believed that the tropical countries hold immense reserves of bauxite.
Experiments have shown that it is chemically possible to manufacture aluminum from the low-grade (high-silicate) bauxite ores. No commercial process has been perfected, but it seems certain that one or more methods will be developed to the commercial stage in the near future. A reduction in the price of aluminum is not to be expected as a result of this change in practice, however, for the use of low-grade materials will undoubtedly increase the manufacturing costs.
The largest producing bauxite deposits are controlled politically by the United States and France. Great Britain controls a large share of the equatorial regions that probably contain most of the undeveloped deposits. Bauxite may also be found in the colonial possessions of Portugal and Belgium, and in those formerly owned by Germany. The aluminum works of the world are controlled by the United States, Great Britain, France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy and Norway.
Most of the bauxite deposits of the United States are owned by the Aluminum Company of America, which is dominated by the Mellen banking interests, of Pittsburgh, and controls all of the aluminum works of the United States and Canada. Small holdings in the United States are controlled by a subsidiary of the E. I. du Pont de Nemours Co., and by the Norton Co., of Worcester, Mass. The Aluminum Company of America also controls, through subsidiaries, large areas of bauxite land in British and Dutch Guiana. Before the war some of the large French deposits were controlled by German interests. The French industry is largely in the hands of French producers of aluminum, although some of the deposits are said to be controlled by British capital. The main French companies have organized a selling company, L’Aluminium Française.
The British Aluminium Co., controls the deposits in Ireland and is the sole producer of aluminum in England. British capital also controls aluminum works in Norway. The principal bauxite deposits of Italy are probably controlled by the Societa Italiana per la Fabricazione dell’ Alluminio, an Italian-French company. Apparently most of the aluminum industry of the Central Powers is controlled by a German-Swiss company. American interests are reported to have explored bauxite deposits in French Guinea, Africa, but so far as known have produced no bauxite.
XX. EMERY AND CORUNDUM
BY FRANK J. KATZ
USES OF EMERY AND CORUNDUM
Corundum is the natural (mineral) crystalline oxide of aluminum. Emery is a very fine-grained and intimate intergrowth of corundum and other minerals, chiefly magnetite, some varieties containing also important amounts of hematite, spinel, and chlorite. Both emery and corundum are very hard, and break into rough, sharp grains; hence they are used as abrasives for grinding, dressing, and polishing metals--chiefly iron and steel--and glass, and, to a less extent, stone, wood, and other materials. Emery and corundum are used loose in the form of grains, powders, and flours, and also as grains made up into solid wheels, cylinders, blocks, and files of many shapes by means of a great variety of binders. The essential uses are in work on iron and steel and glass. The softer metals and other materials can be worked in many cases to better advantage with other abrasives, such as quartz, tripoli, garnet and pumice.
The essential operations for which emery and corundum are used can be performed with the artificial carbide and alumina abrasives. For some work, however, such substitutions appear not to be advisable, as the abrasive quality and efficiency of both the natural and artificial abrasives depend not only on the hardness of these materials, but also on a number of other factors: among these being the physical qualities of the materials worked; the sharpness of edges and angles of broken particles of the abrasive; the manner in which the abrasive breaks down under use; the manner of, and materials used in, binding the abrasive particles; and the speed and pressure with which they are applied to the work.
Of the various kinds of material abraded, each calls for different grades and kinds of abrasives, and for variation in the above factors in the use of these abrasives in order to insure most efficient use. Consequently, it is almost impossible to determine arbitrarily the uses for which each of the various abrasive materials is essential. This much, at least, seems certain--that for finishing and polishing glass, particularly optical glass and plate glass, there is as yet no general agreement that satisfactory substitutes are available for the better grades of Turkish and Greek emery, although experiments in manufacture and use of suitable artificial abrasives have been successful.
GEOLOGICAL DISTRIBUTION
The known emery deposits are products of magmatic differentiation or of regional metamorphism, or of combined contact and regional metamorphism of limestone, presumably argillaceous, and of argillaceous sediments. A study of certain individual deposits, therefore, makes possible some forecast as to future supplies in some regions, particularly those in which the emery deposits are intimately related to certain beds in metamorphic sedimentary formations in close proximity to igneous rocks. The emery bodies are, however, as a rule, spotted or irregularly distributed, and reliable estimates of reserves are difficult.
Corundum, in a number of associations, is an original constituent of a great variety of igneous rocks, such as peridotites, anorthosites, syenites, nepheline syenites, and syenite pegmatites. It is also abundantly found in regionally metamorphosed rocks and in contact metamorphic zones, occurring in serpentines, mica schists, quartz schists, and crystalline limestones. A third important source of corundum is alluvial deposits. Corundum is not a characteristic or essential constituent in any of these types of rocks and is present in alluvial deposits in restricted localities only. Furthermore, its distribution and its concentration, when present, are irregular and unsystematic, and there are, therefore, no geologic guides by which future supplies can be forecast without intensive study of each individual occurrence.
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION
The chief deposits of emery and corundum in the United States are in the eastern seaboard or Appalachian states.
The emery deposits of Chester, Massachusetts, are in a narrow band less than 500 feet wide that has been traced for nearly five miles. The Chester deposits have been worked at various times since the eighties and up to 1913.
Emery deposits near Peekskill, New York, are associated with igneous rocks in an area of 20 to 25 square miles. These deposits have been worked since 1889. Some of the material mined is a true emery, that is, an intimate mixture of corundum and magnetite, but most of it is largely a mixture of spinel and magnetite, which, while not a true emery, makes an excellent abrasive. In 1916 and 1917, the annual output of ore was approximately 15,000 tons.
In the vicinity of Whittle, Pittsylvania County, Virginia, spinel emery, somewhat like the New York emery, but containing more corundum, is abundant. The deposits in this region have already produced considerable emery and may be counted on for a large supply.
Corundum is associated with a serpentine belt extending through Lancaster, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, and Bucks counties, Pennsylvania, and through adjoining counties in Delaware and Maryland. The deposits in this region do not seem to be of commercial importance.
Corundum is found in a large number of localities in North Carolina. The most important occurrences of corundum are in or near peridotite masses, also in schists, and in alluvial deposits. Active mining work was first begun in 1871 and continued until about 1906, when North Carolina corundum was driven from the market by the competition of Canadian corundum and artificial abrasives. Corundum mining was revived in 1915, and the three properties worked in 1917 made an output of 820 tons. There is unquestionably a very large reserve of corundum in this region, but transportation is difficult and efficient labor is scarce; so that there is little immediate prospect of a large development.
The only commercially important deposits of abrasive corundum west of the Appalachian Mountains are in the central part of Gallatin County near Salesville, Montana, where corundum occurs in syenite and syenite pegmatite. The deposits have been worked by three companies, and up to 1903, when operations ceased, had produced several hundred tons of corundum.
The sources in Canada of abrasive corundum of commercial importance are limited to the corundum syenites and anorthosites in central Ontario. These deposits have been developed and mined only at the Burgess mines and at Craigmont. Corundum mining as an industry in Canada began in 1900. The production reached a maximum in 1906 and was smaller and fairly uniform from 1907 to 1913, in which year operations were practically suspended.
The reported occurrences of corundum in Mexico and Central and South America are chiefly of the gem variety. Emery is reported from Musco, Colombia, and common corundum is reported as especially abundant at localities in the State of Sao Paulo, Brazil.
The only occurrence of emery and corundum of commercial importance in Europe is in the islands of the Grecian Archipelago, particularly the Island of Naxos. The deposits occur there as lenses and masses in limestones and in the vicinity of granites. Exploration and development work has been superficial, but reserves or future supplies there are probably enormous. Annual exports during the years 1897 to 1914 averaged 6,800 metric tons.
In Asia there are commercial corundum deposits in Asiatic Turkey and in India.
The emery deposits of Asiatic Turkey are near Smyrna. The Turkish emery is similar in origin and general character to the Greek emery, except that none is found in Asia Minor of quite the superior quality of that of Naxos. The main source of supply seems so far to have been from the detrital deposits. It seems almost certain that supplies are large. The emery mines of Asia Minor are very old and have annually contributed large quantities to the world’s supply, their output having been larger than from any other region in the world. Statistics for recent years are lacking. The recorded output in official reports of the Turkish government was about 62,000 metric tons in 1908 and about 25,000 in 1909.
The corundum deposits of India are numerous and include not only the common abrasive varieties but also the most highly prized gem varieties. Commercially important deposits of the abrasive variety occur in the presidency of Madras. The following provinces and native states also contain the mineral in more or less abundance: Afghanistan, Bengal, Burma, Central Provinces, Punjab, and Travancore.
Available data on the production of corundum in India indicate an output between 100 and 500 long tons a year, up to and including 1915. In 1916 the production was approximately 2,000 long tons and since then it has probably equaled or exceeded that figure. Nothing definite is known as to the corundum resources of India, except that they are undoubtedly large.
The only recorded deposits of abrasive corundum in commercial quantities on the continent of Africa are in the vicinity of Pretoria, in the Transvaal, where corundum, probably occurring originally in schists, is concentrated from residual material on the land surface. Little information concerning these corundum deposits is available, but it is probable that large reserves may be developed. The production, which had been slight or negligible prior to 1912, expanded greatly in 1917 to about 3,000 long tons.
Corundum appears to be abundant on the Island of Madagascar, where large amounts of gem stuff and abrasive materials have been found in alluvial deposits. The production of abrasive corundum, which was very small in 1910, expanded to about 1,100 metric tons in 1913, and approximately 1,000 metric tons in 1916.
DEVELOPMENTS AND CHANGES IN THE NEAR FUTURE
No material changes in geographic distribution of resources appear probable in the near future. None of the deposits now productive is approaching exhaustion, and only concerning emery in Virginia, where somewhat larger emery production may be expected, is information at hand upon which to forecast changes in output.
Substitution of artificial abrasives for emery and corundum may be extended. Experiments conducted early in 1918 looking toward the development of an artificial abrasive suitable for use in optical and plate-glass work have been successful, so that there may remain no industrial operation wholly dependent on emery and corundum. The complete supplanting of the natural abrasives, however, will depend in part on the supply of bauxite available for manufacture into artificial abrasives. At present the United States supplies of bauxite are sufficient for such use.
The demand in Britain and France for Indian and South African corundum and Greek emery would undoubtedly diminish if the French artificial abrasive plants were in full operation. Such a change would also probably cut down exports of artificial abrasives from the United States, and correspondingly affect the demand for emery and corundum.
POLITICAL CONTROL
Emery and corundum resources within the United States are owned, so far as known, by American citizens, and are in no way state controlled.
The Greek emery industry was formerly a monopoly controlled by the Greek government, but the inhabitants of the emery region had always maintained their sole right to mine the emery. This right was respected, and the Greek government merely regulated and managed sales and exports, exacted high royalties, which were changed from time to time, fixed prices, and maintained high quality and uniform standards of emery for export. The French government during the war assumed control of the Naxos emery supply and presumably continued the regulations of the Greek government. Supplies of Greek emery were available only to France and her allies, through allocation by the French government.
COMMERCIAL CONTROL
In the United States the various emery and corundum deposits are in small holdings that are mostly owned by local residents. The mines and quarries have been worked by lessees on royalty, generally. A considerable number of operators are and have been engaged in several localities, and there are no trade coalitions. Crushing and grading are in the hands of eight independent competitive companies, except in so far as they were welded during the war into a trade association by the War Trade Board for the purpose of allocating, under Government supervision, the small imports of Greek emery to essential industries.
In Canada the better portions of the corundum deposits seem to be controlled largely by one company--Manufacturers Corundum Co.--whose owners seem to be dominantly or entirely of Canadian nationality.
The Greek emery deposits, particularly those of Naxos, are claimed to be the inalienable property of the families resident upon the island.
There is no control of emery and corundum resources through ownership of crushing, milling, and grading plants, nor through patents or secret processes of preparation. Trade combinations as affecting emery and corundum supply are unknown. There are a number of milling companies in the United States, Britain, France, and Germany, who compete for the world’s supply of raw material, and those of each country compete with one another for markets for the graded, prepared material.
POSITION OF THE NATIONS
The United States has supplies of inferior emery and resources of corundum which are not developed adequately to meet the demands for natural abrasive materials. During the war the United States was short of the amount of emery and corundum desired by consumers. However, this shortage was offset by an excess supply of artificial abrasives.
England, in India and South Africa, has corundum supplies probably more than sufficient for her needs. England is probably well enough supplied with these abrasives, particularly as long as she continues to import from Canada and the United States the needed artificial abrasives.
France has no home supply of emery and corundum, but has large resources in her colony, Madagascar, and during the war controlled the Greek emery supply. Furthermore, France has in reserve rich bauxite deposits and hydro-electric power for manufacture of artificial abrasives.
Germany depended upon Turkish emery during the war. She is short of bauxite, but makes large quantities of carborundum.
Japan probably can supply her needs by drawing on Indian corundum resources and on the United States for artificial abrasives. During the stringency of supply in 1917 some material was exported to the United States from Japan.
SUMMARY
Corundum and emery, the latter a close association of corundum with certain other minerals, are used as abrasives for grinding and polishing metals, glass, stone, and wood. Many of the operations formerly performed with emery and corundum are now being performed with artificial carbide and alumina abrasives.
The deposits of emery and corundum are few in number, but their product is ample for all present needs. Commercially important deposits are situated in the Appalachian region of the United States; on the islands of the Grecian Archipelago, especially the Island of Naxos; in the Province of Aidin, in Asia Minor; in the presidency of Madras and the provinces of Punjab, Bengal, and Travancore, India; in Madagascar; and in the Transvaal near Pretoria.
The geological formation of emery and corundum deposits makes impossible any accurate estimate of reserves or any forecast of future discoveries.
The political control of the emery and corundum resources of the world corresponds to the geographical location except as regards the deposits on the Island of Naxos. This island is Grecian territory, but the French government during the war assumed control of the emery industry and allocated supplies of the abrasive only to the industries of France and her allies. The deposits of Asia Minor are at present (1920) nominally in the control of Turkey, but actually partly in the coastal strips seized and held by the Italians and the Greeks after the armistice. Madagascar is a French possession, and the Transvaal and India are parts of the British Empire.
The deposits of the United States are owned by a number of small independent operators, all American as far as is known. The Canadian deposits are controlled largely by one company, the Manufacturers Corundum Co., whose owners are predominantly or entirely Canadian. The Greek emery deposits, particularly those of Naxos, are claimed to be the inalienable property of the families resident on the island.
TABLE 64.--PRODUCTION OF EMERY AND CORUNDUM, 1910-1917
--------------------------+------------------------------------- | Emery | Corundum ----+------+-------+------+------+-------+------+-------+------- |United| | |United| | | Mada- |So. |States| Greece| |States| Canada| India| gascar|Africa | [149]| [149] |Turkey| [149]| [149] | [149]| [149] | [149] ----+------+-------+------+------+-------+------+-------+------- | | Ore | | | | | Grains| Grains | Ore |shipped| |Grains| |Grains| or ore| or ore | pro- | from | | pro- | Grains| pro- | pro- | pro- | duced| Syria | | duced|shipped| duced| duced | duced | (long|(metric| | (long| (long | (long|(metric| (long | tons)| tons) | | tons)| tons) | tons)| tons) | tons) ----+------+-------+------+------+-------+------+-------+------- 1910| 940| 12,939| [150]| [151]| 1,660 | 218| 11 | [150] 1911| 620| 9,845| [150]| [151]| 1,270 | 275| 150 | [150] 1912| 870| 7,687| [150]| [151]| 1,600 | 345| 496 | 99 1913| 900| 1,440| [150]| [151]| 1,090 | 355| 1,099 | [150] 1914| 460| 10,226| [150]| [151]| 500 | 105| 556 | [150] 1915| 2,840| [150]| [150]| [152]| 220 | 62| 327 | [150] 1916|14,400| [150]| [150]| [152]| 60 | 1,868| 914 | [150] 1917|15,400| [150]| [150]| 770 | 160 | [150]| [151] | 4,051 | | | | | | | | [153] ----+------+-------+------+------+-------+------+-------+-------
[149] Statistics for United States from U. S. Geol. Survey; for Canada, Canada Dept. Mines; for Greece, British Consular Reports quoted in “Mineral Industry;” for India, Records India Geol. Survey; for Madagascar, Service des Mines, Madagascar; for South Africa, American Consular Reports.
[150] Figures not available.
[151] No production.
[152] Small unrecorded amount.
[153] Nine months, Jan.-June and Oct.-Dec.
XXI. MAGNESITE
BY R. W. STONE
USES OF MAGNESITE
Magnesite and its derived products are used in a variety of industries, the most essential of which, beyond doubt, is metallurgy. Owing to the high fusion point and chemical inertness of the oxide of magnesium, magnesite is one of the principal minerals used in the metallurgical and other industries where highly refractory material is required. For this purpose dead-burned magnesite is used in the form of brick or of grains. Brick and shapes are employed for lining open-hearth steel furnaces, welding, heating, and melting furnaces, reverberatories, settlers, and furnaces for refining lead, copper converters, and electrical furnaces. Crushed or granular magnesite is used for lining the bottoms of open-hearth steel furnaces, and in making crucibles and cupels.
In the manufacture of the cement known as oxychloride or Sorel cement the quantity of magnesite used is exceeded only by that used for refractory purposes. This cement is employed largely for sanitary flooring, and to a less extent for wall plaster, both interior and exterior. It is used also instead of Portland cement for some forms of exterior construction where quick and strong set is required. Magnesite is used in the manufacture of wood-pulp paper on the Pacific Coast, in fire-resisting paint, as a non-conductor of heat in pipe and furnace coverings, and in the manufacture of magnesium chloride, light carbonate, and other products, including metallic magnesium.
GEOLOGICAL OCCURRENCE
Deposits of magnesite are widely distributed throughout the world and occur in two distinct forms, amorphous and crystalline. Amorphous magnesite, the most common form, is fine-grained, and compact; it is usually found in veins or masses in serpentine resulting from the alteration of magnesia-rich rocks of the peridotite family. To this group belong the Grecian deposits, nearly all the California deposits, and those in Mexico, Venezuela, and other parts of the world. Crystalline magnesite is medium to coarse grained, and occurs as masses in limestone, dolomite or associated sediments which have been metamorphosed. The principal deposits of this class are those in Austria, Hungary, Quebec, and Washington.
Deposits of magnesite are regarded as having originated in three ways. The massive non-crystalline variety, such as that in California and Greece, is believed to have been formed by the decomposition of serpentine. Magnesite deposits near Bissel, California, and on Muddy River, near St. Thomas, Nevada, are said to be of sedimentary origin. The Austro-Hungarian, Washington, and Quebec deposits are regarded as resulting from the replacement of calcareous sedimentary rocks by magnesian-bearing solutions.
Magnesite deposits that occur as veins in connection with serpentinized magnesian rocks probably are formed both from the breaking down of the serpentine-making minerals and from the serpentine itself. It seems probable that usually both serpentine and magnesite are formed in the process of decay of the original minerals in peridotite and the allied basic rocks, and that during the decay of the serpentine the formation of magnesite continues. In any case the magnesia or magnesian mineral is changed to carbonate, dissolved by percolating water charged with carbon dioxide, and precipitated in cracks and crevices as veins. When formed in this way the magnesite occurs in large and small veins, lenses, and stockwork, and its distribution and extent are erratic. It seems fair to assume that these deposits may extend to the limit of depth of easily circulating surface waters, which in favorable conditions may be several hundred feet. Faulting, on the other hand, is as likely to cut the veins off in depth as in length. Any estimate of available tonnage of magnesite in deposits of this type therefore is unwarranted in advance of development work.
Sedimentary deposits such as those of Bissel, California, and near St. Thomas, Nevada, are by their nature more regular in occurrence, and their tonnage can be estimated from the outcrop in natural exposures and prospects.
Replacement deposits like those in Washington and Quebec are not so regular as the sedimentary deposits, but are more regular than the veins, and tonnage estimates may be based on the surface exposure and an assumed depth of 50 to 100 feet.
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION
The known distribution of magnesite deposits is as follows:
North America. Canada: Quebec, British Columbia and elsewhere. United States: California, Washington, Nevada. Mexico: Lower California on Santa Margarita Island.
South America. Venezuela: Island of Margarita.
Europe. Austria, Hungary, Germany, Greece, Italy, Macedonia, Norway, Sweden, Russia.
Africa. Transvaal, Rhodesia, Portuguese West Africa.
Asia. India, in Madras and Mysore.
Australia. Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania.
Oceania. New Caledonia.
The following description by countries is in the order given above:
=North America.=
Canada.--The principal magnesite deposits in Canada are in the Grenville district, Argenteuil County, Quebec, where the mineral is associated with serpentine, dolomite, and other minerals. The magnesite in the Grenville district is a glistening cream-white to milk-white or gray material that occurs in extensive masses associated with bands or lenses of dark green to light-yellow serpentine. Throughout the great mass of the deposits the magnesite and dolomite are so similar in appearance that the detecting of dolomite is difficult. There is considerable positive evidence in support of the hypothesis that the deposits have been formed by the solution and replacement of crystalline limestone through the agency of magnesia-rich solutions. Outcrops of the deposits are up to 1,000 feet long and 300 feet wide. It is estimated that there are in sight 686,900 tons of magnesite containing less than 12 per cent. CaO and 483,700 tons of magnesite-dolomite containing more than 12 per cent. CaO.
In the Atlin mining district, in British Columbia, both magnesite and hydromagnesite have been noted, but the extensive masses of hydromagnesite near the town of Atlin are the most important. These deposits are superficial beds of fine powdery white hydromagnesite 6 to 8 feet thick, that cover areas up to 18 acres in extent. Two groups of these deposits are estimated to contain 180,000 tons of hydromagnesite.
United States.--Magnesite in commercial quantity occurs in California, Nevada, and Washington. Reports of workable deposits in other states have not been verified.
In California there are magnesite deposits in many places throughout the Coast Range and on the west slope of the Sierras, from Mendocino and Placer counties on the north to Riverside County on the south. Before the war, mining was limited to a few localities and the annual output was about 10,000 tons, but the demand caused by large reduction in imports started active prospecting and development, with the result that in 1917 thirteen counties yielded a total of 211,663 tons, valued at $2,116,630. In nine counties the deposits are large and in four counties only small deposits have been found as yet. The most important deposits are in Napa, Santa Clara, San Benito, and Tulare counties. In 1917, 63 per cent. of the crude magnesite produced was mined in Tulare County. Practically all of the California magnesite deposits are irregular veins in serpentine, resulting from the alteration of magnesian igneous rocks.
In the state of Washington deposits of crystalline magnesite have been found at several places. The Washington magnesite differs greatly from the California deposits and occurs in larger masses. It is coarsely crystalline, like marble or coarse textured dolomite, and is red, pink, black, white, and gray. The Stevens County magnesite has been formed by the replacement of lenses of dolomite in sedimentary rocks. The recrystallization of the purer magnesian carbonate may have been secondary and influenced by the intrusion of basic magnesian rock which occurs above and below the magnesite in some places. The larger deposits are 200 or more feet thick and 1,000 or more feet long. Estimates of one million tons within 100 feet of the surface are reasonable for at least three of the deposits. Mining in Washington began in December, 1916, with a production of 715 tons. The output in 1917 was 105,175 tons, valued at $783,188.
The only known deposit of magnesite in Nevada is an extensive sedimentary bed in the valley of Muddy River, Clark County. The magnesite carries more than 5 per cent. lime and more than 11 per cent. silica. It has not been developed.
The total production of magnesite in the United States in 1915 was 30,499 short tons; in 1916, 154,974 short tons; in 1917, 316,838 short tons; and in 1918, 231,605 short tons.
Mexico.--On the Island of Santa Margarita, in Magdalena Bay, Lower California, are extensive deposits of magnesite from which exports have been made to the United States. Walls of canyons in the mountains show masses of magnesite several feet thick, and magnesite boulders strew the stream beds. Large quantities can be obtained without mining and need only to be broken up for shipment. An analysis of calcined magnesite from Santa Margarita Island shows practically no silica, lime, or iron.
=South America.=--The deposits on Margarita Island, Venezuela, are of the amorphous or California type and occur in veins and stockwork. No information is available regarding their extent, but 500 tons were exported to the United States in 1915.
=Europe.=--The magnesite deposits of Austria and Hungary, which until recently furnished much of the world’s supply, extend along a northeast line for several hundred miles across the two countries. The mineral occurs in lenses. A large deposit near Veitsch, Austria, measures 700 to 800 feet from the top to the base. The ore is quarried in a series of benches. Another very large deposit in Austria is at Radenthein. The magnesite is quarried by great cuts, and lowered by gravity to rotary kilns. Calcining is done near the mine and both grain and magnesite bricks are shipped. The property was owned by Americans before the war and much of the output went to American ports.
The magnesite in these deposits is crystalline and occurs in dolomite, probably of Carboniferous age, from which it was derived by the infiltration of magnesium carbonate solutions and the leaching out of soluble calcium carbonate. It is finely to coarsely crystalline, yellow or bluish-white, carries 3 to 4.5 per cent. iron oxide, less than 2 per cent. silica, and less than 3 per cent. lime. It calcines readily to the dead-burned state and makes satisfactory grain magnesite and brick for refractory purposes.
Deposits of magnesite were worked for many years near Frankenstein, Silesia, Germany.
In the Province of Santander, in northern Spain, coarse crystalline magnesite lying in Lower Cretaceous limestone and dolomite has been mined for a number of years. The production in 1915 was 1,400 tons.
In Greece, magnesite is of the non-crystalline type and occurs associated with serpentine in veins and masses. The most important deposits are on the Island of Euboea. The Euboean deposits are all close to the seashore, and under normal conditions cheap water transportation to the principal magnesite markets of the world is available. The production of Greek magnesite in 1914 was mainly in the hands of three companies: the Anglo-Greek Magnesite Co., 24 Finsbury Sq., London; the Société Hellenique des Mines, Athens; and the Hellenic Magnesite Co., Athens. The distribution of the magnesite is controlled by the London company. The Anglo-Greek Magnesite Co. works mines at Galataki and Afration, in Euboea. At the Galataki mines the vein of ore exposed is known to be 1,300 feet long and 50 to 60 feet wide. The Société Hellenique des Mines (now called The Financial Corporation of Greece, Ltd.,) controls the production of several mines at Mantoudi, Limni, Larimna, etc. The Hellenic Magnesite Co. obtains most of its ore from surface excavations. In 1912 the production of magnesite by several companies in Greece, (not including the Hellenic Magnesite Co.) was as follows: Raw magnesite, 87,338 tons; calcined magnesite, 30,645 tons; dead-burned magnesite, 3,201 tons. This is equivalent to about 150,000 tons of crude ore, and does not include the product of one of the three largest producers.
The magnesite from Greece and that from California are practically identical in physical and chemical character, but prior to 1915 the California material could not compete with the Grecian in the New York market, because of the transcontinental freight rate being so high in comparison with the ocean freight on material brought as ballast.
Magnesite is found in large quantities in Macedonia, occurring as veins in serpentine.
Magnesite deposits, formerly worked, occur in Italy in the Turin district, and on the Island of Elba. None of the deposits seems to be large. An analysis of magnesite from the Island of Elba shows over 8 per cent. silica, a trace of iron, and from 1 to 3.5 per cent. lime.
Magnesite occurs in Norway as small veins in serpentine, but, unlike other magnesite in serpentine, it is crystalline. It is remarkable in that it shows no lime, but it carries over 4 per cent. iron and 9 per cent. silica. It is calcined and made into brick.
Deposits similar to those in Norway are found in Sweden, but on account of their situation, which entails heavy operating and transportation expenses, it is doubtful if they will ever be able to compete with cheaper European magnesite.
Magnesite has been mined in the Orenburg government, Russia. One mine yielded 26,320 metric tons in 1906. Magnesite occurs also on the north slope of the Caucasus Mountains.
=Africa.=--Extensive deposits of magnesite occur in the Transvaal, as veins, that range up to 4 feet in thickness. The rock is used for making carbon dioxide and oxychloride cement. Great deposits of magnesite are reported in Portuguese West Africa. The deposits are near, or associated with, boiling springs.
=Asia.=--The most important occurrence of magnesite in India seems to be in the Madras presidency, in the southern part of the peninsula of Hindustan, where the mineral occurs in interlacing veins. The main deposits have produced more than 2,000 tons in a single year.
Crystalline magnesite occurs in limestone in the Manchuria mountains, and is mined at Daisetsukyo for refractory purposes.
Magnesite is reported in Asiatic Turkey about 75 kilometers from Smyrna.
=Australia.=--The deposits of magnesite in Queensland are so small that they probably have no commercial value. Rounded blocks of pure white magnesite outcrop in one locality in New South Wales, where many thousands of tons are available at small cost. An analysis shows 99.01 per cent. magnesium carbonate and no lime. Large deposits of magnesite are reported in South Australia. Extensive deposits also occur on the north end of the west coast of New Caledonia. A small quantity has been exported.
POLITICAL AND COMMERCIAL CONTROL
The magnesite deposits that play a notable part in the world’s economy are situated in Canada, United States, Austria-Hungary, and Greece.
United States.--The principal magnesite deposits in the State of Washington are owned by the Northwest Magnesite Co., Spokane, Wash.; Valley Magnesite Co., Spokane, Wash.; and American Mineral Production Co., Chicago, Ill. The Northwest Magnesite Co. is the largest producer in the Washington field and probably has made the largest investment. The American Mineral Production Co. has a plant at Valley, Wash.; the Valley Magnesite Co. has a deposit near Valley, but is not operating it.
The principal producers of magnesite in California in the summer of 1918 were the Tulare Mining Co., with a mine near Porterville; Porterville Magnesite Co. of California, with mine at Porterville; Western Magnesite Development Co., with a mine at Red Mountain; and Frank R. Sweasy, working the White Rock mine, Pope Valley, Napa County.
Austria.--The Veitscher Magnesite Co., of Vienna, and the Magnesite Co., Ltd., of Budapest, formed a combination or cartel, with the understanding or agreement that all the sales of magnesite outside of Austria and Hungary had to be made through Carl Spater & Co., a German firm in Coblenz, Germany. The firm of Carl Spater & Co. formerly owned the works of the Veitscher Magnesite Co., but sold out and obtained the perpetual selling agency when the stock company was formed. The Harbison-Walker Refractories Co., Pittsburgh, Penn., is said to have been the American representative of Spater & Co.
The Austro-American Magnesite Co., whose deposit and works at Radenthein, Austria, represent an investment of $1,800,000, is owned by Americans. The entire stock is absolutely controlled by the principal stockholders of the American Refractories Co., or was so controlled before the war. The Austro-American Magnesite Co., it is claimed, was doing virtually 95 per cent. of the magnesite business in England before the war, and about 65 to 70 per cent. of the business in the United States. This company has a capacity of 150,000 tons of calcined magnesite a year.
When it was found that Carl Spater & Co., who handle both magnesite and magnesite brick made by the Veitscher Magnesite Co. and the Magnesite Co., Ltd., would not sell magnesite to the English refractory brick makers, the Austro-American Magnesite Co. formed a selling company in England, called the Anglo-Austrian Magnesite Co., of Sheffield, England. The English company sold magnesite from the Austro-American Magnesite Co. works at Radenthein, Austria, to all the refractory brick manufacturers of England, and virtually took all the English trade from the Germans.
The General Magnesite Co., of Budapest, has a magnesite deposit and plant at Hizonvich (Hisnyoviz?), Hungary. The stock of this company is believed to be owned principally by stockholders of the General Refractories Co., 111 Broadway, New York. The balance of the stock, believed to be about 40 per cent., is owned by some Hungarians of Budapest, represented by Mr. Gunst, of Budapest, president of the company.
According to the United States Department of Commerce,[154] there are seven companies exploiting magnesite in Greece: The Anglo-Greek Magnesite Co., Ltd., with head offices in London, England; the Société Financière de Grèce, Solon and Lycabettus Streets, Athens; The Internationale Magnesite Werken, with head offices in Rotterdam, Netherlands; L. Carambelas, Limni, Euboea; N. Papantonatos, Limni, Euboea; G. A. Georgidades, Athens, (exploiting a concession on behalf of the General Magnesite & Magnesia Co., of Philadelphia); and Alexiou, Daphnopotamos, Euboea. Most of the producers in 1917 had an abundance of orders for magnesite to be used in the steel industry in France and England.
[154] Commerce Reports, May 1, 1917.
SUMMARY
The principal and most essential use of magnesite is in metallurgy, as a refractory material for lining furnaces. Magnesite is also used in the manufacture of Sorel cement and of paper from wood-pulp, in fire-resisting paints, as a non-conductor of heat in pipe and furnace coverings, and in the manufacture of magnesium chloride, light carbonate and other products, including metallic magnesium.
Magnesite occurs in two forms, amorphous and crystalline, and the deposits originate in three ways: by the decomposition of serpentine, as sedimentary deposits, and by the replacement of calcareous sedimentary rocks by magnesium-bearing solutions. In advance of development work it is impossible to make reliable estimates of available tonnage of the first type, but fairly accurate estimates can be made of deposits of the second and third types.
Developed magnesite deposits that have been productive at one time are situated in California and Washington; in Quebec and British Columbia, Canada; on Santa Margarita Island, Lower California; on the Island of Margarita, Venezuela; in Austria-Hungary, Germany, Spain, Greece, Macedonia, Russia, Norway, Transvaal, and India. Other deposits, some of which have produced small amounts, are situated in Nevada, Ontario, New Brunswick, on Cedros Island, Lower California; in Asia Minor, Sweden, Rhodesia, Portuguese West Africa, Australia, Tasmania, and New Caledonia. There is no reason to believe that there will be in the near future any marked shift in the important sources of supply. In 1916 and 1917 the production from the deposits of the Pacific Coast of the United States increased very rapidly, but since January, 1918, there has been a severe slump in California production.
The magnesite deposits of California and Washington are owned by a number of companies, all of them American. American refractory manufacturers are believed to be interested in some of the Canadian deposits. The deposits on Santa Margarita and Cedros islands, Lower California, seem to be owned or operated for the most part by residents of California. The deposits off the coast of Venezuela are held by a Philadelphia company. Two of the large magnesite companies of Austria-Hungary have agreed to make all of their sales outside of Austria-Hungary through a German firm in Coblenz. Two other companies, the Austro-American Magnesite Co. and the General Magnesite Co., are owned mainly by Americans. The magnesite deposits of Greece are controlled by seven companies, one of them being English, one American, one Dutch, and the remainder seemingly Greek. The other magnesite deposits of the world are of little importance at present.
XXII. GRAPHITE
BY H. G. FERGUSON, FRANK F. GROUT, AND GEORGE D. DUB
USES OF GRAPHITE
Graphite is produced in several grades which are adapted to different purposes. Amorphous graphite is a trade term applied to non-crystalline or very fine-grained graphite of varying degrees of purity. If crystalline graphite is produced in flakes or scales, it is flake graphite; but if mined from veins it may have other forms, and be known as vein graphite. Lump, chip, and dust refer to products of larger crystals of Ceylon vein graphite more or less broken in mining and treatment. All those three are spoken of as crystalline. Artificial graphite, made from coal or other carbonaceous matter, resembles the amorphous variety.
Graphite for crucible use must be high grade, either lump, chip, or flake graphite, contain at least 85 per cent. graphitic carbon and be free from fluxing impurities. Vein graphite is considered especially desirable for this use. Possibly the increased development of the electric furnace in the steel industry and in non-ferrous metallurgy will reduce the demand for crucibles. Both crystalline and amorphous graphite are used as lubricants. For this purpose the graphite should be free from quartz or other gritty impurities. For foundry facings, amorphous graphite and Ceylon dust are chiefly used; high-grade material is not required. For the better grades of pencils, mixtures of crystalline and high-grade amorphous are needed; for the poorer grades, amorphous is used alone. The graphite used as polish for high explosives is amorphous. This use does not consume large amounts. For the manufacture of electrodes, artificial graphite is considered the most suitable. The graphite used as dry battery filler may be either amorphous, artificial or crystalline. Pure material is required, but the size of grain is not a factor.
Amorphous graphite is used in boiler compounds for preventing hard scale; pure material is not essential. For paints, either amorphous or crystalline graphite may be used and need not be high grade.
For stove polish and shoe polish amorphous graphite is chiefly used; imperial graphite is used as an adulterant in fertilizers, to give the desired dark color.
For amorphous graphite and dust, artificial graphite may be substituted. For crystalline graphite used in the manufacture of crucibles no good substitute is available. However, the use of electric furnaces or open-flame furnaces in non-ferrous metallurgy may reduce the need of crucibles. For lubricating, mica is used in somewhat the same way as graphite but is much inferior. Many other boiler compounds serve the same purpose as graphite. In paints, lampblack is a substitute. Talc is used in connection with and as a partial substitute for graphite in foundry work. Blast furnace graphite, or “kish,” offers possibilities as a substitute for flake graphite for lubricating purposes. Developments along this line, however, have not proceeded far enough to be conclusive.
GEOLOGICAL OCCURRENCE
Amorphous graphite may occur wherever coal or other carbonaceous beds have undergone regional or igneous metamorphism. Crystalline graphite has two principal geologic occurrences, as flakes in schists and as larger crystals in veins. Flake graphite in schists is usually associated with granitic intrusions which appear to have aided recrystallization of original carbonaceous material in the sediments. Vein graphite in commercial quantities is rather rare. It is found associated with granitic intrusives and generally with graphitic sediments containing the flake variety. Such rocks in most parts of the world have not been prospected enough to make sure that all important bodies of graphite are discovered.
WORLD CAPACITY FOR GRAPHITE PRODUCTION
In the order of their importance the following table lists the various countries which produce graphite or in which graphite deposits have been reported:
=1. Crystalline Graphite= A. Vein Graphite Ceylon--could produce up to 35,000 short tons per year, all grades. United States--small production from Montana. Canada--small amount recently produced. B. Flake Graphite Madagascar--could produce up to nearly 50,000 short tons per year. Bavaria--has averaged 12,000 tons for several pre-war years, and greatly increased production during the war. Produced 40,000 metric tons in 1917. United States--could readily produce 4,000 tons of flake exclusive of dust. Canada--could probably produce 1,200 tons of flake exclusive of dust. Spain--deposits being developed. Norway--new development reported. Roumania--important deposits recently reported. Japan--has not produced very much. Sweden--very small production. Transvaal--very small production, locally consumed. Greenland}--large deposits reported. Very little development. Brazil } German East Africa (former)--deposits of supposed large extent reported. =2. Amorphous Graphite= German Austria }--has long produced large amount of graphite Czecko-Slovakia} annually. Chosen--could probably produce 12,000 tons per annum. Italy--could probably produce 12,000 tons per annum. Mexico--could probably produce 6,000 tons per annum. United States--could readily produce 6,000 tons natural and 6,000 tons artificial amorphous graphite. Spain--could probably produce 1,000 tons annually. France--could probably produce 1,000 tons annually. Siberia--large amount available but undeveloped. Rhodesia--local supply. Brazil--supply undeveloped. Queensland--supply undeveloped.
FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS
Although no definite data are available, it is believed that Ceylon can not produce much longer at the present rate, and it is possible that the virtual exhaustion of the deposits is not far distant. Madagascar is capable of greatly increased production. It is doubtful if American deposits with less than 5 per cent. graphite will be able to meet free competition from Madagascar, where over 20 per cent. of the rock as mined is graphite. Too little is known of the Greenland and Brazilian deposits to hazard a guess as to their future importance, but it is reported that immense reserves exist in Greenland. The German flake deposits will hardly survive free competition from Madagascar, unless modern methods are introduced. Amorphous graphite will probably be chiefly produced, as at present, by Austria, Bohemia, Mexico and Chosen. Mexico and Chosen are likely to supply most of the pencil graphite of the world. Increased production of artificial graphite may reduce the demand for amorphous graphite. In 1918, notices in the German technical press told of the discovery of immense deposits of flake graphite in Roumania. These were to be worked jointly by the German and Austrian governments under a 75 year lease from the Roumanian government. The outcome of the war of course annulled this arrangement.
Vein graphite (that is, Ceylon graphite) is preferred for crucible manufacture, but increasing amounts of flake are being used successfully. European manufacturers seem to use flake almost exclusively; and American manufacturers will no doubt find it possible, if necessary. Increasing amounts of amorphous graphite are being employed for various industrial uses, chiefly foundry facings. The development of the electric steel furnace, by reducing the use of crucibles, may tend in some degree to reduce the difference in value between crystalline and amorphous graphite.
POLITICAL AND COMMERCIAL CONTROL
Amorphous graphite is so widely distributed that no serious difficulty is likely to be encountered by any of the great commercial nations in filling their vital needs. Mexican graphite is the chief supply of good material for pencils. Interest centers in the material capable of being made into crucibles.
Crucible graphite has been produced in the past mostly in Ceylon. Its granular form (characteristic of vein graphite) has been assumed by crucible makers to be the best. The deposits are worked mostly by small local owners in Ceylon, and the output is controlled by the British through state sovereignty and shipping. Control by ownership and operation with modern plant was attempted by an English company, but met native opposition until a few years ago.
Recently Madagascar flake graphite has largely replaced Ceylon material in European practice. This deposit is under French sovereignty and the French exercise a large degree of commercial control. The flake graphite of the United States has not yet reached a high development. There are large reserves of schist with about 5 per cent. graphite. Bavarian material is crystalline though not of such good quality. It is under German control. Prior to the war, mining and milling methods were primitive, and the product correspondingly poor. Canada, Norway, Sweden, Greenland, Brazil and possibly others have reserves of flake within their boundaries. Japan has a small production of flake graphite and controls a supply in Chosen.
American control of Mexican mines brings the entire Mexican output to this country for refining and re-export. One of the large Canadian mines is also owned in the United States.
When the British supply in Ceylon declined and the Madagascar production increased, the British, who had always controlled the world’s main supply, did not readily relinquish control. They bought a large part of the Madagascar product and have a concentrating plant on the island. The Morgan Crucible Co., of London, operates on the island as the French company “Graphites Maskar,” but this is a subsidiary of the London company and the control is entirely British. This is not the only plant, however, working on the island. One large company before the war had its main office in Hamburg, Germany, one at Antwerp, and there were several French companies. Some Austrian mines were owned by Belgian companies prior to the war, and English interests own a part of the Italian deposits.
During the war the French and British, having adopted the Madagascar graphite successfully, apparently arranged an agreement by which that supply should be used in Europe, while Ceylon graphite was sent mostly to the United States. The control was only possible by a combination of British and French, apparently a commercial rather than a political matter, though subject to government control.
There appears to be a combination among Madagascar graphite producers, as evidenced by a statement from the consul in Tananarive in November, 1918, that the “Union des Producteurs de Graphite” could furnish to this country annually 15,000-20,000 tons of 85 per cent. graphite at a definite price, f.o.b. Tamatave. The object of the combine appears to be to protect producers against unfair practices of the manufacturer.
The Colombo Graphite Union is mentioned in some sources as a local combination, probably interrelated with the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce. It has not been active in improving mining and milling methods, and has also objected to modernization by outside capital.
The Graphite Producers’ Association of Alabama was organized in 1917 and had for its objects the furthering of the interests of the graphite miners of the state. An effort was made to sample and analyze shipments honestly and thus help remove the most serious objections that manufacturers had against using domestic flake--unreliability of product.
POSITION OF THE NATIONS
Low-grade amorphous graphite is abundant in the United States. There are supplies in many states and in Alaska, which have not been developed to any extent. An excellent grade of material from Mexico is available in large amounts, making extensive domestic development unprofitable, except when the deposits are very favorably situated. The most productive Mexican deposit is owned by the United States Graphite Co., of Saginaw, Mich. Artificial graphite is made at Niagara Falls in large amounts, making the country independent in the matter of electrodes.
This country is not yet independent in the matter of crucible graphite. Crucible makers have insisted on having Ceylon graphite, about 15,000 tons or more a year. The only supply of similar graphite in the country is a very small deposit in Montana. However, there is a fair supply of flake graphite in Alabama, Pennsylvania, New York, Alaska, Texas and possibly other states. Some 3,500 tons a year were produced prior to 1919. This resembles Madagascar rather than Ceylon graphite, though the flakes are smaller. American crucible makers are slow to make use of it, though there is evidence that it might serve very well. If the demand for crucible graphite continues, the demand for imports will probably continue.
Our deposits are not so high grade or so favorably situated as to compete successfully with those of Ceylon and Madagascar.
Canadian companies producing flake similar to that in the United States are in part owned by United States capital.
The flake graphite supply for crucible makers in normal times may come from Madagascar, but we can be fairly independent in case of necessity if we are prepared to stimulate mining in this country.
England controls the graphite from Ceylon. However, there seems to be a general opinion that Ceylon production is likely to decrease unless the control passes into the hands of some one who will introduce modern efficient mining methods. England normally allows about two-thirds of the Ceylon product to come to the United States. England’s own supply of crucible graphite is now mainly obtained from Madagascar, where an English owned and controlled company operates on the island. Amorphous graphite is obtained from Italy and Chosen. A London company operates in Quebec, producing some flake and dust. English capital is invested in Italian graphite deposits and apparently also in the Spanish.
Through her sovereignty over Madagascar, France probably controls the world’s best future supplies of flake graphite. The deposits are large, conveniently situated, and remarkably rich--20 per cent. or more graphite. They are capable of greatly increased production. Already the output exceeds that of any other country, though the deposits have been developed but recently. France has a small local production of amorphous graphite, and obtains some from Italy.
Germany is now chiefly dependent on Bavarian flake graphite for crucibles. The efforts made during the war to get Ceylon graphite in through Holland and Switzerland indicate that the Bavarian supply is not wholly satisfactory. Amorphous graphite is supplied from Austria. Overproduction has made it possible at times to sell the products in America below cost.
Japan produces some flake graphite. Chosen has an abundant supply of the amorphous variety. In Chosen there have been recent discoveries of crystalline graphite which may be of importance.
Figure 11 shows the changes in the annual output of graphite in the chief producing countries, and Figure 12 shows the percentage of crucible graphites produced by the main sources of supply.
SUMMARY
Graphite occurs in nature in two forms, crystalline and amorphous, each form having its own peculiar uses. Crystalline graphite is used in the manufacture of crucibles, as a lubricant, and in paints. Amorphous graphite is used as a lubricant, for foundry facings, in pencils, in paints, as a polish for high explosives, in boiler compounds, in electrodes, in dry batteries, as a stove and shoe polish, and as a filler for fertilizers. Most of the above uses are essential and cannot easily be eliminated. Artificial graphite made from coal or other carbonaceous matter can be substituted for the natural amorphous graphite.
Amorphous graphite may occur wherever coal or other carbonaceous beds have undergone regional or igneous metamorphism. Crystalline graphite, both flake and vein, is usually found in association with granitic intrusives. Since such rocks have not been thoroughly prospected in all parts of the world, it is probable that important new deposits of graphite will be discovered, especially in Canada, Siberia and parts of South America and Africa.
Ceylon is the chief source of supply of the best grades of crystalline graphite, viz., vein graphite. The crystalline graphite obtained in Madagascar, Bavaria, and in small quantities in the United States, Canada, Norway, Sweden, Japan and Chosen is chiefly of the flake variety and for that reason it is considered by manufacturers inferior in grade to that obtained in Ceylon. Large undeveloped deposits are reported in Greenland and Brazil. The discovery of the large deposits of flake graphite in Roumania was reported some time since. From time to time discoveries are reported from other localities but the importance is questionable, chiefly because the deposits are usually situated in places difficult to reach. It is believed that the Ceylon deposits have passed the maximum of their production and if deposits of vein graphite of equal grade and richness could be found, Ceylon producers might be hard pressed. During the last few years Madagascar has become the leading producer of crystalline graphite, and the influence of this potential supply should exert a stabilizing effect on prices of Ceylon graphite.
Austria, Chosen, Mexico, Italy and the United States are the principal producers of amorphous graphite; Chosen and Mexico supply most of the pencil graphite of the world.
The development of the electric furnace will no doubt decrease the demand for crucibles in steel making.
Great Britain, through sovereignty over Ceylon and Canada, and France, through sovereignty over Madagascar, control politically the world’s most important deposits of crystalline graphite. Japan controls the deposits of Chosen.
American capital controls the deposits of the United States, the deposits of Mexico, and in part the deposits of Canada. The Ceylon deposits have been worked mainly by small local owners, who opposed until a few years ago the attempts of an English company to gain control through the erection and operation of a modern plant. The Graphites Maskar, owning a part of the Madagascar deposits, is a subsidiary of a British company, the Morgan Crucible Co. Another large Madagascar company before the war had its main office in Hamburg, Germany. Other companies are controlled by Belgian and French capital. British interests own a part of the Italian and probably a part of the Spanish deposits.
XXIII. MICA
BY DURAND A. HALL
USES OF MICA
Two varieties of mica are of particular economic importance: muscovite or white mica, and phlogopite or amber mica. Three other varieties, lepidolite, zinnwaldite and biotite, find occasional commercial use.
Mica is marketed as sheet or block mica, mica splittings, thin sheets split chiefly from smaller sizes of block mica, and scrap or ground mica. The uses to which sheet or block mica may be put depend upon the size, thickness and shape of the piece which can be cut from it and the quality of the material itself. Factors entering into the quality of mica are: presence or absence of stains, spots, inclusions, cracks or pin holes; flexibility and elasticity; hardness; degree of distortion of the sheets; transparency; and dielectric strength.
An essential use of sheet or block muscovite is in electrical work; from the mica are made condensers for radio equipment, magnetos and certain telephone equipment; also to a less extent for resonators in sounding boxes. This mica is also used in making spark plugs, particularly plugs in high-compression engines, for winding cores and as washers in place of porcelain. These uses were widely extended by the war to meet requirements for motor transport, airplanes and radio equipment.
A great deal of this variety of mica is used for other insulating purposes. There are a vast variety of uses, such as for sheets, washers and disks in dynamos, electric-light sockets, guards in rheostats, fuse boxes, telephones, etc.
Sheet or block phlogopite is used for general electrical insulation--particularly where mica softer than muscovite is required.
Mica splittings of both muscovite and phlogopite are employed for the manufacture of “built-up mica,” which is used widely for electric insulation in many different forms, such as sheets, tubes, cups, etc. Mica board built up from phlogopite splittings is used extensively for insulation between the copper segments of commutators.
Among the less essential uses of sheet or block mica (mainly muscovite) are in windows for stove fronts and ovens; chimneys and shades for lamps and lanterns; and for many other purposes where a transparent non-inflammable, non-shattering material is required. It is also used for heat insulation, in various electric heating devices.
Ground mica is also used for heat insulation, as in pipe and boiler covering, etc.; and as a patent roofing, both as a coating to prevent sticking when rolled, and as a filler in the roofing itself. It is also used in annealing steel, and as a lubricant for wooden bearings.
Among the non-essential uses of mica, those for which a satisfactory substitute is known, are the uses of sheet or block mica for phonograph diaphragms, and for decorative purposes, chiefly in India. On a similar basis are the uses of ground mica (mixed with oil) as a lubricant for metal bearings; as a filler for rubber goods, etc.; and for decorative purposes--in wall paper, decorative paints, ornamental stone, etc.
=Substitutes.=--No other substance possesses the combination of elasticity, toughness, flexibility, transparency, ability to withstand excessive heat and sudden changes in temperature, high dielectric strength, flatness and amenability to splitting into thin films, which belongs to mica.
For the vast variety of electrical equipment in which mica is used, no satisfactory substitute has been found. In the manufacture of certain low-tension condensers sheets of oiled paper have been used instead of mica films, but attempts to substitute this material more widely have met with little success. According to one report a compressed paper product called “Pertinax” was developed in Germany during the war which is claimed to be “most satisfactory” for all electrical purposes, even for the manufacture of high-tension condensers. The fact, however, that Germany was paying $75 a pound for mica from Norway, and continued to use mica in the manufacture of condensers for airplane magnetos, indicates that complete substitution was not possible.
For a great many glazing purposes it is possible to substitute heat-withstanding or non-shattering varieties of glass.
CHANGES IN PRACTICE
From the nature of mica deposits there has been little encouragement for the application of any but rather crude and simple methods of mining. These methods proved sufficient as long as there remained new and easily accessible deposits. There is at present a tendency in India, Canada, and the United States to apply more scientific methods to exploration and extraction, where the exhaustion of the easily worked deposits is threatened.
Sorting, cleaning, grading, trimming and cutting of mica for the market are all essentially hand processes, and from the nature of the product will continue to be. For this reason producing localities possessing abundant cheap labor have a distinct advantage over those where labor is high and scarce. In one important direction attempts have been made to apply a mechanical device to a process which has always required hand labor. This is in the manufacture of mica splittings, widely used in the manufacture of built-up mica. These inventions have not yet been demonstrated as commercially successful on a broad scale.
Mica is being used to an increasing extent for electrical purposes. The war created a large demand, particularly for the better grades of material for the manufacture of magnetos and radio condensers and spark plugs, and many of these uses will continue to require much mica. The use of mica for glazing purposes, however, particularly in the fronts of stoves, is diminishing. This is due to the decreasing manufacture of the type of stove in which mica is used.
GEOLOGICAL DISTRIBUTION
It has been estimated that mica constitutes about 4 per cent. of the igneous rocks of the world. Segregation into deposits of workable size containing mica of commercial size and quality is comparatively rare. Mica mines are worked for the small percentage of sheet or block mica they contain, the large amount of waste mica being utilized only where a ready market warrants the grinding.
Individual deposits of both muscovite and phlogopite are characterized by their extreme irregularity, so that any prediction as to reserve is uncertain. This fact is responsible for the crude methods of mining which have for so long been almost universally employed. The output of a district as a whole is from many small mines rather than from any single large one.
An important consideration in the geological distribution of mica from an economic standpoint is the degree of dynamic metamorphism to which the region has been subjected during or subsequent to the formation of the mica-bearing deposits. This is due to the fact that the value of sheet mica depends, among many other factors, upon the freedom from distortion of the sheets.
Muscovite mica in commercial quantities invariably occurs in dikes and lenses of pegmatite which are considered to represent segregations of certain portions of granitic intrusions. The principal associated minerals are quartz and feldspar, both of which are usually considerably in excess of the mica. The dikes or lenses of pegmatite may be within the granite itself or in other inclosing rocks that may seem unrelated to a parent intrusive. Schists or gneisses form the inclosing rock of the pegmatite in most commercial deposits.
Phlogopite is much rarer than muscovite and occurs in deposits structurally similar to granitic pegmatites. The important associated minerals are pyroxene, apatite and calcite, although in certain deposits the mass is almost entirely of mica. The Canadian deposits, which are best known, consist of veins and pockets in pyroxenite dikes and the inclosing rock is usually limestone, a significant fact as regards the origin of the deposits.
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION
India, Canada, and the United States produce about 98 per cent. of the sheet mica of the world. The output of India and of the United States is entirely muscovite, whereas the Canadian production is almost entirely phlogopite. Brazil and Argentina have become important producers in the last two years, and German East Africa was becoming of considerable importance immediately before the war. South Africa, Guatemala, Ceylon, Madagascar and Australia have produced small amounts of mica and may be considered as potential sources of supply.
India produces about 65 per cent. of the sheet mica of the world, and is the most important source of high quality muscovite. The two principal producing regions are the Hazaribagh district, in the Province of Behar, and Orissa, in Bengal, and the Nellore district, Madras Presidency.
The output of Canada is practically all phlogopite or amber mica, of which that country is the world’s principal source. The important producing districts are north of the city of Ottawa, in the Province of Quebec, and in the central part of the Province of Ontario. The Lacey mine, in Ontario, has been the largest producer of amber mica in Canada for many years.
The United States produces about 15 per cent. of the sheet mica muscovite of the world. In terms of value, about 70 per cent. of the American product comes from North Carolina, and 23 from New Hampshire. Other districts are insignificant: 3 per cent. comes from Virginia, 1 from South Dakota, and 3 from Georgia, Alabama, Idaho, and Colorado taken together.
The principal sources of mica in Brazil are the states of Bahia, Sao Paulo, Goyaz and Minas Geraes. The two last mentioned are particularly important. The deposits are widely scattered over a large area.
Production of mica in Argentina has been incidental until very recently and the development has been slight. Deposits are numerous but are of special importance in the provinces of Cordoba, San Luis and San Juan. As far as is known muscovite is the only mica produced.
Considerable activity has been shown in mica mining in Guatemala and shipments have been made quite regularly to this country. The mica, however, is of inferior grade and has not found favor in American markets.
The production of the former German East Africa is confined entirely to muscovite mica found in the districts of the Ulguru Mountains and neighboring ranges. Considerable quantities of high-grade material were exported to Germany before the war. The mica mines in German East Africa were worked during the war under the direction of the British Ministry of Munitions. The district is of importance as a future source of high-grade muscovite.
The principal locality in South Africa is near Leydersdorp, in the Northern Transvaal. Both muscovite and amber mica are reported from this area.
Small amounts of high-quality amber mica have been shipped from Ceylon to England.
Deposits of excellent quality mica are known to exist in the McDonald range, in South Australia, from which small shipments have been made sporadically. This is the only district from which lepidolite or lithia mica has been noted in sheets of commercial size.
In China, large deposits of muscovite mica are reported from the vicinity of Kiao-Chau bay and also from Shantung, but no commercial development has taken place, and it is believed that the deposits are worthless as a source of sheet mica.
Prior to 1914 efforts to produce mica in Norway on a commercial scale met with no success and little is known of the deposits. The great need of mica in Germany during the war stimulated production in Norway, tremendous prices being paid for the material.
CHANGES IN KNOWN GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION IN THE NEAR FUTURE
The most important change in known geographic distribution of mica for the near future concerns the increased development of the South American fields. During the war Brazilian mica found considerable favor both in this country and Europe, and the better grades are considered equal to the best India mica. Importations of mica from Brazil were of much importance in meeting the large demands of the United States for mica of high quality to fill government needs. Owing to the nature of mica deposits in general, it is not safe to make estimates concerning reserves. This is particularly true of Brazil, where the industry is young, and careful prospecting and development have not been carried far. From the large number of known deposits and the rapidity with which the industry responded to war demands, despite difficulties in transportation from the mines to the seaboard, it would appear that Brazilian mica will play an increasingly important part in the mica markets of the world, particularly of the United States. No matter how great the merit of the mines of a district may be, however, unless the mica is carefully prepared, graded as to size and quality, and shipments are standardized, it cannot expect to attain permanent favor among consumers in this country or in Europe.
Less is known concerning the future possibilities of Argentina as a mica-producing country of importance. Many deposits are known and considerable shipments have been made to the United States and to Europe. The material received here has not been equal to Indian or Brazilian mica.
There is every reason to expect that India will retain its position as the most important mica-producing country. The great number of deposits offer almost every grade of muscovite required in the trade. The industry is well-established, and labor conditions are extremely favorable for the production of a commodity requiring such a large amount of hand labor before being ready for market. It is true, however, that the richest and most easily accessible deposits have been mined out, and scientific methods must be applied to mining if production is to retain its former place.
It is doubtful whether the immediate future will see any important change in the position of the United States as a mica producer. Although the reserves of the country as a whole are probably large, the deposits are small and the percentage of high-quality mica is not great. Production of important amounts of medium-grade mica will continue. Labor conditions are not favorable to producing cheaply an article that has a large part of its value determined by preparation and careful grading.
Scientific methods have been applied to the mining and preparation of a considerable part of the Canadian output. Reserves are large and Canada will undoubtedly retain for many years its position as the principal source of amber mica.
POLITICAL AND COMMERCIAL CONTROL
The British Empire, through state sovereignty, controls 75 per cent. of the present sheet-mica production of the world. In Brazil and Argentina, which have important potential resources of mica, and in the United States, political control is determined by state sovereignty.
For the most part, the ownership of mines and concessions in India has been in the hands of natives. In the Hazaribagh district, F. F. Christen & Co., an English firm, owns rights over large areas of land outside the government forest and has mined on a considerable scale. At the outbreak of the war, Germany, through commercial interests, had obtained a large measure of control over many Indian mines. S. O. Fillion & Co., of New York, is the one American firm known to be working mines in India.
The most important producing phlogopite mine in Canada, at Sydenham, Ontario, is owned and operated by the General Electric Co., of Schenectady, New York. The same company owns several other properties in the vicinity and has a large mica-manufacturing plant at Ottawa, Ontario. Other smaller interests are held chiefly in Canada.
Davol & Co., of New York, is the only foreign firm known to be actively working mica mines in Brazil at present.
Mica mines in the United States are, as far as is known, all owned by Americans.
POSITION OF LEADING NATIONS
The United States was before the war the world’s largest consumer of mica of all kinds. The development of her electrical industry is dependent upon her supply of mica, a large part of which is imported from India and Canada. Production in this country has been considerable, but has not proved nearly adequate to supply the demands, particularly the demand for the higher grades of mica for use in magnetos, radio condensers and spark plugs, and for mica splittings used in making built-up mica.
The large demands and high prices created by the war did not increase domestic production enough to warrant the belief that this country can become independent as regards sheet mica under any but the most artificial conditions. The producer is protected by a 25 per cent. import duty on unmanufactured (rough or knife-trimmed) mica and a 30 per cent. duty on cut mica, splittings and other manufactured forms. Production in this country is largely in the hands of individuals and small companies, who are financially incapable of increasing output spasmodically even under very favorable conditions. Moreover, many consumers have a decided prejudice in favor of imported mica.
If the United States is to take a dominant position in the electrical industry of the world an adequate supply of mica must be assured. The most promising field for the development of such a supply is undoubtedly South America. This is particularly true because the important development of the electrical industry in England during the war places that country in the dominating position formerly occupied by Germany and Austria. This development will require a large part of the Indian mica formerly available for export trade.
The British Empire possesses in India the most important source of muscovite mica in the world and in Canada the only important supply of amber mica. In spite of England’s tremendous advantage with regard to raw material, Germany, through her important position in the electrical industry and the large measure of control acquired in the Indian mines, threatened to dominate the mica market of the world at the outbreak of the war. Since the outbreak of the war England has secured her position not only as the controlling center for raw mica but as the chief producing nation of electrical equipment. London is the distributing center of the world for Indian mica and London prices regulate the market. During the war Indian mica was controlled by the British Ministry of Munitions, and allotments were made to the associated nations at fixed prices.
In the development of the South American fields lies the best possibility of the world lessening its dependence upon England for this most essential raw material.
France is entirely dependent upon outside sources for her supply of mica. Before the war her demands were not large and were filled by Indian mica.
Although Germany before the war was entirely dependent on outside sources for mica, her leading position in the electrical industry enabled her to gain control of much of the Indian production. Every advantage was taken of this opportunity, and in 1914, according to the British Secretary of Munitions, the mica market of the world was at the point of being transferred from London to Hamburg. The deposits of German East Africa were being actively exploited and German commercial interests were being extended to South America.
Although probably possessing very large stocks in 1914, Germany felt very acutely the shortage of mica during the war. High prices were paid to Norway for the output of that country, but this source is probably entirely incapable of meeting the normal demands of Germany.
SUMMARY
Sheet mica is essential to the manufacture of a vast variety of electrical equipment, and must, therefore, be classed as one of the important raw materials of the world. The magneto, such a vital factor in modern transport on land, air and sea, depends upon mica for its construction, and mica condensers are indispensable in modern radio equipment.
India, Canada, and the United States are at present the most important mica-producing countries. Deposits of future importance from which production has thus far not been great are known in German East Africa, Brazil, Argentina and the Transvaal; from several other parts of the world more sporadic production is reported.
Unlike the development of many other raw materials the production of mica has not been universally undertaken on a large scale, nor have scientific methods been applied to its extraction. This has been largely due to the irregular nature of the deposits and their scattered position within a district, making considerable investment of capital in mining a particularly hazardous venture. Trading interests have, therefore, played an important part in controlling production and markets.
The British Empire, having within its boundaries a large proportion of the important mica-producing districts, at present dominates the situation politically. British commercial control, threatened by Germany’s leading position in the electrical industry and wide interests in Indian mines at the outbreak of war, is now firmly re-established, and Great Britain has taken the place in the electrical industry formerly held by Germany and Austria.
The United States, the largest consumer of mica among the nations of the world, has relied upon imports to supply a considerable part of the consumption and will probably continue to do so in the future, although steady development of domestic sources of supply may be expected. Brazil offers the most promising foreign field for the development of an independent source of supply for American markets.
XXIV. ASBESTOS
BY OLIVER BOWLES
USES OF ASBESTOS
Asbestos is useful because of its incombustibility, insulating qualities, and fibrous structure. High-grade asbestos is spun or woven into ropes and fabrics, the fabrics being used for many purposes, such as safety curtains, mats, mattresses, upholstering, firemen’s suits and gloves. Of late years much high-grade asbestos has been used for friction facings in brakes and for packings. Low-grade asbestos is used for a great many purposes, which may be classed in three groups--building, insulating, and miscellaneous.
For building purposes asbestos is employed in many ways. A mixture of asbestos and cement is used to make fireproof shingles or slates. Asbestos is also used with Portland cement to make a protective surface on metal sheathing; asbestos paper is used for weather and sound proofing and also for fire-protection purposes. It is used widely for plaster, which not only is fireproof but also improves the acoustic properties of auditoriums, churches, etc. Asbestos is also used for floor tiling and in the manufacture of paints. Asbestos lumber and millboard are employed for many structural purposes.
Asbestos cement, a mixture of asbestos fiber and clay, is much used as a covering for boilers and steam pipes to prevent heat radiation. Other coverings are made from a mixture of asbestos and magnesia. Varieties of asbestos having a low iron content are useful for electrical insulating purposes.
Some of the many miscellaneous uses of asbestos are for fire brick, acid filters, lead-fume collectors, stove mats, cooking-utensil linings, etc.
The most essential of the above uses are those in which the long-fiber asbestos is employed. For fireproof ropes and fabrics nothing can take its place. Its use in friction facings for brakes is essential in all motor vehicles.
The uses for which low-grade asbestos is employed may be regarded as less essential and might be eliminated in case of necessity, though such elimination would no doubt involve many serious difficulties. Fire risk would thereby be increased and many boilers and heating plants would be rendered less efficient and more wasteful, though these difficulties could be overcome to some degree by the use of substitutes.
=Substitutes.=--Slag wool or mineral wool is a fireproof material and a good non-conductor of heat and sound. It is also highly porous, and hence it is useful as an absorbent. It can, therefore, be used to some extent as a substitute for asbestos for heat insulation and fireproofing. However, as it is brittle and cannot be woven as readily as asbestos, it is not to be regarded as a satisfactory substitute for the higher grades. Talc may be employed in the manufacture of fireproof and corrosive-proof paints, and also as a lining for furnaces and fireplaces. Infusorial earth is used to some extent as a substitute for asbestos for insulating and fireproofing. But it is important to note that none of the substitutes mentioned above can replace the high-grade spinning fiber.
CHANGES IN PRACTICE
As has been indicated, there is a probability of the demand for asbestos increasing. The wide use of motor-transport equipment demands a large amount of high-grade fiber for brake linings, while the increasing use of steam equipment, and electrical equipment and appliances, demands more and more material, both for electrical and heat-insulating purposes. Although substitutes may be employed for the lower grades, no substitutes are known for the spinning grades of asbestos, which are now in strongest demand. Consequently there are no changes in practice that will reduce the demand for asbestos.
GEOLOGICAL DISTRIBUTION
Asbestos originates for the most part from rocks consisting largely of olivine, such as peridotites or dunites, or from rocks consisting largely of pyroxene. Hence it is only in altered rocks of this nature that asbestos of the common types is to be expected. Two distinct types of alteration are common: Alteration of the olivine or pyroxene to serpentine, with development of chrysotile in places; and alteration of olivine or pyroxene to amphibole with development of anthophyllite (a variety of amphibole) and related forms. Both types of alteration are well represented in the great North American belt of asbestos-bearing peridotites that extends from central Alabama along the Piedmont Plateau to the Gaspé Peninsula of Quebec, a distance of more than 1,600 miles. In the northern part of the belt, in Vermont and Quebec, the alteration has been to serpentine with chrysotile asbestos in places, while in the southern part the alteration has been largely to amphibolite with development of anthophyllite asbestos and talc.
Chrysotile asbestos (Quebec type), as represented in most deposits, is formed by serpentinization, with subsequent prismatic crystallization in cracks, the veins thus formed representing a recrystallization along the walls and thus being replacement veins rather than fissure veins. Contact metamorphism evidently plays an important part in the process, for in most regions intrusive dikes are associated with the deposits and evidently had a definite influence on the development of the commercial product. As serpentinization is a deep-seated process, chrysotile deposits may occur at considerable depth.
Anthophyllite asbestos (Georgia type) results from alteration of peridotites or pyroxenites to amphibole, giving the fibrous anthophyllite and related forms. This type of asbestos does not occur in veins but constitutes the major part of the rock mass.
While the modes of alteration noted above account for most of the asbestos deposits known, there are two important exceptions--the crocidolite, or blue asbestos, of South Africa, and the chrysotile deposits of Arizona, both of which occur in sedimentary rocks. Crocidolite is interbedded in jasper and ironstone, and the Arizona chrysotile has resulted from the alteration of cherty limestone influenced to some extent by the action of diabase intrusions.
As pointed out in the discussion of uses, for various select purposes anthophyllite cannot be employed as a substitute for chrysotile of spinning grade. As the uses of anthophyllite are thus restricted, and as the supply seems to be ample for many years to come, the problem of supply centers about the deposits of high-grade chrysotile.
Deposits of serpentinized basic rocks are by no means rare, and even the development of a fibrous structure is common, but in all chrysotile-bearing deposits only a small part of the serpentine is fibrous, and of the fibrous part only a small percentage can be utilized as high-grade asbestos. The value of deposits of most ores depends largely on the percentage of metal and of impurities present, and little attention need be given to the physical character of an ore. The value of asbestos, however, depends not only on purity of composition, but on very definite physical properties, such as length of fiber, flexibility, and tensile strength. Such properties result from a combination of favorable conditions of crystallization, conditions that are at present little understood.
A large body of serpentinized basic rock bears, therefore, no certain promise of an asbestos supply, though it may offer encouragement for prospecting. High-grade fiber is evidently formed under a peculiar combination of geologic conditions which involve the presence of certain primary rock types, their alteration to secondary minerals and recrystallization of these in veins, such recrystallization being induced by a combination of metamorphic agencies. Although it is quite probable, therefore, that new fields will be discovered, there is no probability of an abundant supply.
An important point to be considered in connection with future supplies is that for most uses of asbestos there is little or no scrap recovery; that which is once used is for the most part gone beyond recall. It is wise, therefore, to maintain a conservative view of the asbestos reserve, for although there is evidence of a supply in the Canadian deposits and elsewhere to last for many years, the probability is that deposits of high-grade material are neither numerous nor extensive.
The total production and estimated reserves of spinning asbestos in the important producing countries are shown in Figure 13.
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION
=United States.=--Asbestos in the United States is of two types, chrysotile and anthophyllite. The chrysotile variety occurs in Arizona, Vermont, Wyoming, and California, and the anthophyllite in Georgia, Virginia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Idaho.
Chrysotile Asbestos.--The asbestos deposits of Arizona are unusual in being cross-fiber chrysotile veins in cherty limestone, and thus quite distinct in origin from the Quebec deposits. The asbestos-bearing beds are thin and some of them are almost inaccessible.
Asbestos was first discovered in Arizona at two points in the Grand Canyon of the Colorado, west of the mouth of the Little Colorado River. The mineral occurs in a single bed, 12 to 14 inches thick, the veins being parallel with the bedding. In some places the veins are 4 inches thick, but usually they do not exceed 2¹⁄₂ inches. The visible supply, therefore, is not great, and as the district is difficult of access production has been slight. Asbestos also occurs in Ash Creek Canyon near Globe. Production began in 1914, and has increased considerably since. The asbestos carries only 0.5 per cent. iron oxide, while Canadian asbestos runs 2.2 per cent. to 2.6 per cent. iron oxide. The Arizona material is, therefore, superior to Canadian asbestos for electrical insulation. It is estimated that under favorable conditions the region can supply 1,000 tons annually for many years to come, but that the output will never be large as compared with that of Canada. In 1914 an asbestos deposit similar to those of Ash Creek was reported near Young postoffice. It is 80 miles from the nearest railroad station and will probably be inaccessible for many years. Near the summit of Mount Baker, north of the Roosevelt Reservoir, a mine producing good chrysotile was opened in 1917. The asbestos occurs in cross-fiber veins in limestone.
The asbestos deposits of Vermont are situated at Lowell, in the same formation as the Quebec deposits. The asbestos occurs in numerous irregular veins, the supply is probably large, and some of it compares favorably with the Canadian product. There was a considerable production in former years, but after 1912 the quarries were idle. The reserves of low-grade rock are probably large.
The main deposits of Wyoming occur south of Casper in igneous Archean rocks. The mineral is chrysotile asbestos, mostly of the cross-fiber type, though some slip-fiber is present. It is claimed that the Wyoming asbestos has better heat-resisting qualities than the Canadian fiber. However, a very small proportion of the fiber is of spinning grade.
Deposits of chrysotile asbestos have been noted in many parts of California, scattered over 13 counties. The deposits seem to be small, and thus far the production has not exceeded a few tons a year. A small production is recorded for 1917 from Nevada and Inyo counties. There was an increased output in 1918, the total being 229 tons. Some No. 1 spinning fiber was obtained in Nevada County.
Anthophyllite Asbestos.--The anthophyllite asbestos deposits in Georgia yield the largest production of any state in the Union. The material is not of spinning grade and is practically all used for fireproofing and insulating. There is a considerable demand for such material, however, and the industry is established on a firm basis. A notable feature of the Georgia deposits is that approximately 95 per cent. of the rock quarried is fibrous anthophyllite of commercial quality, whereas in Quebec only about 6¹⁄₂ per cent. of the material quarried can be utilized.
Anthophyllite asbestos deposits occur in Virginia near Bedford. The material is low-grade and the amount is probably small. A little is consumed in the manufacture of “tenax,” a preparation used by dentists. Amphibole slip-fiber asbestos has lately been mined on a small scale in Maryland, near Pylesville. It is used for filters. Several years ago a small production was recorded from Dalton, Massachusetts, and New Hartford, Connecticut.
Anthophyllite asbestos occurs in Idaho, near Kamiah. It is not of spinning grade, is of low tensile strength, and is inferior to all but the lowest grades of chrysotile. The deposit is evidently large, but the production is almost negligible.
=Canada and Newfoundland.=--The most important asbestos-producing deposits of the world are those of the province of Quebec, Canada, chiefly in the region of Thetford and Broughton. Asbestos occurs in serpentine of Cambrian age, the area in which the important mines are found extending from southern Vermont to Gaspé, in the Province of Quebec. The serpentine lies in three prominent belts. The Danville-Eastman-Vermont serpentine belt is about 62 miles long. The scattered outcrops probably are connected beneath the heavy drift deposits and forest growth. Prospects have been worked in six places, but the production attained is small. The belt is an uncertain quantity, that gives fair promise of a large future supply.
The Thetford-Black Lake area is the important area of Quebec and now the most productive asbestos district of the world. In 1917 there were 17 active mines in the district. In 1918 the quantity of rock mined was 2,445,745 tons, and the total asbestos production was 159,225 tons, valued at $9,053,945. The Broughton and the central and eastern Thetford areas are mainly slip-fiber asbestos. The West Thetford, South Ireland, and North Coleraine Township deposits constitute the vein-fiber belt which yields the high-grade spinning asbestos that has a world-wide reputation.
Serpentine rocks bearing chrysotile asbestos are reported near Port au Port, in Newfoundland, probably representing a continuation of the Quebec belt. The possibility of commercial development is uncertain.
=Mexico, Central and South America.=--Asbestos deposits have been reported in Brazil, but aside from this no commercial deposits have been noted in South America.
There is no record of asbestos deposits in Mexico or in Central America.
=Europe.=--The asbestos deposits of Russia probably rank next to those of Canada. The principal mines are 57 miles north of Ekaterinburg, in the Ural Mountains. The quarries can be worked only from May to November in each year. Transportation is over the Perm Railroad, and the output is exported via Riga. The fiber is of the same type as the Canadian, a chrysotile asbestos, chiefly of the cross-fiber type. The richest ore yields 42 to 55 pounds of asbestos per cubic yard. Production has also been reported by the South Urals Asbestos Co., operating in the Orsk district, in Orenburg. Russian asbestos is said to be harsher than Canadian and less suitable for spinning, but a great deal of high-grade fiber has been produced and Russia is likely to be an important future source of asbestos.
The asbestos of Italy is of the anthophyllite variety. There are three main districts: the Susa Valley deposits, near the French border, which lie 6,000 to 10,000 feet above sea level and are, therefore, not readily available; the Aosta Valley deposits, of wide extent, with long-fibered, strong, and soapy product; and the deposits in Lombardy, also of great extent. Italian asbestos may be used to some extent as a substitute for Canadian fiber, or to mix with it, but the supply of high-grade fiber is not great, and it is more difficult and expensive to work than the Canadian material. The United Asbestos Co., of London, England, is the largest producer.
Large deposits of asbestos are known on the island of Cyprus. The material is derived from serpentine and is of the amphibole anthophyllite type. Much of it is short-fibered but some of it can be used to mix with Canadian fiber.
Good spinning asbestos has been noted in central Finland but production up to the present time is almost negligible.
Asbestos deposits have been noted in England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Norway, Greece, and Turkey, but all the above deposits are said to consist of coarse and brittle material of little commercial value. A large deposit of good asbestos is reported in the island of Corsica.
=Asia.=--Deposits are known in various districts of India. Asbestos is also reported in Afghanistan. Indian asbestos is of inferior tensile strength, and the lack of development renders it an uncertain resource.
The United States Geological Survey reported in 1912 that three asbestos mines were in operation 45 miles northeast of Antung, China. The product, which was shipped into Manchuria, is of the amphibole (anthophyllite) type and quite brittle. Chrysotile asbestos of good quality is reported south of Lake Baikal, in Mongolia. It has never been mined, and on account of its remoteness is not likely to be developed. Deposits yielding a small output are reported from several other provinces.
Asbestos deposits occur in several localities in Japan. The output is of inferior quality and is mixed with imported material for asbestos packing. The Japan Asbestos Co., of Osaka, is the chief manufacturer of asbestos products.
Deposits have been opened at Minusinck, on the Yenesei River, in Siberia, but production is reported for the year 1905 only. Transportation is difficult.
=Africa.=--The asbestos of Cape Colony is crocidolite, or blue asbestos; it is of the amphibole type and will not bear high temperature, probably on account of its iron content, but is longer, stronger, finer, and more elastic than chrysotile. On account of its low fusibility it is useful in electric welding. The mineral occurs in three important districts and outcrops at numerous points from the Orange River north to Bechuanaland. Government engineers report it to be the largest asbestos-bearing area in the world. The principal deposits are at Koejas, where the Cape Asbestos Co., Ltd., produced in 1916 about two-thirds of the total amount of asbestos mined in South Africa. Blue asbestos is gaining favor in foreign markets, and this fact, in connection with the great extent of the deposits, indicates that these deposits constitute an important factor in world supply.
Large and probably extensive deposits of chrysotile asbestos of the finest quality occur in the Transvaal. Three companies have recently operated in this district. Production, which began about 1914, in which year 30 tons were reported, had increased to a total of 407 tons in 1916.
A new and important development is the mining of a long-fibered amphibole asbestos known as “amosite.”
A small output of asbestos from Natal has been reported for several years; however, the fiber is not high grade and an increase of production is not likely.
Important deposits occur in southern Rhodesia. The Southern Rhodesia Geological Survey reports that there is in sight several years’ supply for an output of 200 tons per month without going deeper than 60 feet. The “probable ore” supply is very great. It has been stated that the Rhodesian fiber is the only class of chrysotile asbestos that can compete successfully with the best grade of Canadian fiber.
=Australasia.=--A chrysotile-bearing serpentine belt covers a considerable area in Queensland. A deposit occurs near Rockwell, South Australia. The Australia Asbestos Manufacturing Co. has produced a small amount of material similar to Italian asbestos. A small amount of chrysotile has also been found. A deposit of chrysotile prospected in New South Wales is claimed to have the longest asbestos fiber in the world. No production has been reported. In the Pilbarra district, West Australia, there is chrysotile asbestos of spinning grade which is said to be superior to either the Russian or Italian product. Some years ago a mine was worked to considerable depth by the Pilbarra Asbestos Co., of London, England, but in recent years the production has been almost negligible. In New Zealand chrysotile asbestos of spinning grade occurs in Nelson Province. The Australasian Asbestos Co., of Sydney, has recently prospected the serpentine belt of Tasmania, which contains both chrysotile and anthophyllite asbestos.
DEVELOPMENTS AND CHANGES IN DISTRIBUTION OF MINES
The United States leads all nations in the manufacture of asbestos products, and the large supply of asbestos in Quebec is readily available. There is, therefore, little prospect of any radical change in the geographical distribution of American asbestos mines. As there is always a possibility of such changes, however, it is well to consider the controlling factors.
As to the future of the Quebec deposits, the present source of supply, little definite information is available. The fact that serpentinization is a deep-seated process has led Canadian geologists to conclude that commercial fiber may be formed to the full depth of the original peridotite rock. For all practical purposes, however, the depth of the deposit is limited to the depth at which asbestos can be extracted profitably. One mine is now working at a depth of 300 feet and drill holes sunk 400 feet farther indicate a thickness of at least 700 feet of good fiber-bearing rock. Cirkel has stated that in one of the Black Lake quarries there is 44,377,500 tons of asbestos rock in sight above the railway tracks, ready for immediate exploitation. A deduction of 50 per cent. for waste rock would leave 22,000,000 tons of mill rock available, or enough to supply for 22 years a plant capable of producing 4,000 tons a day. As this includes only the visible ore it may be inferred that the reserve is very great. Cirkel estimates the total acreage of productive vein fiber as 12,420, of which 1,100 acres is under development at the present time. A geologist who spent two summers studying the geology of the region states that second-grade fiber is very abundant and that the high-grade deposits are not more than 25 per cent. exhausted. There is, therefore, no prospect for many years of any change in the geographical distribution of working mines through the exhaustion of present deposits.
During 1916 and 1917 the production of high-grade fiber in the United States grew steadily, but is still far from meeting domestic demands, as the total United States output in 1917 was only one-eightieth of the amount imported. The most important development has been in the high-grade chrysotile districts of Arizona, but these new deposits do not give promise of an abundant supply, and it is unlikely that they will constitute a dominating factor in American production.
Legislation may have a profound effect on the development of deposits. A high export duty placed on raw asbestos by a country now producing it in large quantities would have the effect of encouraging prospecting in other countries and the development of deposits that might supply substitute material. In this connection it is interesting to note that the Board of Trade of the eastern townships of Quebec proposed measures to protect the export of raw asbestos, in order to force the manufacture of asbestos products in Canada. The Canadian Mining Institute Bulletin (August, 1916) pointed out the dangers of such action, for other countries would immediately search for asbestos deposits elsewhere, and as good asbestos occurs in Russia, South Africa, Cyprus, and other localities, substitutes for Canadian material could probably be found. It is evident, therefore, that Canada does not control the supply, but that so long as Canadian fiber is available at reasonable prices there is no strong incentive for the development of new deposits.
In the Old World the situation is less stable than in America. European countries import considerable material from Canada, and the balance of their requirements is filled from various sources, chiefly from Russia, Cyprus, Italy, South Africa, and Australia. High-grade asbestos deposits exist in various countries and are for the most part developed to a small extent. The factors determining changes in production are somewhat different from those outlined for America. The lack of a strong central government greatly hampers production in any country. Thus under recent conditions in Russia the output fell from nearly 20,000 tons in 1913 to about 9,000 in 1916. Stabilized conditions and more efficient governments would tend to increase the output of several eastern countries. The most important factor contributing to the slow development of the Old World deposits is poor transportation. Russian asbestos for the English market has to pay transportation costs of $25 to $30 per ton. The important crocidolite deposits of South Africa are likewise hampered by poor transportation. Not only are the roads poor, but the most important deposits of Koegas are 18 miles from a traveled road, and other deposits are about 100 miles from roads. This drawback is offset to some extent by cheap labor.
The present political upheaval in Europe, involving the formation of new states and new forms of government, may have a pronounced effect on the development of asbestos deposits, but until progressive governments are established and vast improvements made in transportation, no great increase in production is possible.
POLITICAL AND COMMERCIAL CONTROL
A large share of the asbestos deposits of the world, being situated in British colonial possessions, are under the political control of Great Britain. The deposits of Cyprus are at present under British political control, but this may not be permanent. Before the war, Cyprus was nominally Turkish, though administered by Great Britain; in 1914, Great Britain formally annexed the island. Cyprus was offered to Greece in return for her assistance in the war, but the offer was not accepted.
From information available it is evident that the governments of Russia and Italy have in the past imposed no serious restrictions on the development of their asbestos properties through either domestic or foreign capital.
Below is set forth the commercial control of the asbestos deposits of the world, by countries, in the following order: United States, Canada, Russia, South Africa, Italy, Cyprus, and Australia.
In the Globe district of Arizona, in the United States, spinning asbestos is produced by the Johns-Manville Co., working the Snell & Fisk property, and by the American Ores & Asbestos Co. The Sierra Asbestos Co., near Nevada City, California, produced spinning fiber in 1918. As far as is known all the companies operating in the United States are American owned.
The asbestos mining industry in Canada is confined to the eastern townships of the Province of Quebec. The largest company is the Asbestos Corporation of Canada, Ltd., with head office in Montreal. This company operates the Kings and Beaver mines, at Thetford Mines, the British Canadian mine, at Black Lake, and the Frazer mine, at East Broughton. The company is controlled by English, Canadian, and United States capital. The Bell Asbestos Mines Co., the Asbestos & Asbestic Corporation, and the Manville Asbestos Co. are wholly or largely owned in the United States. The remaining companies are mostly controlled by English or Canadian capital, though United States interests are represented in some of them. Evidently, therefore, the ownership of the companies is divided between English, Canadian and United States capital, with British interests probably predominating.
The most important of the Ekaterinburg mines in Russia are the Voznesensky and Zoe-Anonsky, near Bazhenof. About one-third of the total output of the Urals came from these mines in 1916. It is reported that prior to the war a German syndicate controlled several Russian mines which produced in all more than 80 per cent. of the entire Russian output. Germany and Austria were the chief buyers of Russian asbestos before the war.
In South Africa the crocidolite of Cape Colony is mined largely by the Cape Asbestos Co., a British firm with mines at Koegas and Westerberg, and having factories in England, Turin, and Hamburg. A sister company in France, Compagnie Française de l’Amiante du Cap, handled in 1916 about two-thirds of the total South African production and was the chief manufacturer of blue asbestos products. In the Transvaal, asbestos is mined by three companies, The Transvaal Asbestos Syndicate, now absorbed by the Consolidated Gold Fields; the South African Minerals Option Syndicate, a subsidiary of the Bechuanaland Exploration Co., and the Anglo-Swiss Asbestos Co. British capital predominates. The Rhodesia Asbestos Co., Ltd., was the chief Rhodesian producer until recently, but in 1917 the Rhodesia and General Asbestos Corporation was organized with a capital of £400,000 to take over the operating mines. The commercial control is, therefore, British.
The chief producer in Italy is the United Asbestos Co., of London, England.
Prior to the war the Cyprus deposits were worked by the Cyprian Mining Co., an Austrian corporation. As mining concessions are obtained from the British government by lease on a royalty basis, it is probable that the lease has now been cancelled.
The deposits in Australasia are practically all controlled by English or Australian capital.
Mines that have no milling equipment can produce crude fiber which may be treated at manufacturing plants. The various grades of mill fiber may be produced only where mills are located at or near the mines. As the utilization of all grades can be accomplished only with the assistance of mills, such mills are necessary for efficient mining. Consequently, with other factors equal, mines with near-by mills have a distinct commercial advantage over mines that produce crude fiber only. Although mills are not essential factors in the asbestos-mining industry, they exert a secondary influence in commercial control through the increase in mining efficiency that they render possible. For deposits remote from centers of manufacture, mills are of little advantage, as fiber below spinning grade will not bear heavy transportation charges. Most of the United States and Canadian mines have mills for treatment of rock bearing short fiber. Several of the Russian mines are similarly equipped, but in other parts of the world little or no milling is done.
A number of important manufacturers of asbestos products in the United States are owners of or have intimate trade agreements with large Canadian asbestos mines, and also with some of the domestic mines. Hence as regards commercial control the United States is practically assured of a supply of raw material.
POSITION OF LEADING COMMERCIAL NATIONS
Although the United States is the largest manufacturer of asbestos products in the world, in 1917 less than 1 per cent. of the raw material was mined in this country. The country is, therefore, largely dependent on foreign sources of supply. The abundant deposits of Quebec, Canada, are conveniently near, and so long as the present amicable relations with Canada continue, an ample supply seems to be assured. In 1916 the United States used 86 per cent. of the Canadian output. During 1916 and 1917 there was marked activity in developing the high-grade chrysotile deposits of Arizona. While there is as yet no evidence of an abundant supply, the material is an important supplementary source of supply because of its quality.
While no commercial asbestos is mined in the British Isles, British colonial possessions hold control of about 88 per cent. of the annual asbestos output of the world and approximately 70 per cent. of the world’s reserves. Thus, although the supply within the British Empire is ample, the home requirements of the nation can be met only under favorable shipping conditions, as all necessary material must be transported several thousand miles.
Russia is the second largest producer of asbestos in the world, and seemingly has large reserves. As little manufacturing is done in the country, practically the entire output is exported. Being independent as regards her own needs for raw asbestos, Russia requires only the maintenance of an active foreign market to assure a permanent industry.
No commercial asbestos deposits are known to exist in Germany. Prior to the war asbestos was imported chiefly from Russia and Canada. The chief Russian mines are said to have been controlled by German capital.
Italy has large deposits of amphibole (anthophyllite) asbestos, some of which is of spinning grade, but as production has always been small and has, except for minor fluctuations, been stationary for the past 18 years, it is unlikely that the deposits can supply domestic requirements of high-grade fiber. A small amount has been exported for filter use, for which Italian asbestos is well adapted. As the chief mine is operated by a British company, considerable Italian asbestos is shipped to England.
No asbestos deposits are worked in France. Supplies are obtained from Russia, Canada, and South Africa. France is the leading nation in the manufacture of blue asbestos products.
Several deposits of asbestos occur in Japan, but all are of inferior quality. The material mined is mixed with imported fiber for the manufacture of asbestos packing.
SUMMARY
Asbestos is a unique mineral for the reason that it combines incombustibility and insulating qualities with a fibrous structure that makes possible its manufacture into fabrics, felts, and similar wares. The spinning grades of asbestos are most in demand and the problem of supply hinges largely on the deposits of high-grade chrysotile. Such material is used for the manufacture of ropes, safety curtains, mats, packings and friction facings in brakes. The lower grades are used for making fireproof shingles and other building materials, for insulating, and for fire brick, acid filters, etc. Although some substitutes may be found for the lower grades, no substitutes are known for spinning fiber.
Asbestos occurs in three main types, chrysotile, crocidolite, and anthophyllite; the first and second provide most of the spinning fiber, and the third is almost all of non-spinning quality. The most important deposit of chrysotile asbestos is in Quebec, Canada, but large deposits are worked in Russia and Rhodesia. Crocidolite is mined only in Cape Colony, South Africa. Large deposits of anthophyllite occur in the United States, Italy, and Cyprus.
The United States is by far the largest manufacturer of asbestos products in the world, but produces only a small fraction of the necessary raw material; it is practically assured of an ample supply of this because the largest deposits in the world are in the adjacent Province of Quebec, Canada. The Arizona deposits provide an excellent grade of fiber and constitute a promising supplementary source of supply, though the estimated reserves are not great. The British Empire holds a dominating position, controlling about 88 per cent. of the annual asbestos production of the world and approximately 70 per cent. of the estimated reserves. Canada is far in the lead of all countries, supplying about 85 per cent. of the world’s output. Russia was, before the revolution, second to Canada as a producer; because of the cost of transportation the chief output is spinning fiber. South Africa has large reserves of good fiber, but the output is handicapped by poor transportation.
Exhaustion of the chief sources of supply is not likely for many years, nor is there immediate prospect of any material shift in the centers of production, though with improved transportation a shift to South Africa is possible. The demand for high-grade asbestos will probably increase at a steady rate.
All the asbestos quarries in the United States seem to be American owned. The Canadian deposits are controlled by Canadian, English, and American capital, British interests probably being predominant. British companies evidently hold exclusive control of the present output in South Africa, Australasia, and Italy. Before the war the Russian output was largely controlled by a German syndicate, and the Cyprus output by an Austrian company.
XXV. PHOSPHATE ROCK
BY R. W. STONE
USES OF PHOSPHATE ROCK
Phosphate rock is chiefly used, after treatment with sulphuric acid, as an ingredient of artificial fertilizers. A small quantity is finely ground and used directly as fertilizer. Lesser quantities are used for making phosphoric acid and phosphorus. Phosphorus plays an important part in military operations, being used for incendiary bullets and smoke screens. Phosphorus also is a common ingredient of matches and the striking surface on boxes of safety matches, and it enters in small proportion into phosphor-bronze, phosphor-copper and phosphor-tin.
=Substitutes.=--Substitutes for phosphate rock may be classed as natural and artificial. Natural substitutes are phosphatic limestone; other phosphate-bearing minerals, such as apatite, nelsonite, and wavellite; guano; marl; animal excrement and bones. Artificial substitutes include basic slag and manufactured compounds, like ammonium phosphate.
GEOLOGICAL OCCURRENCE
Phosphate rock is a sedimentary deposit containing phosphate of lime. It occurs as a hard rock interstratified with beds of sandstone, shale, or other sediments; as amorphous nodular concretions or pebbles in stream deposits; and as a residuum from the decomposition of phosphatic dolomite or limestone, or other rocks containing phosphate of lime. Another type of deposit commonly classed as phosphate rock is the porous coralline or other limestone of tropical islands which has been permeated with phosphate leached from guano.
Phosphate deposits of the western United States, Algeria, Tunis, and Egypt are hard rock beds of the first type. Amorphous nodular deposits occur in South Carolina, part of Florida, Wales, England, Belgium, north-central and eastern France, and Russia. The deposits in Tennessee, Kentucky, and some of those in Florida are residual. Leached guano deposits are found on the islands of Aruba, Curacao, and Sombrero, in the West Indies, and on Christmas, Ocean, Makatea, Angaur and other islands in the Indian and South Pacific oceans.
The reserves in the United States are fairly well known and are estimated at 6,000,000,000 tons. Reserves of high-grade rock in Algeria and Tunis have been estimated at 300,000,000 tons. No information is at hand regarding the quantity of phosphate rock in Egypt or in Europe, except that Russia is believed to have 80,000,000 tons in one of its fields. The deposits in the South Pacific islands are estimated at 70,000,000 tons. Before the war the world’s output of phosphate rock was about 6,000,000 tons annually, of which about one-half was mined in the United States. The next largest production is made in northern Africa.
Phosphoric acid is derived also from apatite, a calcium phosphate that occurs in veins. Apatite has been mined in the Province of Quebec, Canada, and in Spain.
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION
In the Western Hemisphere phosphate rock is produced in the United States, in Canada, the Dutch West Indies, and French Guiana, and occurs in Peru and Chile.
=United States.=--The principal deposits of phosphate rock in the United States are in Florida, South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, and Utah. Although by far the largest deposits are in the western states, those deposits yield less than 1 per cent. of the whole because of the lack of a large near-by market and because of high freight rates on the crude rock. It is not a matter of common knowledge, but it is, nevertheless, a fact, that the western rock phosphate deposits are so extensive as to be practically inexhaustible, even if the entire world depended on them for its supply of phosphate.
The Florida phosphate deposits, which are the most extensively developed in the United States, comprise three classes of phosphate--hard rock, land pebble, and river pebble. The first is highest grade, the second is produced in largest quantity, and the third is not mined at present. The hard-rock deposits lie in a narrow strip along the western part of the Florida peninsula from Suwanee County to Pasco County, a distance of approximately 100 miles. The land-pebble phosphate area, just east of Tampa, is about 30 miles long and 10 miles wide. Sales of Florida phosphate declined tremendously after 1913 through the restriction on exports by the war. In 1913 the sales were 2,500,000 tons, valued at $9,500,000, and in 1915 the production was 1,350,000 tons, valued at $3,700,000.
South Carolina produces land rock phosphate in the vicinity of Charleston. River-pebble phosphate occurs in the same area but is not mined. Some of the South Carolina output has been exported annually. Sales decreased from 169,000 tons in 1911 to 83,000 in 1915, and the value in the same years from $673,000 to $311,000.
Tennessee deposits of rock phosphate are in the west-central part and extreme northeast corner of the state; the latter have not been mined. Three types are recognized and known by their colors as brown, blue, and white rock; the last has not been mined recently. The brown rock is sold under guarantee of 70 to 80 per cent. tricalcium phosphate; the blue rock varies considerably in its phosphatic content. Sales of Tennessee phosphate in 1914 were 483,000 tons, valued at $1,823,000; by 1915 they had fallen to 390,000 tons, valued at $1,328,000.
Kentucky has been an insignificant producer of phosphate rock in recent years. Arkansas phosphate deposits are in the north-central part of the state. The output is small.
Four western states possess enormous deposits of high-grade rock phosphate, but their output is as yet insignificant, being only 3,000 to 5,000 tons a year. The producing states are Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming. Montana is not a producer, although it contains extensive deposits easy of access and close to rail transportation.
Idaho has an unlimited supply of high-grade phosphate in the southeast part of the state. A small quantity is mined in Bear Lake County. The Utah deposits are east of Great Salt Lake, in the Wasatch and Uintah ranges, and east of Bear Lake. These deposits are extensive, but the rock is leaner than the general run of the Idaho phosphate, averaging nearer 60 per cent. than 80 per cent. tricalcium phosphate. Western Wyoming also is rich in rock phosphate, the deposits being mostly in the Owl Creek, Wind River, Gros Ventre, and Salt River ranges. Some of the beds are thick, carrying 80 per cent. tricalcium phosphate, and extend for many miles. They constitute a reserve supply that may be called inexhaustible. Small local demand for fertilizer and lack of cheap transportation may retard for some years the development of the great and rich western deposits.
An estimate of the quantity of rock phosphate available in the United States was made several years ago and need not be revised to account for that mined in the meantime. It is repeated here:
RESERVES OF PHOSPHATE ROCK IN THE UNITED STATES
Long tons Florida 227,000,000 Tennessee 88,000,000 South Carolina 9,000,000 Kentucky 1,000,000 Arkansas 20,000,000 ----------- 345,000,000 Western States: Montana, Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming 5,367,082,000 ------------- Total 5,712,082,000
=Canada.=--The principal phosphatic rock in Canada is apatite, which occurs in workable quantity in two main districts--one in the Province of Ontario, the other in the Province of Quebec. These deposits, which were worked mainly by quarrying, are now practically abandoned. Rock phosphate occurs in a thin bed near Banff, Alberta, but is not used.
=South America.=--In Aruba and Curacao, islands of the Dutch West Indies, off the coast of Venezuela, are deposits of phosphate rock, from which a small quantity is mined and shipped to Europe. It is reported that the output in 1914 was about 100,000 tons, averaging 85 to 90 per cent. of calcium phosphate.
In Peru, in the Department of Ica, is a deposit of nodular lime phosphate, which is not used because of a local preference for guano.
A large, rich deposit of phosphate is reported in Chile, about 300 miles north of Valparaiso, but has not been developed as yet.
Phosphate deposits occur on the Island of Salut and on the Connetables, close to the coast of French Guiana. The rock is exported.
=Europe.=--The high-grade phosphate deposits of Belgium are exhausted, only low-grade deposits remaining. The rock is found in layers and pockets, and carries between 25 and 65 per cent. of bone phosphate. The production from 1911 to 1913 averaged more than 200,000 tons annually.
The principal deposits in France are in the Somme and Oise basins. The best French deposits are higher grade than the Belgian, as they carry 50 to 80 per cent. of bone phosphate, but they are nearly exhausted, only low-grade material remaining. The production from 1910 to 1914 was about 300,000 tons annually.
Important deposits of phosphate rock in Russia can be divided into the northern, central, and southern groups. The deposits of the southern group were the only ones exploited before the war. Their output was about 25,000 tons a year--very small in comparison with the size of the deposits, which are estimated to contain more than 1,500,000,000 tons. Some of the rock is high grade, carrying as much as 75 per cent. tricalcium phosphate, but the normal grade is about 50 per cent.
The only deposits worked extensively in Spain are apatite veins in the Province of Caceras. After lying idle many years these deposits were reopened and produced 28,000 tons in 1917.
Low-grade phosphate in the form of beds of nodules occurs in England, and in Wales. The production has been slight because the deposits are too small for commercial exploitation.
=Africa.=--The principal deposits of phosphate rock in Tunis are the Gafsa fields, in the southern half of the country. There phosphate occurs in beds several feet thick, but only those carrying more than 58 per cent. phosphate of lime are exploited. The deposits can be traced for several hundred miles, and constitute a reserve of hundreds of millions of tons. Tunis now produces more phosphate than any other foreign country, its annual output being between 1,500,000 and 2,000,000 tons, most of which goes to southern Europe.
The deposits of phosphate rock in Algeria are continuations of those in Tunis, the important mining districts being in eastern Algeria. The production is over 500,000 tons a year, and the exported rock carries 58 to 68 per cent. of lime phosphate.
Extensive deposits of phosphate occur in Egypt, near the Red Sea, in thin and irregular beds of the same geologic age (Eocene) as the deposits in Tunis and Algeria. The best deposits average 70 per cent. lime phosphate and the output in 1916 was 125,000 tons. There are mines 20 miles from Port Safalga, and concessions 12 miles inland from Kosseir and also at Sebaia, on the eastern bank of the Nile between Keneh and Assouan. Beds of phosphate are found in other districts on both sides of the Nile valley. Practically all the raw rock phosphate produced contains 65 per cent. or more of tricalcium phosphate and is exported mainly to Japan.
Deposits of phosphate occur 80 to 120 kilometers from the city of Tripoli in beds more than 1 meter thick. These beds probably are a continuation of the phosphate deposits in southern Tunis.
Deposits of phosphate are reported in Morocco 125 kilometers south-southwest of Casa Blanca on the west coast and 70 kilometers from the end of a railroad. These deposits are said to be comparable to the Gafsa field, in Tunis.
It is reported that at Dielor, in Senegal, about the latitude of Cape Verde, the westernmost point on the African coast, there is a phosphate bed which is 2 meters thick to a depth of 64 meters. The rock carries only 50 per cent. tricalcium phosphate, so it is not workable under present conditions, especially in view of the abundant high-grade rock in Algeria and Tunis.
Phosphates have been found in Natal, near Weenen, Ladysmith, and Byrnetown, in the form of phosphatic shales and of nodules. The percentage of tricalcium phosphate in the phosphatic shales is too low for use in making superphosphates; the phosphatic nodules are of higher grade but not abundant enough to be of value.
=Asia and Australasia.=--In the government of Uralsk, in southwestern Siberia, bordering on the north end of the Caspian Sea, there is reported to be 600,000,000 tons of phosphate rock. It is said that the greater part of this material carries 17 to 20 per cent. phosphoric acid, which is equivalent to 36 to 43 per cent. tricalcium phosphate. The government of Turgai, which borders Uralsk on the east, is reported to contain 67,000,000 tons of phosphate rock, most of which carries 18 to 19 per cent. phosphoric acid, or about 40 per cent. tricalcium phosphate. The highest-grade material reported is 24 per cent. phosphoric acid, equivalent to about 52 per cent. tricalcium phosphate. All the phosphate therefore is low grade. No production is reported from either of the localities.
Low-grade phosphate rock, in sedimentary beds of considerable extent, and high-grade vein deposits are reported in Palestine, on the east side of the Jordan. The sedimentary deposits occur also on the west side of the Jordan. The known reserves are about 3,500,000 tons. The sedimentary deposits average about 48 per cent. and the vein deposits 77 per cent. tricalcium phosphate. As the vein material is suitable for export, these deposits have been explored by a French company, but available information indicates there has been no output.
Islands in the North Pacific Ocean.--After the discovery of phosphate rock on Rasa Island, 500 miles east of Formosa, a number of years ago, a Japanese company was formed to exploit the deposits. The rock is rich, carrying 75 per cent. phosphate of lime, and the reserves are estimated at 2,800,000 tons. In 1915 Rasa Island yielded 50,000 tons. A former German supply of phosphate is on Angaur Island, in the Pelew group, east of the southern end of the Philippines. Reserves on this island are estimated at 2,000,000 to 4,000,000 tons of phosphate rock, mostly of high grade. Germany increased the output from 45,000 tons in 1910 to 90,000 tons in 1913. Japan has held this island since October, 1914, and is mining 30,000 tons or more phosphate annually.
Deposits of phosphate, consisting of replacements of dolomitic coralline limestone, and phosphatic guano are reported on several other islands in Oceania, as Baker and Fanning Islands, in Polynesia, and Fais Island, in the West Caroline Islands. It is probable that on other islands there are commercial deposits as yet undiscovered.
Islands in Indian and South Pacific Oceans.--North of Adelaide, in Australia, are pockety deposits of phosphate; they are without regular stratification and are of varying quality. The annual output has been 4,000 to 6,000 tons for several years. In the Otago district, near Clarendon, New Zealand, beds of phosphate 3 to 12 feet thick rest in pockets in limestone. There has been very little if any production.
On Christmas Island (Straits Settlements), which lies in the Indian Ocean 190 miles south of Java, rock carrying 80 per cent. of bone phosphate is quarried and shipped to Australia and Japan. The deposits seem to be irregular, but are estimated to contain several million tons of rock of very high grade. The island belongs to the government of Singapore. Exploitation of the deposits by the British began in 1900. Exports in 1913 were 150,000 tons.
Phosphate rock of high grade is mined on Ocean Island, in the Gilbert Archipelago, between the Marshall and Solomon Islands, east of New Guinea and north of New Zealand. On this and other so-called coral islands in the equatorial belt which for ages have been sea-bird rookeries, leachings from the guano have impregnated the limestone, forming phosphate rock many feet deep. The deposits on this island are said to be many millions of tons and are among the richest in the world. They have been mined since 1901, and have produced as high as 300,000 tons a year. In 1916 the output was 70,000 tons of rock carrying about 85 per cent. tricalcium phosphate. The island is a British possession.
Another British possession in the Gilbert Archipelago containing phosphate rock is Pleasant Island, which is also known as Nauru, or Ngaru, Island. The deposits are similar to those on Ocean and Christmas Islands, being very high in calcium phosphate and low in iron and alumina. Germany formerly owned this island, but it was taken over by the British in 1917.
Makatea, near Tahiti, in the Society Islands, is estimated to contain 10,000,000 tons of very high-grade phosphate rock, irregularly distributed between reefs and pinnacles of dolomite. The deposits were developed as recently as 1910 and yielded more than 300,000 tons before 1917. Some of the rock carries 85 per cent. lime phosphate. The island is a French possession.
RECENT CHANGES AND DEVELOPMENTS
When the World War began, exports of phosphate rock from the United States, ordinarily about 1,000,000 tons a year, were cut off and the annual production of the United States fell from 3,000,000 tons to 1,800,000 tons. There has been a strong recovery in the domestic industry and if labor and transportation conditions improve there should shortly be an annual production of nearly 3,000,000 tons for domestic consumption, or as much phosphate rock for our own use as formerly was produced for ourselves and a large export trade.
It is surmised that northern Africa will yield larger quantities in the future than during the pre-war period. Production in Algeria, Tunis, and Egypt was probably stimulated during the war on account of the large reduction in the quantity of American rock sent to Europe.
Japan doubtless will make a large output from the German deposits in Polynesia which came into her possession at the beginning of the war.
COMMERCIAL CONTROL
Ownership of the phosphate deposits in the United States is largely domestic; some of the Florida hard-rock deposits are owned by French and (before the war) German companies. The German-owned deposits were taken over by the Custodian of Alien-Enemy Property, and have doubtless passed into other hands. The phosphate deposits on Curacao, Dutch West Indies, are worked by the Curacao Phosphate Mining Co., which ships the output to England and Germany. Phosphate deposits in Algeria and Tunis are exploited by French companies. Some of the companies work under lease. La Compagnie des Phosphates de Paris and La Compagnie Algerienne des Phosphates have been mentioned as engaged in these fields. Deposits on the lower Nile and Red Sea are worked by the Egyptian Phosphate Co., a British concern, and by the Societa Egiziana per l’Estrazione de il Commercio dei Phosphati, a company managed by Italians. It is reported that much of the output goes to Japan. The Pacific Phosphate Co., Ltd., of London, operates under concession the phosphate deposits on Ocean and Pleasant islands. Japanese companies are mining phosphate on Rasa and Angaur islands.
POSITION OF LEADING NATIONS
The United States has the largest known deposits of phosphate rock in the world, and, as before the war, can supply the needs of other countries as well as her own. Since mining began about 55,000,000 tons have been mined, or less than 1 per cent. of reserves. Great Britain possesses phosphate in Egypt and on Christmas, Ocean and Pleasant islands, and has imported from the United States and probably from northern Africa. France and the other Mediterranean countries have an ample supply in Algeria and Tunis. Germany formerly possessed rich deposits of phosphate on Angaur Island, in the Pelew group, Polynesia, and on Pleasant and Ocean islands, but so far as known now lacks a source of supply. Japan has a large supply of high-grade phosphate at her disposal on Rasa and Angaur islands.
SUMMARY
The principal use of phosphate rock is as an ingredient of fertilizers. Lesser quantities are consumed in the manufacture of phosphoric acid, in phosphorus used in military operations, in the manufacture of matches, and in metallurgy. Both natural and artificial substitutes are available for many of the uses of phosphate rock.
Phosphate rock is a sedimentary deposit containing phosphate of lime. It occurs as a hard rock between beds of sandstone or shale, as amorphous nodular phosphates in stream deposits, and as a residuum from the decomposition of phosphatic dolomite, limestone, and other phosphate-bearing rocks. The porous limestone of tropical islands, where it is permeated with phosphate leached from guano, is commonly classed as phosphate rock.
The phosphate rock deposits of present commercial importance are situated in the United States, Algeria, Tunis, Egypt, and the islands of the Indian and South Pacific oceans, the United States possessing by far the largest reserves. Smaller deposits, either undeveloped or nearly exhausted, are in Canada, Venezuela, Chile, Belgium, France, Russia, England, Spain, South Australia, and New Zealand.
During the war the exports of phosphate rock from the United States decreased greatly. With the return to normal conditions, however, the United States should experience little difficulty in becoming once more the principal source of phosphate rock.
The principal phosphate-rock deposits are controlled politically by the United States, France (Algeria and Tunis), and Great Britain (Egypt). A number of phosphate-bearing islands in the Pacific Ocean were owned by Germany before the war, but have been seized by Great Britain and Japan.
The commercial control of the deposits of the United States is mainly in the hands of Americans, although German (before the war) and French interests own some of the Florida hard-rock deposits. The deposits of Algeria and Tunis are controlled by French companies. The Egyptian deposits are controlled by two companies, one British and the other Italian.
Germany will be without a source of supply under her own control now that she has lost her colonies.
XXVI. POTASH
BY HOYT S. GALE AND A. W. STOCKETT
NATURE AND USES OF POTASH
The term potash is commonly used to designate any of the salts of the element potassium, particularly those soluble in water, which are largely used in agriculture and manufacturing. The element potassium is widely distributed as a component of rocks, soils, and vegetable and animal substances, but large quantities of potassium salts in forms suitable for the uses of man have been found in only a few places. Ashes of wood, which were formerly the principal source of potash in commerce, now supply an inconsiderable part of the world’s requirements. Since 1860, the principal, in fact almost the only, commercial source of potash salts has been the immense deposits in northern Germany. The crude potassium salts obtained from these deposits by mining operations are used either as fertilizer in the form in which they are taken from the ground, or are purified by crystallization or manufactured into various compounds of potassium needed for both agriculture and other industrial uses.
Use in agriculture as an ingredient of the so-called artificial or chemical fertilizers accounts for 90 per cent. or more of the world’s consumption. Potassium is not only one of the ten or more chemical elements essential to plant life, but of these ten it is one of three that frequently become so lacking in soils that the yield of crops is not profitable. Even if potassium exists in soils, it may be and often is present in some form not readily available for plant use, so that the addition of fresh, readily water-soluble salts of potassium shows prompt reaction in stimulating the growth of the crop. In a general way potash is supposed to supply a necessary plant food, that strengthens the stalk and fills the kernels of the growing plant. Also it is a general belief that some destructive plant diseases, such as blight and rust of cotton and potatoes, are largely favored by improper nutrition as well as by poor physical condition of the soil, for which potash seems to be a specific. Thus the so-called potash industry, by which is meant the mining and marketing of the principal or commonest compounds of potash, is based chiefly on use in agriculture.
The other uses of the salts of potassium are many and diverse. Most of the potassium salts have properties similar to the corresponding salts of sodium, and for most industrial purposes the salts of these two elements may be interchanged, a generalization which does not, however, apply to any extent whatever to the agricultural application of potassium. Some industrial preferences for the potassium salt depend on more favorable physical properties of the potassium over the sodium salt, such as a less tendency of the potassium salt to absorb moisture from the air. Other preferences depend on slight chemical differences, as for instance a somewhat greater solubility, which renders the purification of the potassium salt more easy. During the scarcity and high prices of the wartime period many substitutions have been made, which either directly or by some modification of practice are now proving so satisfactory that they will probably be continued.
One of the most urgent demands for potash has come from the match manufacturers. Potassium chlorate is an important ingredient of most matches, and this use consumes a surprisingly large amount of potash. Certain varieties of glass, especially cut glass tableware (flint glass) and some optical glass, are made from potash, generally in the form known as glass-makers’ carbonate. Most soap is made from soda, but potash (as caustic or hydroxide) is used for some of the finer grades, such as shaving, toilet, and shampoo soaps, especially the liquid forms. Caustic potash has had a considerable use in laundries, and for the scouring or washing of wool. The old form of black powder was made from potash as potassium nitrate or saltpeter; hence the commonly assumed military importance of potash. Black powder, though now largely superseded by modern high-explosive powders, still has a relatively small though nevertheless important application in modern warfare. There are other uses, which, though requiring a small total amount, include some important requirements, among these being the medicinal or pharmaceutical, tannery, dye, photographic, electroplate, and metallurgical needs.
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION
The great deposits of potash in northern Germany underlie an extensive area in the Prussian provinces of Saxony, Hanover, and in the duchies of Anhalt and Brunswick. The most important mining regions lie in an area practically encircling the Harz Mountains, 75 to 150 miles southwest of Berlin, and 100 to 150 miles south to southeast of Hamburg. This area is outlined more exactly on the accompanying index map (Fig. 14).
The field originally opened at Stassfurt has since been explored by deep boring and developed by the sinking of mining shafts, with the result that there has now been outlined an estimated reserve of 20,000,000,000 metric tons of crude potash salts, which at the present rate of the world’s consumption should be sufficient to last almost 2,000 years. Thus for all practical purposes the field may be considered as inexhaustible.
In 1904 another important and extensive deposit of water-soluble potash salts was discovered by boring in the valley of the Rhine River in southern Alsace. Alsace, then in possession of Germany, has now been restored to France. The deposit is in two essentially continuous beds that underlie within accessible depth an area of 70 to 80 square miles of the flat bottom lands of the Rhine Valley. The beds are estimated to contain about 1,500,000,000 metric tons of crude potash salts, which average considerably richer in potash than the output of the north German deposits, and, being of simpler chemical composition, are more readily refined. The mines opening these deposits are readily accessible to water transportation by way of the Rhine River and the canals of the Rhine Valley. The distance to ocean ports is considerably longer than it is from the north German deposits, being about 375 miles, as compared with 150 miles by canal and river boats from the latter, but the amount of handling necessary to transport similar cargoes from the two districts seems to be about the same. The deposit in Alsace lies in an elliptical area centering about 5 miles northwest of the city of Mulhouse.
Some potash has been produced from a deposit in Galicia, near Kalusz, south of Lemberg, from deposits reported to be of a type similar to those of north Germany, but the field has never yielded even enough potash to satisfy the local demand, and is thought not to be large.
During the war relatively small outputs of potash salts were obtained from many independent sources, in the United States, Abyssinia, Tunis, and other countries. Under stress of war necessities and the complete shutting off of other supplies, these outputs in the aggregate formed a considerable amount. Much of the development probably will not be permanent, when strict competition with the potash from more available sources is renewed, but each of these fields and doubtless many others contain the possibilities of development that may give the world situation a new aspect at any time. Chief among the most immediate prospects for important development is a rather extensive field in eastern Spain, near Barcelona. This field has not as yet produced on a commercial scale. One estimate of the reserves in the Spanish field claims a proved area of 13.5 square miles containing 200,000,000 tons of potassium oxide.
The nitrate deposits of Chile contain a small percentage of potash, and this is being recovered separately from the sodium nitrate at several of the refineries. It has been estimated that a total production of 240,000 tons of potassium oxide annually might be derived from this source.
Many different sources in the United States are yielding potash salts. The largest known deposit of soluble potash in fairly concentrated form is at Searles Lake, California. This is a dried saline lake, now represented by a bed of crystalline salts with a large amount of saturated brine rich in potash. The body of salts carrying the brine underlies an area of about 25 square miles and extends to an average depth of 70 feet. It is estimated that the brine alone in this deposit carries nearly 20,000,000 tons of potassium oxide, which would be enough potash to supply the needs of the country for about 60 years at the present normal rate. Numerous small lakes in western Nebraska carry brines exceptionally rich in potash, and these are now yielding a considerable production of potash fertilizer salts. No satisfactory estimate of the reserves in this field is available.
Under present operating conditions about one-third of the annual requirements of the United States is recoverable from the cement mills. About 380,000 short tons of potash, most of which is volatilized, is annually charged into the blast furnaces of the country. The best available estimates indicate that about 30,000 tons of potash have formerly gone to waste in molasses distillery slop, and-about 8,000 tons in Steffens waste water at the beet-sugar refineries of the country. Kelp and alunite are available in quantities sufficient to continue to yield a substantial production. Enormous quantities of leucite lava, carrying 10 per cent. of potash in an insoluble silicate form; greensand carrying 6 to 7 per cent. of insoluble potash; sericite with from 7 to 12 per cent., and feldspar with similar content, are available as raw materials of production if satisfactory commercial processes can be developed. Thus potential supplies of potash in the United States are practically inexhaustible. The future of the American potash industry, therefore, depends on the development of processes or methods of separation economical enough to permit the domestic product to compete with imported potash.
GEOLOGICAL DISTRIBUTION
The potash deposits of northern Germany lie in the midst of a series of formations known as the Zechstein, the geologic age of which is Permian. Both the Alsatian and Spanish deposits are found in Oligocene Tertiary rocks, although the deposits were not necessarily strictly synchronous in origin. The Galician deposits are described as of lower Miocene (Tertiary) age. These are the principal known bedded deposits of potash in the world, for which as a class the distinction as to geologic age seems to have a special significance. The association of potash with the large salt and gypsum deposits of the world seems for some reason to have been exceptional in geologic history. But the determination that these somewhat analogous occurrences have been formed at various times and places is a good basis for expecting that similar deposits may yet be discovered elsewhere.
CHANGES IN COMMERCIAL PRACTICE
Before the war the world’s consumption of potash was practically the measure of the German production, the statistics of which are available in considerable detail. In round numbers, Germany produced about 10,000,000 metric tons of potash salts, averaging about 10 per cent. of K₂O, of which she used more than 60 per cent. at home, and exported about 25 per cent. to the United States. For two years a very small production from Alsace had been lumped with the rest. Shortly after the outbreak of the war the German government placed an embargo on the export of potash, presumably in the hope of thereby injuring crop production of the Allies, and possibly because of the small military significance that it has. The production of potash in Germany was continued, however, at practically the same rate as before the war, the portion formerly exported being distributed for fertilizer use at home. This naturally gave a tremendous stimulus to the efforts of other countries to develop sources of potash. Although no huge natural resources comparable to the already known deposits were discovered, the efforts nevertheless had a reasonable amount of success, so that the world has not suffered in any vital way because of deprivation of potash. The cost of potash in the United States and its Allied countries increased to as much as ten times the pre-war price, but the supply was sufficient to meet all of the most pressing needs. Many possibilities for production from various sources have been opened, for which it is still too soon to predict the final outcome. It appears that a number of these new enterprises have entered the field permanently, although there will necessarily be some uncertainty during the period of reconstruction.
The ceding of Alsace to France, which is discussed in a subsequent paragraph, undoubtedly entails the largest and most significant change in the commercial situation as regards the world market for potash. A possibility of production from the deposits in eastern Spain holds similar although more remote significance.
SOURCES OF PRODUCTION
The output of potash during 1917, summarized by countries according to the best available data, is as follows:
TABLE 65.--WORLD PRODUCTION OF POTASH IN 1917
-------------+--------------------------------+----------+----------- | |Production| Average | | (short |content K₂O Country | Source of data | tons) |(per cent.) -------------+--------------------------------+----------+----------- Germany |Kalisyndikat statistics. | 9,853,171| 11.2 Alsace |(Included under Germany.) | | United States|U. S. Geological Survey. | 126,961| 25.6 India |Rec. Geol. Surv. India, vol. 49,| | |part 2, p. 71. | 23,838| 40.0[155] Tunis |Jour. Soc. Chem. Ind., vol. 37, | | |p. 294 T. | 20,000| 40.0 Galicia |“Kali,” vol. 7, p. 9. | 10,000| 10.0 Russia |War Industrial Comm. of Russia | | |report. | 5,000| Abyssinia |Com. Fertilizer, Jan. 18, 1918, | | |p. 44. | 5,000| ? Japan |Commerce Rept., Dec. 1, 1916, p.| | |830. | 4,000| ? Chile |U. S. imports potassium nitrate.| 1,750| 25.0[155] China |Commerce Rept., Nov. 27, 1918, | | |p. 790. | 1,000| France |Saline-de-Giraud. | 300| Mexico |U. S. imports saltpeter. | 115| 40.0[155] England |Kelp and blast furnace | | |recoveries. | ? | ? Spain | | No production -------------+--------------------------------+---------------------- Total | |10,051,135 -------------+--------------------------------+----------------------
[155] Estimated from data indicated.
POLITICAL AND COMMERCIAL CONTROL
=Germany.=--The potash industry in Germany is reported to have represented an investment of M.500,000,000 ($119,000,000). In 1918 there were 209 mines capable of producing, as indicated by the Kalisyndikat list assigning quotas for anticipated production from the individual mines for the year.
Most of these mines are privately owned under a variety of laws in the several German states and provinces. Originally the developments are said to have taken place under various local regulations; for example, in Hanover the mining rights belonged to the property holders, in Saxony the prospecting rights were free and the mining concessions belonged to the first discoverer of the deposits without regard to the owner of the surface soil, and in Anhalt mining was at first declared to be a state monopoly, which was later contracted to a few private companies. Some properties are, however, owned and operated by the state. The Prussian government owns mines at Stassfurt, Bleicherode, and Vienenburg; the Duchy of Anhalt has large works at Leopoldshall; and the Duchy of Brunswick holds interest in some potash properties.
Two instances of participation by American concerns in the German industry are known. The International Agricultural Corporation, an American company organized in 1909, was for a time the owner of all the capital stock of the Sollstedt Works in Germany. Later, one-half interest in this American corporation was transferred to the Kaliwerke Aschersleben, another German concern, under conditions which seemed to complicate the matter of ownership. The Virginia-Carolina Chemical Co., of Richmond, Virginia, is reported to have purchased a controlling interest in the Einigkeit Works, presumably by a direct cash transaction.
Under a law of the German Reichstag, known as the potash act of the 25th of May, 1884, an obligatory control of the potash industry in Germany was ordained. A common agency, known as the Kalisyndikat, was established, to represent all of the mines, with power to control the opening of new mines, the output of each mine, and the selling prices of potash salts. The industry has thus become a trust re-enforced by the German government, although the private ownership of individual properties remains. This syndicate differs from an American syndicate in that it is formed for a limited period of time, in the present case 5 years, and its working capital is small, only enough to provide for the actual working needs of the organization. The object of the syndicate is to prevent disastrous competition, to insure that the supply will conform to the demand, and that reasonable profits may be obtained by producers.
The mines or works composing the potash syndicate, as with most mining syndicates in Germany, may be either of the limited liability sort, the shares of which are not assessable, or those whose capital stock is divided into shares called “kuxe,” which are assessable at anytime and are of unlimited liability. The shares of both kinds are dealt in on the exchanges in the large cities of Germany.
Each company that is a member of a German syndicate has its representative on the board of management of the trust, and this board fixes the quota of production allowed each mine, and generally administers the affairs of the entire combination under its constitution and by-laws (statuten).[156] The constitution and by-laws must be signed by each concern entering the syndicate and the provisions therein contained strictly observed under penalties enforceable in courts of law.
[156] Abstract from Daily Consular and Trade Reports, No. 265, vol. 4, Nov. 11, 1911, p. 760.
The weak point in this form of organization is the dissension that often arises over the quotas allowed the different members. Each company wants as large an allotment as it can get. Upon the expiration of the life of a syndicate there is always uncertainty as to whether it will be renewed, owing to competition among the various constituent firms.
Before the war, under the terms of the contracts of the five large fertilizer companies with the German potash syndicate, one-half of the maximum discount allowed was deducted from the amount of the invoice covering each shipment, and the remainder was paid to the buyer at the end of each half year, provided he made a statement in writing to the syndicate to the effect that he had purchased his entire requirements of potash from the syndicate. Thus by allowing maximum discounts to the large buyers, and preventing them from dealing in potash from any source except the syndicate, this provision aimed to stifle the development of any competitive sources of supply.
=Alsace.=--The potash deposits of Alsace were developed under the German mining law for Alsace-Lorraine of December 16, 1843, amended July 14, 1908, with specific reference to potash. Since the armistice the German mines have been operated under the sequestration régime, under charge of the French military authorities, directed by the ministry of industrial reconstruction in France. Now that the treaty of peace has been ratified by Germany, Alsace may be regarded as having formally and finally passed into the possession of France, and with this naturally the political and commercial control of the Alsatian potash deposits. It remains therefore for the French Parliament to determine what the final disposition of the former German ownership of these properties shall be, and questions such as nationalization or French-Alsatian control were being discussed in the summer of 1920.
Although most of the concessions in the Alsatian potash field had been granted to German interests, the development was started by Alsatians, and two of the concessions are in French-Alsatian ownership. These have not been and probably will not be altered, unless they are to enter some voluntary combination.
An agency for the sale and distribution of the Alsatian potash has been arranged in the United States, and for the present at least the product is coming in direct competition with the salts from the older German mines.
=Spain.=--The potash deposits recently discovered in the provinces of Barcelona and Lerida, of Cataluña, in eastern Spain, are subject to special regulations of the Spanish government. A large area of concessions already granted to private interests covers a considerable part of the field outlined by exploratory borings. Operations on these concessions are permitted, but the state reserves the right to subordinate the exploitation to the interests of the country, and impose special conditions in favor of the consumption of the potash produced in Spain. Recently, unexplored state lands have been opened, by royal decree, to bids for exploration and lease. The scheme follows in general the plan of governmental control of the German potash industry. According to it, all concessions for the working and sale of salts are subject in many details to governmental control. Among other conditions, working must be continuous save in certain exempted circumstances; the state shall fix annually the home and export prices, as well as the maximum and minimum quota for each mine.
=Other Countries.=--Before the war, the Austrian potash syndicate, which consisted of the Austrian government and a group of capitalists, controlled the deposits near Kalusz, in Galicia. No specific governmental regulation is reported for the minor operations connected with the production of potash in other countries.
SUMMARY
More than 90 per cent. of the potash handled in the world’s commerce is used as a fertilizer. The rest is used as a chemical in various industries, chief among which are the manufacture of matches, certain kinds of glass and soap, and the better grades of black powder. The uses specifically mentioned in this paragraph are essential, as no satisfactory substitutes are known.
Up to 1914 practically all of the potash used in the world came from the deposits in northern Germany, which are substantially inexhaustible. Next in importance are the deposits of Alsace, which contain enough potash to meet the world’s present demands for almost 300 years. Other resources are known in Spain, Galicia, Abyssinia, the nitrate beds of Chile, and in deposits in the United States, but it is too early to predict with assurance what part they will play in the expansion of the potash industry.
Germany will no longer be able to maintain a world monopoly of the potash market. The passing of control of the important resources in Alsace from Germany to France foreshadows competition from recognized adequate sources of supply. There are many other possibilities, the mere potentialities of which are sufficient to restrain any tendency to unreasonable extortion by those who control the German fields. Moreover, attention has been so directed to the desirability of developing independent sources, and so much able technical talent is now being devoted toward bringing successful issue from the many undertakings in progress, that it is very unlikely that this country, or any other, will in the future be dependent on one or two arbitrarily handled monopolies.