The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1917-08-30
Manganese SHORTAGE
4 SERIOUS SITUATION
EFFORTS MADE BOTH EAST AND
WEST TO INCREASE THE
PRODUCTION.
mining and Scientific press:.)

To-Day can sell II, that Is one metal
that does not have to pass through
the guarded gateway Of a trust" to
reach a market. The extraordinary
demand for manganese In the manu-
facture Of open-hearth steel, and the
curtailment of available foreign re-
sources, has led to crisis. The de-
tails Of the situation are presented
elsewhere in this issue. The imports
Of ferrO- manganese have declined from
an average of 1877 tons monthly in
1916 to PIT tons in June. while our
domestic output during the same per-
iod has shown an Insignificant in
crease from 1S,461 to 21,041 tons per
month. The average monthly home
production for the first half of this
year has been 1889 tons and the
average imports 1915. At the end of
June total monthly tonnage Of slight
ly less than $4,000 tons seemed to be
established. whereas the requirements
of the steel industry amounted to 49,
900 tons. The shortage is SO serious
that the alloy committee of the council
OF national defense has issued warn
ing to the steel makers to adopt every
possible means for recovery Of man.
ganese by the re-smelting of slags, and
the substitution Of spiegeleisen as far
as practicable also has been suggest
led. The problem, as stated by our
correspondent, is to produce a spiegel-
eisen of low carbon content. Such
an alloy has not yet been produced
In the blast furnace. and 1t Is doubt
full whether 1t can be done in the
electric furnace. Could this be accom-
plished then a great quantity of man.
ganese ores relatively high in iron
could be utilized. In making ferro-
manganese the reducing conditions in
the furnace are maintained by the
use of carbon, part of the carbon
being absorbed and tenaciously held
as manganese carbon alloy. It Is
possible, when starting with an ore
containing about 4S per cent manga
nese, to hold the carbon content close
to 4 per cent, and with that amount
present over- carburization of the steel
is avoided, but spiegelseisen contains
about the same quantity of carbon,
and the ratio of manganese to carbon
therefore is nearly double the guam
tity that can be tolerated. The pro-
portion of manganese to the melt in
the open hearth furnace cannot be re-
duced, else there would not be enough
to serve the purpose of "scavenger'
through its reducing effect upon the
miscellaneous oxides in the iron that
Is being converted into steel. If q
reducing agent other than carbon
could be found for making low-man
ganese ferro- alloy in the electric fur
mace satisfactory solution of the diff
flculty might be reached, but the only
metals more greedy. for oxygen than
manganese, that would be completely
eliminated as Stag or by volatilization,
are too scarce and too costly There
fore the outlook for making a low
manganese alloy from high-iron man.
ganese ore is not encouraging The
present method of utilizing ores of
this class is to mix them with those
that are quite rich in manganese. In
this way the proper proportions can
be obtained. This suggests the pos
sibilities Of concentration. In many
places the common wet methods of
concentration have been successfully
applied. The log-washer has been
used in the Atlantic states and Jig
ging also has been employed. with
considerable success. Magnetic sep
aration has long been used in the con-
eentration of franklinite, and it may
have been applied elsewhere. 1t
would seem to offer an opportunity
for helping to provide an increased
output of desirable manganese ores
from number of relatively low-grade
deposits. II would be easy to deter
mine experimentally with large
average sample from any particular
deposit precisely what amount Of mer-
charitable manganese concentrate
could be recovered. The minerals
highest in iron would be removable by
developing magnetic field of low in
tensity, and subsequent concentration
by fields of greater Intensity would |
give products of decreasing iron con-
tent with a correspondingly higher
of manganese. Such plants
Of course would not be practicable
without having large quantities of ore
developed, but we have reason to be-
ieve that suitable deposits exist, both
in eastern and western states. For
the construction of mangnetic
'eparators is relatively simple, so that,
t would not be necessary to await the
delivery Of machines from manufact-
lrers. Greater delay would probably
De experienced in securing the needed
rushing and sizing equipment. with
10 per cent ore selling at 30 cents per {
init, or $40.32 per longs ton, f. O. b.
chicago. or Pittsburgh, 1t is evident !
hat an ore with concentration ratio
IS low as Al should ,prove profitable s
n almost any part of the country. \
While the chief demand originates in ,
he east 1t must not be overlooked
hat IA open hearth convertors are now s
Nt.<x. -. Il.