The Daily Alaska empire., 1941-02-13
Gold-The Indispensable Metal
(Mining & Industrial News)

tMnlng & ln0uStrlal NeWS)
 Wars are fought with metals And if we are to become the arsenal of democracy" as President Roosevelt states, then the metal mining industry of the II Western states in all of it's divisions becomes of even greater importance to National Defense and to the welfare of the United States.
 At the present time the various strategic metals and minerals attracting great deal of attention Metals listed strategic and of primary importance to effort are tungsten, quicksilver, manganese, platinum, antimony, chrome and tin.
 Throughout the United States the search is on for the purpose of discovering and developing any 1rebodies containing these metals In California, a pecial announcement has been made by the State Division of Mines that investigation is starting n strategic metals for the purpose of locating new eposits and to assist in their development The anne search is being carried on in Arizona Nevada, nd other Western states.
 Quicksilver is of outstanding importance in the yar program. Already the price has touched $200 | flask but has receded somewhat. During the past year more than 20 quicksilver plants have been erected in California, Oregon, Nevada and other quicksilver producing states. From the amount of development that has taken place in quicksilver it evident that quicksilver producers fulfilling heir obligation to the National Defense Program. The United States will not in any way suffer from ack of quicksilver production is steadily increasing
 In point of activity tungsten is probably the second metal in the strategic minerals program in so far development is concerned New deposits have been located in Nevada and California and the search is proceeding Montana and in other Western states.
 There may have been a time when the dredge operator in Western states did not know how and in some instances did not care to recover platinum Now that platinum has been placed on the list of strategic minerals. great is being exercised to be certain that all platinum is recovered and in both bucket-ladder and dragine dredge cleanups sent to the refineres. Alaska has been one of the most important platinum producing areas in the United States and operators are optimistic that suf fcent quantities recoverable to meet the demands of the moment
 Manganese represents a somewhat different prob- lem most of the Western deposits far inspected have been quite low in quantity but excellent in quail ity. Recovery of manganese is going to require very substantial concentration. But with the interest in the problem and the construction of the new Government test station in the Nevada California area added impetus will be given to the recovery of this metal However, Montana will continue to yield substantial supplies of manganese for defense purposes
 Substantial chrome production is being developed in California and Oregon with several possibilities in Montana and several other of the Western states Development and search for this metal is proceeding with indication of satisfactory results.
 While there has been great deal of talk about tin in the United States, far there have not been any real discoveries reported Oregon group has been organized to produce tin near Burns but time will be necessary to determine whether not this will yield any quantity of tin It appears that the strategic minerals program will have to depend largely on tin imports. Some tin has been reported from Nevada and Arizona but the details of this are not yet available
 Production of copper, lead and zinc is proceeding in their usual substantial quantities. Areas produc ing these metals in the Western states very active and there is question of ample supplies for all purposes.
 Indications are that silver production will con- tnue on increasing scale. In addition to the regular silver producers, much silver is recovered as a by-product in the mining of other metals There seems to be no question that the present price of silver will be maintained indefinitely with a poss- bility that future government financial necessity could bring about an increase in price.
 While wars are fought with metals; wars are with gold.
 Civilization has known better standard of value than gold consequently economic struc- ture based ample gold supply has always been the structure that has survived the ravages of war The United States has reserve gold supply of approximately 22000 000OOOOO dollars which is es- tmated to be between 75 and 80 percent of the total supply of monetary gold
 History has proved that the nation with the greatest gold supply is usually the victor in war; therefore it is essential that every effort be made to ada to our present gold supply This be best accomplished by giving the gold operator free hand1 to continue development and production
 One of the essential things to be done is tol exempt gold from the provisions of the present Excess Profits Tax Under practically identical conditions in 1918 and 1921 gold exempted from the Excess Profits Tax during the last war The same conditions which made it advisable to exempt gold then exists now. Gold is fixed price metal there is no pos siblity of war profits. Gold included in the Ex- cess Profits Tax through misunderstanding and it's elimination from the present law will rectify previous mistake and place the gold operator in position to continue production of the greatest sra egic metal of all-gold
 Wars are fought with metals; but wars are WON with gold.