Weekly journal-miner., 1917-12-19
MINES
 DOES ITS BIT / IN THE WAR
DISCOVERIES OF MINER AIS HAVE ADDED MUCH STR E NGTH TO T H E MILITARY ARM OF THE GOVERNMENT.


 of world war, is awakening to new
 commercial possibilities in the way of
 new industries that will buy their raw materials in this country instead of importing them as in the past, add ing thousands of men to the payrolls and keeping millions of dollars here,
 according 10 the annual report of
 Van II. Manning, director of the Bureau of Mines, Department of the 1 Interior, issued today. The report i discloses the extent the military au-
 thorities have to depend in modern
 warfare upon the mineral industry
 and indicates in a cautious way the part being taken by the Bureau of
 Mines in obtaining sufficient sup
 ply of mineral essentials from Amer ican mines and American metallurgi-
 cal plants.
 Experts from the bureau have
 searched the country far and wide
 for the metals that would add
 strength to the military arm of Un-
 clc Sam and have reported in most in stances not only an abundance of these materials but have added that
 these same metals, employed also in
 peaceful industry, can be used to
 build up permanent industries Tn the United States, perhaps destroying for
 all time the dependence of the Unit
 ed States upon foreign countries for
 necessary raw materials. These new industries have already shown such
 growth as to add materially to the ! American output and to bring about
 a diminishing importation of raw ma tcrials. This condition, according to
 Bureau of Mines officials, is cquival-
 cnt of the production of new tonnage for the use of the United States, as
 many vessels now bringing in raw materials from foreign countries can
 be used for more pressing war pur~
 poses.
 It may seem paradoxical that the Bureau of Mines, created originally
 for saving life in the mines, becomes
 in war time an active aid in the prose
 cution of the military aims of the
 United States, but here arc some ot
 the illustrations:
 I The bureau, cooperating with the
 War Department, sent C. l.. Parsons, chief chemist, to Europe to invcsti- gate processes used there in the man ufacturc of nitratcs, necessary in , large quantities in war time in the making of explosives, and also used :, for fertilizer. His report and rccom- mcndation were adopted in substance by the committee on nitrate supply, and large plant for the production of nitric acid for war purposes and ammonia for agricultural purposes is . in process of erection. If this plant
 does what the experts hope it will do, all of the nitrates needed by the | United States, even in peace times, will ultimately be made here, and II l will no longer be necessary to depend l upon Chile with the constant fear that in times of war the supply may be
 cut off by hostile fleet. Even ii in ' peace times the plant is not able to compete with Chile as source Of nitric acid itself, it can do so in fer tilizcr material and this country will 7 have the security that in war time the , nitratcs can be made here.
 With the present sharp decrease ill
 available ship tonnage and the partial shutting down in shipments from Spain of iron pyritcs used in the
 manufacture of suIphuric acid, the ' Bureau of Mines was called upon to l find inc most available pyritc re- |, sources in the United States. The y experts have now located number = of promising pyritc mines and steps ;, have been taken to ensure full do c meStic supply of raw material for
 ihe making of sulphuric acid, which n i> absolutely vital in war time It is y stated by the bureaus experts that r, an American industry supplied cn- - iircly by American raw material may q be the permanent outcome. Man l. gaucsc, used for the production ot Il nigh grade steel. Is another valuable d reace and war mineral that the bu e rcau has been cndcavoring to find ii c great quantities in this country, thC r. steel industry being at present de Is pendent on Brazil for this ore. I
 las taken quite a fleet of Sorcly-nccd c cd vessels 10 bring this orc to tht IS United States. w. (. Phalcn, min l. cral tcchnologist of the bureau. ha n already visited the chief manganese, n producing divisions of the country