16
OUR MINERAL RESERVES.
strong demand for manganese ore. For instance, during the last JO
years the annual domestic production of manganese ore has ranged
between 1,500 and 7,000 long tons, while the imports ranged between
108,000 and 345,000 long tons. In 1913 the domestic production of
4,048 tons, the largest since 1908, was insignificant compared with
the imports of 345,090 tons, and constituted only a little over 1 per
cent of the available supply. Another illustration of the great disparity
between the domestic production of manganese ore and the
imports may be noted in the fact that the total production of the
United States so far as recorded, going back to 1838, is 414,738 long
tons—an amount not greatly in excess of the importations during
the single year 1913. The imports of manganese ore recorded since
1868 have reached the grand total of 3,859,616 long tons, and the
records are incomplete for the first 20 years of this period.
The foreign situation as viewed by D. F. Ilewett early in 1914, in
the chapter of Mineral Resources for 1913 on manganese and manga -
ni ferons ore, is as follows:
Imports of manganese ore increased approximately 15 per cent from 1912
to 1913, and this increase came alniost wholly from Russia. Unless industrial
or political disturbances interfere, there is no doubt that a supply of ores will
be available from the deposits of Russia, India, and Brazil for some years to
come.
As the disturbances that have arisen will undoubtedly interfere
to a greater or less extent with the shipment of foreign manganese
ores, it is cheering to know that the United States possesses within
easy reach of manufacturing centers abundant reserves of such ores.
The following notes on the domestic sources of manganese may be
of interest in the present connection :
For commercial purposes materials containing manganese are separated
into four classes—(1) manganese ores, (2) manganiferons
iron ores, (3) manganiferous silver ores, and (4) manganiferous zinc
residuum. Though manganese forms a part of about a hundred
minerals and is a relatively widespread element, practically all the
manganese of commerce is derived from material containing one or
more of the minerals polianite, pyrolusite, psilomelane, wad, manganite,
brarinite, and franklinite.
Commercial manganese ores are those which contain at least 35
per cent of manganese and otherwise conform to the specifications
of the trade in which they are used. Deposits of manganese ore
occur in many parts of the United States, but are most abundant in
the Applachian and Piedmont regions, in the southern Mississippi
Valley, and on the Pacific coast. Small deposits occur in the New
England, Rocky Mountain, and Great Basin regions. The principal
producing districts up to the present time have been the James
River-Staunton River and Blue Ridge regions of Virginia, the Cave
Springs and Cartersville districts in Georgia, the Batesville district
