Mohave County miner., 1915-03-27

mineral industry, and no problem better deserves the attention of the American mining engineers than this. How can we fill these gaps and thus make America more truly independent?
 .'The catalogue of the products of our mines, quarries, and wells is long. The list of what we lack is short. We are wholly dependent on other coun- tries for only four principal items-tin and nickel, potash and nitrate. Among the minerals of which the United States has deficient supply are manganese, platinum, gems, and asbestos. Still other minerals it has heretofore been more profitable to buy abroad than to produce at home, such as chrome ore, barytes, flint pebbles, magnesite, mica and graphite.
 "These deficiencies create problems relating to three different types or classes of minerals. In the first class, tin and nickel only seem to present a hopeless outlook; and as matter of fact the whole world is poor in tin. Especially is this scarcity felt in cer- tain of the countries now at war, where the shortage due to cessation of inn ports is intensified by the increased use of tin in canning army supplies. But we can look to South America for tin ore and make its importation fou.da- tion for profitable commerce with Bolivia. For nitrate we can continue to rely upon Chile, but we should de- velop our independence in respect to this mineral by the manufacture of nitrates from atmospheric nitrogen. Opportunities for cheap hydroelectric development will invite capital as soon as Congress will legislate. For potash the outlook is less certain; thus far only one potash-rich brine has been found that of the Searles Lake deposits, in California-where potash occurs in even greater quantity than that at first esti- mated by the Geological Survey, but the problem of its commercial extrac- tion has not yet been fully solved by the chemical engineer.
 "The deficiencies of the second class, like manganese and platinum, are stimulating to the geologist and the en- gineer, the one to discover, the other to develop. The recent find in southern Nevada of rich platinum-bearing gold ore constitutes notable addition to the worlds supply of this too rare metal.
 "The third class of minerals, those which it has paid better to buy from
 foreign producers, probably furnishes the largest incentive for the effort to secure mineralogical independence.
 Here especially can the geologist and engineer cooperate. Magnesite, mica,
 and graphite, for example, are common
 minerals, of which large deposits have
 been found in this country, yet up to
 the present time they have been large
 items of import from Austria, Canada, and India.
 ] "As an encouraging instance of min.
 eralogical independence, you may re- ) call that only about ten years ago this country imported it's sulphur iron } Sicily, whereas now, by reason of tht , work of one engineer, the United States leads the world in the mining O. . sulphur. Can not further success b, expected in the utilization of minera l resources hitherto practically untouch ed?
 5 "The substitution of certain mineral of domestic origin for those bought il , foreign markets will bring us face t, 3 face with the problem of standardiza = tion. Price is not the last word witl ) the manufacturer-cons This is a good time to drop any ideas we ma, have of industrial superiority and t g copy for while the industrial spirit o t Germany, which systematized processe
 and standardized products until the, won markets in every continent b. l sheer superiority.
 , "The outlook for successful endeavo e by the American engineer seems yer S bright.
 cxo,% Goi, S%r;ke in Eor%np, R-o..