User:Jengod/Mining and minerals in the United States

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)

The study of mining and minerals in the United States are important to understanding the U.S., a country always rich in natural resources.

History of mining and minerals in the U.S.

In 1619 the erection of works for smelting the ores of iron was begun at Falling Creek, near Jamestown, Virginia, and iron appears to have been made in 1620; but the enterprise was stopped by a general massacre of the settlers in that region. In 1643 the business of smelting and manufacturing iron was begun at Lynn, Massachusetts, where it was successfully carried on, at least up to 1671, furnishing most of the iron used in the colony.

From the middle of the 17th century the smelting of this metal began to be of importance in Massachusetts Bay and vicinity, and by the close of the century there had been a large number of ironworks established in that colony, which, for a century after its settlement, was the chief seat of the iron manufacture in America, bog ores, taken from the bottom of the ponds, being chiefly used. Early in the 18th century the industry began to extend over New England and into New Jersey, the German bloomery forge being employed for reducing the ore directly to bar iron, and by the middle of that century it had taken a pretty firm hold in the Atlantic colonies. About 1789 there were 14 furnaces and 34 forges in operation in Pennsylvania. Before the separation of the colonies from the mother country, the manufacture of iron had been extended through all of them, with the possible exception of Georgia. As early as 1718 iron (both pig and bar) began to be sent to Great Britain, the only country to which the export was permitted, the annual amount between 1730 and 1775 varying ordinarily between 2000 and 3000 tons, but in one year (1771) rising to between 7000 and 8000 tons.

The first metal other than iron mined by whites within the territory of the United States was lead, the discovery of which on the American continent was recorded in 1621. The first English settlers on the Atlantic bartered lead of domestic origin with the Indians in the 17th century, and so did the French in the upper Mississippi Valley. The ore of the metal occurring in the Mississippi basin is scattered widely and in large quantities, and being easily smelted by the roughest possible methods was much used at an early date. In the second half of the 18th century, during the period of French and Spanish domination in the valley, lead was a common medium of exchange, but no real mining development took place. Copper was the next metal to be mined, so far as is known. The first company began work about 1709, at Simsbury, Connecticut. The ore obtained there and in New Jersey seems to have been mostly shipped to England. A few years later attempts were made to work mines of lead and cobalt in Connecticut and Massachusetts.

The first mining excitement of the United States dates back to the discovery of gold by the whites in the Southern states, along the eastern border of the Appalachian range, in Virginia, and in North and South Carolina. The existence ~of gold in that region had been long known to the aboriginal inhabitants, but no attention was paid to this by the whites, until about the beginning of the soth renf,irv, when n,ipvpts were found, one of which weighed 28 lb.

From 1824 the search for gold continued, and by 1829 the business had become important, and was attended with no little excitement. In 1833 and 1834 the amount annually obtained had risen to fully a million of dollars. A rapid development of the lead mines of the West, both in Missouri and on the Upper Mississippi in the region where Iowa, Wisconsin and Illinois adjoin one another, took place during the first quarter of the I9th century, and as early as 1826 or 1827 the amount of this metal obtained had risen to nearly 10,000 tons a year. By this time the making of iron had also become important, the production for 1828 being estimated at 130,000 tons.

In 1820 the first cargo of anthracite coal was shipped to Philadelphia. From 1830 the increase in the production was very rapid, and in 1841 the annual shipments from the Pennsylvania anthracite region had nearly reached 1,000,000 tons, the output of iron at that time being estimated at about 300,000 tons. The development of the coal and iron interests, and the increasing importance of the gold product of the Appalachian auriferous belt, and also of the lead product of the Mississippi Valley, led to a more general and decided interest in geology and mining; and about 1830 geological surveys of several of the Atlantic states were begun, and more systematic explorations for the ores of the metals, as well as for coal, were carried on over all parts of the country then open to settlement. An important step was taken in 1844, when a cession of the region on the south shore of Lake Superior was obtained from the Chippewa Indians. Here explorations for copper immediately began, and for the first time in the United States the business of mining for the metals began to be developed on an extensive scale, with suitable appliances, and with financial success. An event of still greater importance took place almost immediately after the value of the copper region in question had been fully ascertained. This was the demonstration of the fact that gold existed in large quantities along the western slope of the Sierra Nevada of California. In five years from the discovery of gold at Coloma on the American river, the yield from the auriferous belt of the Sierra Nevada had risen to an amount estimated at between sixty-five and seventy millions of dollars a year, or five times as much as the total production of this metal throughout the world at the beginning of the century.

The following details show the development of the mineral resources of the country at the middle of the 19th century. In 1850

the shipments of anthracite amounted to nearly 3,500,000 ~ L1~ tons; those of Cumberland or semi-bituminous coal were Industries about 200,000 tons. The yearly production of pig iron a ou had risen to between 500,000 and 600,ooo tons. The annual yield of gold in the Appalachian belt had fallen off to about $500,000 in value, that of California had risen to $36,000,000, and was rapidly approaching the epoch of its culmination (1851I 853). No silver was obtained in the country, except what was separated from the native gold, that mined in California containing usually from 8 to 10 % of the less valuable metal. The ore of mercury had been discovered in California before the epoch of the gold excitement, and was being extensively worked, the yield in the year 1850-1851 being nearly 2,000,000 lb. At this time the copper mines of Lake Superior were being successfully developed, and nearly 6oo tons of metallic copper were produced in 1850. At many points in the Appalachian belt attempts had been made to work mines of copper and lead, but with no considerable success, About the middle of the century extensive works were erected at Newark, New Jersey, fo1~ the manufacture of the oxide of zinc for paint; about 1100 tons were produced in 1852. The extent and value of the deposits of zinc ore in the Saucon Valley, Pennsylvania, had also just become known in 1850. The lead production of the Missouri mines had for some years been nearly stationary, or had declined slightly from its former importance; while that of the upper Mississippi region, which in the years just previous to 1850 had risen to from 20,000 to 25,000 tons a year, was declining, having in 1850 sunk to less than 18,000 tons.

At the end of the century, in only fifty years, the United States had secured an easy first place among the mineral-producing countries of the world. It held primacy, with a large margin, in the yield of coal, iron, lead and copper, the minerals most important in manufactures; in gold its output ini~usifrIcs was second only to that ,of South Africa (though practically equalled by that of Australia); and in silver to that of Mexico. Although the data are in general incomplete upon which might be based a comparison of the relative standing of different countries in the production of minerals of lesser importance than those just mentioned, it was estimated by M. G. Mulhall (Industries and Wealth of Nations, edition of 1896, pp. 3435) that Great Britain then produced approximately one-third, the United States one-third, and all other countries collectively one-third of the minerals of the world in weight.

The leading products, as reported by the Geological Survey for 1907, were as follows: coal, $614,798,898 (85,604,312 tons of anthracite coal, 394.759,112 of bituminous); petroleum, $120,106,749; natural gas, ~54,222,399; iron ore, $131,996,147 (pig iron, $529,958,000); copper, refined, $173,799,300; gold, coinage value, $90,435,700; buii~..ing-stone, $71,105,805; silver, commercial value, ~272OO,700: lean. reftn~I ~2~1o7.co6~ and zinc. r~6ned. ~,6 AOl OlO

The North Atlantic and the North Central census groups of states (that is, the territory east of the Mississippi and north of the Ohio rivers, and north of Maryland) produced two-thirds of the total output. Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, West Virginia, California, Colorado, Montana, Michigan, New York and Missouri were the ten states of greatest absolute production in 1907. The rank relative to area or population is of course different. Those which, according to the bureau of the census, produced $1000 or over per sq. m. in 1902 were Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia; $500 to $1000, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Vermont and Massachusetts. Seventeen states produced from $ioo to $500 per sq. m.

The total mineral output for the decade 1899-1908 according to the United States Geological Survey was as follows:

Value of Value of Year. Total Value Non-metallic Metallic of Products. Products. Products.

1908 1,595,670,186 1,045,497,070 549,923,116

1907 2,071,607,964 1,167,705,720 9c~,8o2,244

1906 1,902,517,565 1,016,206,709 886,110,856

1905 1,623,928,720 921,075,619 702,453,101

1904 1,361,067,554 859,383,604 501,099,950

1903 1,491,928,980 793,962,609 624,3 i8,008

1902 1,323,102,717 617,251,154 642,258,584

1901 1,141,972 309 567,318,592 518,266,259

1900 1,107,020,352 512,195,262 550,425,286

1899 1,014,355,705 446,090,251 525,472,981

The vastly greater part of mineral products are used in manufactures within the United States, and only an insignificant part (for example, 247 % in 1902) is exported in the crude form.

Coal exists in the United States in large quantity in each of its important varieties: anthracite, or hard coal; bituminous, or soft coal; and lignite; and in various intermediate and c al special grades. Geologically the anthracite and bituminous coals mainly belong to the same formation, the Carboniferous, and this is especially true of the better qualities; though it is stated by the United States Geological Survey that the geQlogic age of the coal beds ranges from Carboniferous in the Appalachian and Mississippi Valley provinces to Miocene (Tertiary) on the Pacific coast, and that the quality of the coal varies only to a very uncertain degree with the geologic age. The following estimates rest upon the same authority: (I) total area underlaid by coal measures, 496,776 sq. m., of which 250,531 are credited to anthracite and bituminous, 97,636 to sub-bituminous and 148,609 to lignite; (2) total original coal supply of the country, 3,076,204,000,000 short tons, including 21,000,000,000 tons of anthracite in Pennsylvania, and small amounts elsewhere (semi-anthracite and semi-bituminous), 650,157,000,000 tons of sub-bituminous and 743,590,000,000 tons of lignite; (3) easily accessible coal still available, 1,992,979,000,000 tons; (4) available coal accessible with difficulty, f,153,225,000,000 tons.

The total production of coal from 1814 (the year in which anthracite was first mined in Pennsylvania) to 1908 amounted to 7,280,940,265 tons, which represented an exhaustionadding 50 % for waste in mining and preparationof 11,870,049,900, or four-tenths of I % of the supposed original supply.

In 1820 the total production was only 3450 tons In 1850 it was already more than 7,000,000. And since then, while the population increased 230% from 1850 to 1900, the production of coal increased 4,084 %. At the same time that the per capita consumption thus rose in 1907 to 5~6 tons, the waste was estimated by the National Conservation Commission at 3~0 tons per capita. This waste, however, is decreasing, the coal abandoned in the mine having averaged, in the beginning of mining, two or three times the amount taken out; and the chief part of the remaining waste is in imperfect combustion in furnaces and fire-boxes. Thus, notwithstanding the fact that the supposed supply still available at the close of 1908 was 7369 times the production of that year, and 4913 times the exhaustion such production represented, so extraordinary has been the increased consumption of the country that, in the opinion of the Geological Survey (1907), if the rate of increase that has held for the last fifty years is maintained, the supply of easily available coal will be exhausted before the middle of the next century (A.o. 2050).

In 1870 both Great Britain and Germany exceeded the United States in the production of coal. Germany was passed in 1871

(definitively in 1877); Great Britain in 1899. Since 1901 the United States has produced more than one-third of the worlds output.

Coal was produced in 1908 in 30 states out of the 46 of the Union; and occurs also in enormous quantities in Alaska; 690,438 men were employed in this year in the coal mines. Pennsylvania (117,179,527 tons of bituminous and 83,268,754 of anthracite), Illinois (47,659,690), West Virginia (41,897,843), Ohio (26,270,639), Indiana (12,314,890) and Alabama (11,604,593) were the states of greatest production. The production of each was greater still in 1907.

The total oiitnijt amounted to zLIc.8a2.6o2 short tons, valued at $532 3 i4,1 17 in 1908 and to 480,363,424t0ns, valued at $614,798,898 in 1909 Pennsylvania produced three-fourths of the total output of the country in 1860, and since 1900 slightly less than one-half. Up to 1870 there was more anthracite mined in Pennsylvania than bituminous in the whole country, but since that year the production of the latter has become vastly the greater, the totals in 1907, in which year each stood at its maximum, being 83,268,754 and 332,573,944 tons respectively.

Inasmuch as the present production is not considered locally and with more or less justiceas at all indicative of the wealth in coal of the respective states, it may be said that according to estimates of the Geological Survey the following states are credited with the deposits indicated of true bituminous coal, including local admixtures of anthracite, the figures being millions of short tons:

Colorado, 296,272; Illinois, 240,000; \Vest Virginia, 231,000; Utah, 196,408; Pennsylvania, 112,574; Kentucky, 104,028; OhiO, 86,028; Alabama, 68,903; Indiana, 44,169; Missouri, 40,ooo; New Mexico, 30,805, Tennessee, 25,665; Virginia. 21,600; Michigan, 12,000; ~Iaryland, 8,044; Texas, 8,000; Kansas, 7,022; and Montana, 5,000; with lesser deposits in other states. At the same time there are estimated deposits of sub-bituminous coal, isolated or mixed with bituminous, amounting to 75,498 millions of tons in Colorado (which is probably the richest coal area of the country); and in other states as follows: Wyoming, 423,952 millions of tons; New Mexico, I3,975; Washington, 20,000; Montana, 18,560; California and Oregon, 1000 each; and lesser amounts elsewhere. Finally, of true lignite beds, or of lignite mix d with sub-bituminous qualities, the states of North Dakota, Montana, Texas and South Dakota are credited with deposits of 500,000; 279,500; 23,000; and 10,000 millions of tons respectively. But it is to be remembered that the amount and the fuel value of both the lignite and, to a lesser degree, the sub-bituminjus coals, is uncertain to a high degree.

Petroleum, according to the report of the National Conservation Commission in 1908, was then the sixth largest contributor to the Petrol nations mineral wealth, furnishing about one-sixteenth eum. of the total. Oil was produced in 1908 in sixteen states. , This productive area is divided by the United States Geological Survey into six fields (in addition to some scattering states) with reference to the quality of oil that they produce, such quality determining their uses. The Appalachian field (Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, West Virginia and Tennessee) produces oil rich in paraffin, practically free from sulphur and asphalt, and yielding the largest percentage of gasoline and illuminating oils. This is the highest grade crude oil produced in the world. The California field produces oil characterized by much asphalt and little or no paraffin, and low in volatile constituents. The Lima (Ohio)-Indiana, the Illinois, the Mid-Continent (Kansas, Oklahoma and northern Texas) and the Gulf (Texas and Louisiana) fields produce oils containing more or less of sulphur and asphalt between the extremes of the two other fields just mentioned. The geological conditions of the different fields, and the details of the composition of the oils yielded, are exceedingly varied, and their study has been little more than begun In 1859 when the total output of the country is supposed to have been only 2000 barrels of oil, production was confined to Pennsylvania and New York. Ohio, West Virginia and California appeared as producers in 1876, Kentucky and Tennessee in 1883, Colorado in 1887. Indiana in 1889, along with Illinois, Kansas, Texas and Missouri, Oklahoma in 1891, Wyoming in 1894, and, lastly, Louisiana in 1902. From 1859 to 1876 the Appalachian field yielded IoO% of the total output of the country; in 1908 its share had fallen to 13.9%. Ia the same period of 50 years the yearly output rose from 2000 to 179,572,479 barrels (134,717,580 in 1905) and to a grand total of 1,986,180,942 barrels, worth $1,784,583,943, or more than half the value of all the gold, and more than the commercial value of all the silver produced in the country since 1792. The production in 1908 exceeded in value the output of both metals. Deducing from the figures of production since 1859 an equation of increase, one finds that in each nine years as much oil has been produced as in all preceding years together, and in recent years the factor of increase has been higher. So rapid has been the extension of the yielding areas, so diverse the fate of many fields, so shifting their relative rank in output, that the otitlook from year to year as regards all these elements is too uncertain to admit of definite statements respecting the relative importance of the five fields already mentioned The total output of these, it may be stated, from 1901 to 1908uniting the yield of the Illinois to the Lima-Indiana field (since their statistics were long so united, until their industrial differences became apparent), and adding a sixth division for the production of scattered areas of productionwas as follows:

Appalachian, 235,999,859; Lima-Indiana-Illinois, 219,609,347; Mid- Continent, 136,148,892; Gulf, 159,520,306; California, 27,931,687; and others, 3,367,666; the leading producers in 1907-1908 being the Mid-Continent and the California areas.

The worlds output of oil was trebled between 1885 and 1895, and quadrupled between 1885 and 1900. In this increase the United States had the largest share. So recently as 1902 the output of the United States was little greater than that of Kussia (the two yielding 91.4% of the worlds product), but this advantage has since then been greatly increased, so that the one has produced 63.1 and the other 21.8% of the total output of the world. In 1908 the Geological Survey issued a preliminary map of the then known areas productive of oil and natural gas in the United States, estimating the extent of the former at 8850 and of the latter at 9365 sq. m. The supply of oil in this area was estimated at from 15,000,000,000 to 20,000,000,000 barrels; and the National Conservation Commission of 1908 expressed the opinion that in view of the rapid increase of production and the enormous loss through misuse the supply cannot be expected to last beyond the middle of this century.

Natural gas, as a source of light and for metallurgical purposes, became important in the mid-eighties. In recent years its use for industrial purposes has lessened, and for domestic pdr-Naturaj Gas poses increased. The existence of outflows or springs of gas in the region west of the Alleghanies had long been known, and much gas was used for illuminating purposes in Fredonia, New York, as early as 1821. Such gas is a more or less general concomitant of oil all through the petroleum-bearing areas of the country. The total output of the country rose from a value of $215,000 ifl 1882 to one of $54,640,374 ifl 1908, with several fluctuations up and down in that interval. Pennsylvania, with a product valued at $155,620,395 from 1899 to 1908, West Virginia with $84,955,496, Ohio with $48,172,450 and Indiana with $46,141,553 were the greatest producers of the Union.

The National Conservation Commission in 1908 estimated the area of the known gas fields of the country at 9000 sq. hi.; the portion of their yield in 1907 that was utilized at 400,000,000,000 cub. ft.; and the Waste at an equal amountmore than 1,000,000,000 of cub. ft. daily, or enough to supply all the cities in the United States of above 100,000 population.

Of other non-metallic mineral substances, apart from coal, petroleum and natural gas, little need be said in detail. Stone is of the greatest actual importance, the value of the quarry output, including some prepared or manufactured product, such as dressed and crushed stone, averaging $65,152,312 annually in 1904-1908.

Limestone is by far the largest element, and with granite makes up two-thirds of the total value. Vermont, Pennsylvania and New York are the leading producers. In this, as in other cases, actual product may indicate little regarding potential resources, and still less regarding the distribution of these throughout the Union. Glass and other sands and gravel ($13,270,032), lime ($11,091,186), phosphate rock ($10,653,558), salt ($7,553,632), natural mineral waters ($7,287,269), sulphur ($6,668,215, almost wholly from Louisiana), slate ($6,316,8 I7), gypsum ($4,138,560), clay ($2,599,986), asphalt ($1,888,881), talc and soapstone ($1,401,222), borax ($975,000, all from California), and pyrite ($857,113) were the next most important products in 1908. It may be noted that the output in almost every item of mineral production was considerably greater in 1907 than in 1908, and the isolated figures of the latter year are of little interest apart from showing in a general way the relative commercial importance of the products named. In the yield of gypsum, phosphate rock and salt the United States leads the world. In sulphur it is a close second to Sicily. Phosphate rock is heavily exported, and in the opinion of the National Conservation Commission of 1908 the supply cannot long satisfy the increasing demand for export, which constitutes a waste of a precious natural resource. Other minerals whose production may be found stated in detail in the annual volume on Mineral Resources of the United States Geological Survey are: natural pigments, felspar, white mica, graphite, fluorspar, arsenic, quartz, barytes, bromine. Some dozens of varieties of precious stones occur widely. Of building-stone, clay, cement, lime, sand and salt, the countrys supply was estimated by the National Conservation Commission of 1908 to be ample.

In 1907 iron ore was mined for blast-furnace use in twenty-nine states only, but the ore occurs in almost every state of the Union. As nearly as can be estimated from imperfect statistics, frirn the total ore production of the country rose steadily from 2,873,400 long tons in, 1860 to 51,720,619 tons in 1907. The United States became practically independent of foreign ore imports during the decade 1870 to 1879. The iron-producing area of the country may be divided, with regard to natural geographic, historic and trade considerations, into four districts: (1) the Lake Superior district, embracing the states of Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin; (2) the southern district, embracing the triangle tipped by Texas, Maryland and Georgia; (3) the northern district, embracing the triangle tipped by Ohio, New Jersey and Massachusetts, plus the states of Iowa and Missouri; (4) the western district, which includes the states of the Rocky Mountain region and Pacific coast. Of these districts the Lake Superior regionwhich embraces the Marquette range (opened in 1854), the Menominee (1872), the Gogebic (1884), the Vermilion (1884) and the Mesabi (1892)first attracted exploration about 1844, when the copper deposits of the same region were opened, and produced from 1854 to 1908 a total of 1/210,239,551 long tons, of which 341,036,883 were mined in the period 1889-1908. From the Mesabi range alone, opened in 1892, no less than 168,143,661 long toas were taken up to 1908. The share of the whole district for some years past has been practically four-fifths of the total output of the country; and together with the yield of the southern district, more than 90%. Minnesota alone produces more than half of the same total, having multiplied her product since 1889 by more than 33 times. Michigan held first place in output until 1901. Alabama is the third great producer of the Union, and with the other two made up in 1907 more than four-fifths of the countrys total. In 1907 the product of Minnesota (28,969,658 long tons) was greater than that of Germany (with Luxemburg), and nearly twice the production of Great Britain.

Of the two classes of iron minerals used as ores of that metal, namely, oxides and carbonates, the latter furnish to-day an insignificant proportion of the countrys product, although such ores were the basis of a considerable part of the early iron industry, and even so late as 1889 represented one-thirteenth of the total. Of the oxides, various forms of the brown ores in locations near to the Atlantic coast were the chief basis of the early iron industries. Magnetites were also early employed, at first in Catalan forges, in which by means of a direct process the metal was secured from the ores and forged into blooms without being cast; later they were smelted in blast furnaces. But in the recent and great development of the iron industry the red haematite ores have been overwhelmingly predominant. From 1889 to 1907 the average yearly percentages of the red haematite, brown ores, rnagnetite and carbonate in the total ore production were respectively 824, I0I, 7.1 and 0.4. In the census of 1870 the share of the three varieties appeared almost equal; in 1899 that of the red ores had risen to near two-thirds of the total. The red and brown ores are widely distributed, every state in the Union in 1907, save Ohio and North Carolina, producing one or both. Magnetite production was confined to mountain regions in the east and west, and only in Ohio were carbonates mined.

An investigation was made in 1908 for the National Conservation Commission of the ore reserves of the country. This report was made by Dr. C. W. Hayes of the Geological Survey. With the reservations that only in the case of certain red haematite bedded deposits can any estimate be made of relative accuracy, say within 10%; that the concentration deposits of brown ore can be estimated only with an accuracy represented by a factor varying between 0.7 and 3; and that the great Lake Superior and the less known Adirondack deposits can be estimated within 15 to 20%, the total supply of the country was estimated at 79,594,220,000 long tons73,21o,415,000 of which were credited to haematite ores and 5,054,675,000 to magnetite. Almost 95 % is believed to lie about Lake Superior.

Ihe output of pig iron and steel in 1907 was 25,781,361 and 23,362,594 long tons respectively. It is believed that the first steel made in the United States was made in Connecticut in 1728. Crucible steel was first successfully produced in 1832, Bessemer and open-hearth in 1864. Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Alabama and New York are the leading states in production.

The washing of the high or Tertiary gravels by the hydraulic process and the working of mines in the solid rock did not, on the Gold and whole, compensate for the diminished yield of the Silver ordinary placer and river diggings, so that the product of gold in California continued to fall off, and by 1860

had decreased to about half what it had been ten years before. Discoveries in other Cordilleran territories, notably in Montana and Idaho, made up, however, in part for the deficiency of California, so that in I 860 the total amount of gold produced in the United States was estimated at not less than $45,000,000. In the latter part of the decade 1850-1859 the territories adjacent to California on the east, north and south were overrun by thousands of miners from the Sierra Nevada goldfields, and within a few years an extraordinary number of discoveries were made, some of which proved to be of great importance. The most powerful impulse to mining operations, and the immediate cause of a somewhat lengthy period of wild excitement and speculation, was the discovery and successful opening of the Comstock lode in 1859, in the western part of what is now Nevada, but was then part of Utah. About this lode grew up Virginia City. From 1859 to 1902 the total yield of this lode was $204,653,040 in silver and $148,145,385 in gold; the average annual yield from 1862 to 1868 was above eleven millions; the maximum yield $36,301,537 in 1877; and the total product to July 1880 was variously estimated at from $304,752,171.54 to $30618125125. The lode was an ore channel of great dimensions included within volcanic rocks of Tertiary age, themselves broken through pre-existing strata of Triassic age, and exhibited some of the features of a fissure vein, combined in part with those of a contact deposit and in part with those of a segregated vein. The gangue was quartz, very irregularly distributed in bodies often of great sizes, for the most part nearly or quite barren of ore. The metalliferous portion of the lode was similarly distributed in great masses, known as bonanzas. The next most famous lode is that of Leadville, Colorado, which from 1879 to 1889 yielded $147,834,186, chiefly in silver and lead. In later years the Cripple Creek district of Colorado became specially prominent.

The total oatput of gold and silver in the United States according to the tables published by the Director of the Mint has been as follows :

Gold. Silver.

ears. Quantity in Quantity in , Commercial Fine Ounces. Value. Fine Ounces. Value.

• $

1792-1847 1,187,170 24,537,000 309,500 404,500

1848-1872 58,279,778 , 2,204,750,00 118,568,200 157,749,900

1873-1908 88,833,232 1,836,344,000 I,664,371,30o 1,379,892,200

148,300,179 $3,065,632,000 i,78~,x~g,ooo $1,538,046,600

Colorado ($22,871,000), Alaska ($19,858,800), California ($19,329,700), Nevada ($11,689,400), South Dakota ($7,742,200), Utah ($3,946,700), Montana ($3,160,000) and Arizona ($2,500,000)

were the leading producers in 1908, in which year the totals for the two metals were $94,560,000 for gold and $28,050,600 for silver.

The grade of precious ores hafidled has generally and greatly decreased in recent yearsaccording to the census data of 1880 and 1902, disregarding all base metallic contentsfrom an average commerical value of $29.07 to one of $8.29; nevertheless the product of gold and silver has greatly increased. This is due to improvements in mining methods and reduction processes, which have made profitable low-grade ores that were not commercially available in 1880.

Copper was produced in 1908 in twenty-four states of the Union. Their output was almost seventeenfold the quantity reported by the census of 186o. The quantity produced from 1845 Cop er the year in which the Lake Superior district became a producer, and in which the total product was only 224,000 lbup to 1908 was 13,106,205,634 lb. The increases from 1845 to 1850, in each decennial period thereafter, and from 1901 to 1908, were as follcws, in percentages: 50.0, 27.0, 6.1, 7~2, f48, 9.1 and 5.8. The total product passed 10,000,000 lb in 1857, 20,000,000 lb in 1867, 30,000,000 lb in 1873, 40,000,000 lb in 1875, 50,000,000 lb in 1879 and 100,000,000 lb in 1883. Comparing the product of the United States with that of the world, the figures for the two respectively were 23,350 and I51,936 long tons in 1879, when the United States was second to both Spain (and Portugal) and Chile as a producer; 51,570 and 199,406 long tons in 1883, when the Unites States first took leading rank; 172,300 and 334,565 long tons in 1895, when the yield of the United States first exceeded that of all other parts of the world combined; and 942,570,000 and 1,667,098,000 lb in 1908.

The three leading producing states or Territories of the Union are, and since the early eighties have been, Arizona, Montana and Michigan. With Utah and California their yield in 1908 was 93% of the total. During the decade ending with that year the average yearly output of the three first-named was 197,706,968 Ib, 267,172,951 lb and 192,187,488 lb respectively.

The production of lead was for many years limited, as already mentioned, to two districts near the Mississippi: one the so-called Upper Mines of Wisconsin, Iowa and Illinois; the other I. d the Lower Mines of south-eastern Missouri. The national government, after reserving the mineral lands (1807) and attempting to lease them, concluded in 1847 to sell them, owing to the difficulty of preventing illegal entry and collecting royalties. The yield of the Upper Mines culminated about 1845, and long ago became insignificant. The greatest lead district is in south-western Missouri nod south-eastern Kansas, known as the Joplin-Galena district after the names of the two cities that are its centre. The United States is the gleatest lead producer and consumer in the world, its percentage of the total output and consumption averaging 30.4% and 32-5% respectively in the years 1904-1908. Since 1825 the total product of lead refined from domestic ores and domestic base bullion was, up to the close of 1908, 7,091,548 short tons. An annual yield of 100,000 tons was first passed in 1881; of 200,000, ill 1891; of 300,000, in 1898. The total refined domestic product in 1907 was 337,340, and the total domestic lead smelted was 365,166 tons. Of the smelter domestic product 235,559 tons were of desilverized lead and 129,607 of soft lead. Considerable quantities of foreign ores and base bullion are also refined in the United States. The average percentage of metallic recovery from lead ores was about 68%, in 1880, and again in 1902, according to the national censuses of these years. According to the bureau of the census the value in 1902 of the lead yielded by copper, by non-argentiferous lead and zinc, and by gold and silver ores respectively was $19,053, $5,850,721 and $12,311,239. This reflects the revolutionary change in the history of lead mining since the first discovery of argentiferous lead ores in the Rocky Mountain states in 1864, which became available only after the building of railways. Until the completion of the Union Pacific in 1869 there was no smelting of such ores except for their silver contents. The deposits in the Joplin-Galena district were discovered in 1848, but attracted little attention for three decades. Of the soft lead smelted in 1907 no less than 94.8 % came from Missouri. Idaho, Utah and Colorado produce together almost as great a proportion of the desilverized lead, half of which has come in recent years from Idaho.

Spelter production began in the United States in 1858 in an experimental way, and regular production in 1860. The census of the latter year reported an output of product valued at $72,600. According to the census data for 1889 and 1902 there was an in Zinc crease in value of product of 184.1 % in the interval, and of 109.5% in the quantity of ore produced. The value of products in 1902 were reported as $340,686 from gold and silver ores, and $8,665,675 from non-argentiferous lead and zinc ores. The total product of zinc from domestic ore for the entire country was 7343 short tons in 1873, passed 100,000 tons in 1898, and 200,000 in 1907, when it amouiited to 223,745 tons. From 1904 to 1908 the share of the United States in the worlds output averaged 28-2 %, and in the worlds consumption (disregarding stocks) 27.5%. Of the product of 1907 above stated no less than 63.4% came from Missouri alone; Colorado, Wisconsin, Kansas and New Jersey yielding together 30.8 % more.

Most of the quicksilver produced in the United States comes from California (86% of the total in 1908), but a considerable quantity M comes from Texas, and small amounts are produced CIWJV. in Utah, Arizona and Oregon. Veins of cinnabar are known elsewhere in the Rocky Mountain and Sierra Nevada regions but not in workable quantities. The mercurial ores of the Pacific Coast ranges occur in very irregular deposits in the form of strings and bunches, disseminated through a highly metamorphosed siliceous rod~c. The first locality where the metal was successfully mined was at New Almaden, about 100 m. south of San Francisco. These mines have been productive since 1824. Another old mine, discovered in 1853, is the New Idria located another 100 to. farther south. These two are still among the foremost producers.

From 1850 to 1908 California produced a total of 2,052,000 flasks of metal, of 76.5 lb (since June I, 1904, 750 lb net) each. The year of greatest yield was 1877, with 79,395 flasks. The production had steadily fallen to 16,984 flasks in 1908, but in the opinion of the United States Geological Survey this reduction is mainly attributable, in recent years at least, to market conditions, and does not truly indicate the exhaustion of the mines, although the ores now available are of low grades, those of New Almaden having shown a decrease in yield from 36.7 % in 1850-1851 to o~74 % in 1895-1896, so that only the greatest metallurgical skill and business economy can sustain the mines against a weak market.

Bauxite was produced on a commercial scale in four states in 1908: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia and Tennessee; Arkansas pro- Other ducingas for years pastmore than six-tenths of the total product of the country. This rose from an insignificant amount in 1889 to 97,776 long tons (valued at $480,330) in 1907. The consumption of the United States is, however, much larger than its product, and is rapidly growing. The production of aluminium rose from 83 lb in 1883 to 7,500,000 lb in 1903, and a consumption (the Geological Survey not reporting the production) of 17,211,000 lb in 1907. Antimony, bismuth, selenium, tellurium, chromic iron ore, tin, nickel, cobalt, vanadium, titanium, molybdenum, uranium and tantalum are produced in the United States in small amounts, but such production in several cases has amounted to only slight discoveries, and in general they are of little importance in the market. Of tungsten the United States was in 1907 the greatest producer in the world (1640 tons in a total of 6062). Tin ores have been widely discovered, but though much has been hoped for from them, particularly from the deposits in the Black Hills region of South Dakota, there has been no more than a relatively insignificant commercial production.