SUMMARY.

The following tabular statement gives the general items regarding domestic and world production and consumption of lead. The figures for domestic items are those compiled by this office, and the figures for the world items are based upon statistics compiled by the Metallgesellschaft.

Summary of lead statistics, 1908-1913, in short tons.

A list of the more important publications on lead and zinc published by the United States Geological Survey is given in the chapter on zinc in Mineral Resources for 1913.

METALS AND METALLIC ORES IN 1912 AND 1913.

By J. P. DUNLOP.

INTRODUCTION.

For the calendar years 1908 and 1909 the Survey published a summary, by Waldemar Lindgren, and for 1910 and 1911, by H. D. McCaskey, of the domestic production of metals-divided into output from domestic and from foreign sources and measured for uniformity throughout by the short ton of 2,000 pounds-and of the domestic output of metallic ores by classes, measured also by the short ton. For purposes of comparison and contrast this summary filled a need not otherwise supplied, and similar data are here given for 1912 and 1913.

In the detailed chapters on the various metals in Part I of Mineral Resources of the United States (to which the reader should refer for full information on the metallic resources and industries) the production is measured in terms of the customary unit, whether the long ton of 2,240 pounds, the metric ton of 2,204.6 pounds, the short ton of 2,000 pounds, the "flask" of 75 pounds, the avoirdupois pound, or the troy ounce. The long ton is used for coal, iron ore, bauxite, pig iron, and steel, particularly in the Eastern States, and for tin, copper and spelter in England. The metric ton is used on the Continent of Europe, in Mexico, and wherever the metric system is in vogue. The "flask" is the customary unit for the measurement of quicksilver except where the metric ton is used; the avoirdupois pound is the unit referred to in defining the tons and the "flask," and is also used for measuring the output of copper, lead, spelter, aluminum, nickel, etc.; the short ton is used for both ore and concentrates in the West, as well as for lead and spelter; and the troy ounce is used for gold, silver, and platinum and allied rare metals. Were the metric system in commercial use in the United States, this confusion of terms would be avoided; in its absence the production of this country by metal mines and metallurgical plants is summarized, as stated, in terms of the short ton of 2,000 pounds.

The table of metal production gives in the main the output from plants-mills, smelters, refineries in the United States, and is essentially a measure of the metallurgical industry, as the supplies of ore, matte, unrefined bullion, etc., treated in this country are from both domestic and foreign sources. The attempt is made at subdivision of these two, however, and the production in marketable form of metals from both domestic and foreign mines is therefore given wherever possible. The table of domestic ore production is a measure of the metal-mining industry of the United States alone.

There are, roughly, four stages to be considered in the production of metal in marketable form from crude ore: (1) Mining, (2) milling and concentrating, (3) smelting, and (4) refining. The first stage

produces crude ore; and both straight concentrating and gold and silver milling plants produce concentrates. Both crude ore and concentrates are treated in both gold and silver amalgamating, cyaniding, and chlorinating plants, and also in smelters, and the products are refined in private refineries and the precious metals in part in the United States mints. As production may be reported, therefore, as metal in raw materials, in unrefined state, or as refined, there may be three sets of figures to represent the metal output, and there may be certain discrepancies between these for the same metal for the same calendar year, owing to time difference, customary losses in metallurgical operations, and difference in activity between mining and treating the ore. In this summary the metals are measured as refined.

METALS.

The following tables show the production of metals in the United States in 1912 and 1913:

Production of metals in the United States in 1912 and 1913, in short tons.

Includes marketed production of ferrosilicon, ferrophosphorus, ferrovanadium, ferrotungsten, ferromolybdenum, ferrotitanium.

c Nickel content of imported matte and ore.

d Includes foreign. Figures are consumption, not production.

Pig iron. The production of pig iron is usually reported by long tons. The output of 1911 was 23,257,288 long tons, for 1912 it was 30,180,969 long tons, and for 1913 it was 30,388,935 long tons.

Manganese (spiegeleisen and ferromanganese).—The figures for the important iron-manganese alloys were formerly published by the Survey, combined with those of pig iron. Statistics for their total marketed production are now available separately. The production for both alloys is given as 178,615 long tons in 1911, 227,939 long tons in 1912, and 226,475 long tons in 1913.

Ferrosilicon and ferrophosphorus.-The combined marketed production of ferrosilicon and ferrophosphorus was 70,122 long tons in 1911, 97,371 long tons in 1912, and 67,164 long tons in 1913.

as

Other ferro-alloys. In addition to spiegeleisen, ferromanganese, ferrosilicon, and ferrophosphorus are the ferro-alloys known ferromolybdenum, ferrotitanium (with 10 to 20 per cent of titanium), ferrovanadium, ferrotungsten (with about 50 per cent of tungsten). The combined output in 1911 was 4,638 long tons, in 1912 it was 3,375 long tons, and in 1913 it was 2,568 long tons.

Nickel. The production of nickel in the United States from domestic ores is merely a by-product from electrolytes of the copper refineries. A comparatively small output of nickel salts was recovered from domestic ores in 1912 and 1913, but the quantity is not known. The figures for 1912 and 1913 given in the table are for content of nickel in ore and matte "imported for consumption," and are mostly from the Canadian (Sudbury) deposits.

Aluminum.-There is only one producer of aluminum in the United States. The figures given are those for consumption. The statistics are usually reported in pounds and show 47,734,000 pounds for 1910, 46,125,000 pounds for 1911, 65,607,000 pounds for 1912, and 72,399,000 pounds for 1913. The figures include the consumption of the imported metal as well as the domestic.

Gold and silver. The production of gold and silver is usually given in fine ounces troy. The following table gives the output of domestic plants for 1912 and 1913:

Production of gold and silver in 1912 and 1913, in fine ounces troy.

The unrefined foreign gold and silver come mainly from Canada, Mexico, Central America, and South America, and considerable ore from which gold and silver are by-products of the smelters in base bullion is also received by domestic plants chiefly from these countries.

Platinum. The production is usually reported in troy ounces, and the domestic output is from crude platinum from gravels in Oregon and California, from copper-platinum-palladium ore from the Rambler mine in Wyoming, and also from refined metal recovered as a by