20

OUR  MINERAL  RESERVES.

Shasta  County,  Cal.,  and  such  zinciferous  dusts  are  accumulating
in  large  quantities  at  the  smelters  in  that  region.
With  the  establishment  of  peace  in  Mexico  it  is  to  lie  expected
that  imports  of  zinc  ore  from  that  country  will  again  reach  large
proportions,  and  likewise  the  imports  from  Canada  may  perhaps
become  larger  even  than  they  were  in  1909,  before  the  imposition
of  the  tariff.  With  the  closure  of  the  Belgian  and  other  continental ­
  markets  to  the  zinc  concentrates  from  Broken  Hill,  Australia,
those  concentrates  may  be  partly  diverted  to  the  United  States.  If
a  sufficient  foreign  market  becomes  available  the  surplus  smelter
capacity  in  the  United  States  might  perhaps  be  employed  in  smelting ­
  foreign  zinc  ores  under  bond,  and  a  business  might  grow  up
similar  to  that  which  exists  in  lead  smelting.
If  an  extensive  business  of  smelting  foreign  zinc  in  bond  should
grow  up  it  would  probably  be  found  desirable  to  build  special
smelters  for  that  work  at  tidewater  in  the  vicinity  of  New  York
City,  convenient  to  fuel  supplies  and  acid  markets  and  to  water
transportation  to  Mexico  and  through  the  Panama  Canal  to  British
Columbia  and  Australia.  This  business  could  be  done  only  at  the
expense  of  domestic  production  of  zinc  ore,  for  the  present  domestic
production  more  than  equals  the  apparent  domestic  consumption  as
spelter  and  as  zinc  oxide  and  bids  fair  to  exceed  it  greatly  in  a
year  or  two  unless  consumption  is  increased  by  the  development  of
export  trade  in  manufactured  zinc  and  galvanized-iron  products.
The  opening  of  the  Panama  Canal,  the  necessary  establishment  of
American  lines  of  transportation  to  South  America,  Australia,  and
the  Orient,  and  in  the  present  crisis  the  large  dependence  of  those
continents  on  the  United  States  for  their  supply  of  zinc  all  make  for
a  quick  commercial  introduction  of  the  products  of  the  United
States  zinc  industry  to  those  continents—an  introduction  which
under  other  conditions  might  have  taken  years.
It  is  known  that  large  stocks  of  spelter  exist  in  Europe.  The
Ironmonger,  of  London,  gives  the  stocks  at  the  end  of  March  as
73,000  long  tons  and  quotes  an  estimate  of  80,000  long  tons  for  the
end  of  April.  At  that  rate  the  stocks  on  hand  June  30  must  have
beeen  considerably  over  100,000  short  tons,  compared  to  01,039  short
tons  in  the  United  States.  The  greater  part  of  the  European  stocks,
however,  must  have  been  held  in  the  interior  and  must  now  be  isolated, ­
  so  that  for  the  term  of  the  war  they  may  be  disregarded.
After  the  war  what  remains  of  these  stocks  will  become  available
again  and  will  possibly  operate  to  depress  prices,  but  in  the  meantime ­
  the  United  States  zinc  operators  will  have  had  the  opportunity
to  dispose  of  domestic  stocks  and  to  become  established  in  the  foreign ­
  markets.