Arizona republican., 1916-02-06
Larger Production of Manganese, 1915

Larger Production of Manganese, 1915 The manganese ore and metal indus tries continue to undergo readjuStment ] Ut the impetus given the domestic in- dustry on account of the shortage of 1 foreign ore has not brought forth the 1 production that had been expected. 1 Important exploratory work and prep arations for milling have been carried 1 out at several mines in Virginia Ten nessee. Colorado and California, but | except in the case of one mine this has not vet resulted in production. A close ! estimate of the production in the l United States for 1915 cannot be made 1 but it is very doubtful that it exceed eG 6.000 tons as compared with 2,635 tons produced in 1914. according to D. 1 r. Hewctt. of the United States geo. I logical survey. The shortage of ore ! is indicated by the rise in domestic rices. During 1915 ore containing 50 per cent manganese and adapted to 1 making ferromanganeSe has sold as high as s22.50 per ton, which compares | with SIP per ton. the price paid a few months before the war began. The shortage in high grade ores for use in the manufacture of flint glass and dry batteries has been keenly felt and sev- eral dry battery plants have been | forced to close down. One producer in San Miguel county, Colorado. re- ports the sale of small tonnage of ore containing so per cent manganese di- CXide and less than one per cent il on. at s65 ton f. O b. at point of ship ment.
 One consequence of the war has been the great change in the sources of i'm
 ports into the United States. For the
 three years prior to 1915, India sup piled slightly more than one-third the imported tonnage which averaged 309.- 6S2 tons a year, while Russia and Bra gil supplied about equal parts of the
 remainder. During the first ten
 months of 1915. Brazil supplied IS1,25S tons out of the total of 192,2S6 tons inn ported The receipts from India were a bout one-twelfth normal and from Russia, negligible. In other words. re-
 coipts from Brazil were more than
 twice the average for the three preced-
 ing years and partly made up for the
 failure of supplies from Russia and
 India. The most recent information up to June, 1915. shows that although the
 Indian mines are being operated, the production is about one-fourth that Of
 the preceding year.
 | Even under normal conditions in the United States, about one-half of the supply of fcIromanganese is imported
 and the other half is manufactured largely from imported ores. The re- strictions placed by England upon the
 exports of ferromanganese greatly re-
 duced the imports for the first six
 months of 1915. although they were normal during the next three months.
 TOT the first nine months of 1915 the imports were 4OS63 tons compared with G. 333 tons for the same period of 1914 and 99752 tons for the same period of 1913. This shortage has forced tW ) important steel producers, Jones x
 Loughin Steel Co. of PittsburS, Pa, and Maryland Steel Co., of Sparrows Point Md, to devote furnaces to the manufacture of ferromanganese This
 is noteworthy because most of the do
 
 been made by two subsidiaries of the United States Steel Corporation, al
 though several more firms have occa- sionally contributed. During the year the price of ferromanganese has almost steadily risen from $70 a ton in Janu- arv to S115 a ton in December. Small lots are reported to have been sold at S12c ton in December
 Although the activity of several mines may enable the production of 1915 to be trebled or quadrupled in l 1916, there is little prospect that do- nestle deposits will make more i'm lportant contributions of ore. Manufac turers of ferromanganese, as we'll as of l dry batteries and flint glass. must con- tinue to look to foreign countries for most of their ore supplies. Unless i'm portant new sources of ore are found. there is little prospect for reduction of l Lrices of ores and ferromanSanese to | the average of previous years until the end of the European war. Efforts are being made to conserve during refin- ing the manganese contained in raw pig iron, thereby reducing the amount of ferromanganese that must be added tc make steel. If these efforts are sue cessful. they will mark an important advance in steel metalurgy
 The Radium Output
 WASHINGTON. Jan. 30.-More than $9,0OO,0 900 a pound would be the price (