The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1916-02-24


IfestIng itself In lessened demands for
export. From this point there was a
sharp recovery and. with increased de-
mands from abroad, the price rose to
the unprecedented figure Of 26.5 cents
per pound early in June, 1915, only to
recede to IL cents per pound by the
middle of August.
There are no published prices of
high grade spelter. so much In demand
for the manufacture of munitions, but
1t ordinarily commands about cents
premium over the ordinary or prime
western grade. Under the stimulus of
the war demand, however, 1t has
brought extremely high prices, at one
time being sold at 40 cents per pound
while common spelter was rs or rs
cents per pound. There is now bet
ter supply of this grade available,
through double distillation and other
refining, and also through a slight low
ering of the requirements, 50 that the
premium now Is much more moderate.
The price at Waterbury, Conn, of
the special grade for brass through
1914 averaged 2.3 cents per pound
above prime western spelter at New
York. The differential during the per-
iod from February to September, in
elusive, 1916, has ranged from cents
to nearly cents, averaging 3.42 cents
per pound.
The price of sheet zinc so largely in |
demand for Europe, has followed In
much accumulated way the general
course of the price of spelter. Through |
1914 sheet zinc was worth about 26
cents per pound more than ordinary
grade of spelter. During the first eight !
months of 1915 sheet zinc has ranged |
from rs cents to S76 cents, and has
averaged 3.6 cents per pound above
prime western spelter.
Zinc dust has commanded a high |
price in the United States during the |
war for just the opposite reason that |
spelter has. Prior to the war most of
the zinc dust used in this country was |
imported from Germany and Belgium |
After the war began it was some time
before the American smelters arrang-
ed to take care of the local market, |
and in the meantime the price went |
very high. During the first half of |
1914 zinc dust ranged from 575 to |
cents per pound. At the outbreak of
the war zinc dust rose to 10 cents, but |
with the increase of production in Am
erica it dropped again to cents at the !
close of the year. In March, 1915, the
price of zinc dust began to go up and |
in the first two weeks of June more |
than doubled, rising from II to 40
cents There was decline of a few |
cents but by the last week of July the
price had settled back to SO to 40 cents
per pound, at which it has since re-
manned.
War Reports of Zinc.
The following tables of exports of
zinc and zinc manufactures, repeating
in part tables given elsewhere in this
report but including figures later than
the year to which this report pertains,
are segregated here to show the eff
feet Of the war ON the zinc industry.
The tables arranged by month per-
iods, including as they do one period
before the war began and the two per-
iods since the beginning of the war,
show very well the exports of zinc in
munitions and zinc for manufacture
into munitions abroad. The exports
of spelter and sheet zinc rose from less
than 1000 tons in the period before the
war to about 10000 tons in each period |
since the war began. In some of the |
exports, like cartridges and manufac-
lures of zine and brass, the actual |
weights of the zinc contained Is not |
known, hence values can only be Civ !
en-. The total value of exports of zinc
and articles containing zinc rose rom
100000 in the first period to $1,000
600 in the second period and to $44,-
600, 600 In the third period
ed States by six month periods, 1914-19