Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1925-01-30
AMERICANS SECURE
MANGANESE MINES
Supply of Rare Earth in Rus.
sian Georgia Essential
in Steel Making.

From Paris it is announced that
United States firm has won the con-
cession for the Tchiaturi manganese
mines, biggest in the world, so Amer
lea can shave in the morning with
steady, untroubled hand.
There is very intimate connec-
tion between Tchiaturi deep in an
arid ravine under the Caucasus snow
peaks, and the cutting edge of the
daily razor" says a bulletin OF the
National Geographic Society from its
headquarters at Washington.
'Razors are steel. Steel is iron.
But steel also is carbon and silicon
and sulphur and phosphorus and
manganese; for steel is an alloy just
as surely as bronze and aluminium are
alloys. Gary and Bethlehem and
Pittsburgh can get iron from MIN
nesota and most of the seasoning
for their steel in the United states
but they must so abroad for much
OF their manganese
Comes From Georgia.
Georgia, not the United states
Commonwealth, but the Soviet re-
nublic which is federated with Rus-
STA, lies along the southern Slopes
of the giant Caucasus Mountains
which cut 1t off from Russia like the
Pvrenees cut off Spain from France.
OH is Georgia's chief mineral re
source and manganese Is second On
at Raku. on the Caspian Sea, dld
much to build the Transcaucaslah
railroad from Baku to Batum' on the
Black Sea, back in the SOS, but man
canese found use for 1t first
"A few miles west Of Tif1is. wnlch IL
the capital of Georgia, a narrow gauge
branch railroad now winds through 'he
I'LL
minal. IS miles from the main line. Is
Tchiaturi which is about 100 miles
from the ports Of Batum or Poti. Rouno
about Tchiaturi are next to the largest
known rich deposits Of the rare earh
called manganese ore. Although Liis
region is supposed to have 2eo' ooo,ooo
TONS awaiting the pick. Brazil is said TO
have mountain of it, but this partlcu
lar Brazilian deposit ia so far iniaho
that its exploitation is impractcaoie DIT
present.
workers Are Natives.
,'Before scientists discovered that
manganese would facilitate the process
of making steel. and before they fouho
that a certain per cent MADE steer won
derfullv hard, the Tchiaturi mountain
district was inhabited by a few scattered
berders. In prosperous times 1000
miners now work the hills. A herder OF
sheep knows little about mining so al
hrs.t Italian miners were imported 10
work the strata But the mining IS easy
and comparatively safe, 50 the Georsians
soon caught on. and now the great ma
jorty OF workmen are natives.
Before the World War much was
done to maintain good living conditions
for tho miners. Homes were built for
them, together with an institution for
hot baths, so dear to the Georgian heart.
Electricity came into the mountains Tor
the mines and the villages. Manganese
even brought theater to Tchiaturi.
when the branch railroad reached
the deposits there was great re)olc-
ing because previously all ore had to
be taken over perilous mountain
paths 25 miles to the main line. Sell
dom more than a ton could be car
ried by bullock cart at one time. The
old Russian government built the
branch line, but freight charges were
so high, it is said, that they paid the
railroads cost in two years.
India Passes Georgia.
Up to the time OF the World War
Georgia led the world in production
of manganese except for periods Of
depression in 1907 and 1908. Then it's
rival. India, passed 1t. Closing of the
Bosporus in 1914 practically sealed
the Georgian mines.
THE United States has always i'm
ported manganese heavily from Brazil,
where the mines are in Minas Geraes,
about 900 miles northwest from Rio
de Janeiro. During the war America
developed her own manganese re-
sources and is using them today to
some extent. The principal steel pro-
ducing countries have in the past
each drawn their chief manganese
supplies from a different source; Ger
many from Georgia, England from
India, where it is found in the Presi-
dency of Madras and in central India,
and the United States from Brazil,
Montana, the Blue Ridge Mountains
Of Virginia. Arkansas Colorado and
our own State of Georgia are the
sources within the United States.
Many radio fans also rely on man
ganese. Grades of ore coming chiefly
from Philipsburg. Mont, are import
ant constituents of the dry cell or
dry battery"
;aI