MINERALS 
23 
Over 75 per cent of the world’s production of graphite is used in the 
manufacture of crucibles for the production of special steels, brass and 
other alloys, the remainder being an ingredient of lubricants, paints, 
pencils, and polish. 
Tn 1927 Ouebec produced 34 tons of dust graphite valued at $2.040. 
Magnesite.—The mining of magnesite is an industry presenting 
opportunities to the province. The largest and most important deposits 
of North America exist in Grenville township, Argenteuil county. 
One of the recent developments in the magnesite industry has been 
the introduction of the dead-burning of magnesite in rotary cement kilns in 
a specially constructed plant at Calumet. The crude magnesite is ground 
to pass 100-mesh screens, is mixed with 5 per cent of ground iron ore and 
then sintered at a temperature of 2,400° F. in the kilns. The product 
which comes from the kiln is an excellent refractory material used for 
lining open hearth and high temperature electric steel furnaces. This 
material is considered very satisfactory. The use of magnesite as one 
of the raw materials for the manufacture of magnesian flooring cements 
and stuccos offers a market for increasingly great quantities. As yet, 
the Quebec magnesites have not been used to any extent for this purpose. 
[n 1927 the production of magnesite in Quebec was 1,028 tons of 
calcined magnesite and 6,309 tons of dead-burned magnesite, of a total 
value of $230,309. The crude magnesite charged into the kilns represented 
a tonnage of 15.305. 
Molybdenite.—Molybdenite mining during the war was energetic- 
ally pursued at the famous Moss mine about three miles from Quyon 
Station. Operations were not commenced until March, 1916; neverthe- 
less, the output from this mine was probably the world’s largest for a 
single producer both in 1916 and 1917. There are numerous occurrences 
of molybdenite in the Province of Quebec, many of which might prove 
of workable size on further investigation.* 
Molybdenum is used largely for hardening steels for automobile 
construction and molybdenum wire is used in. the manufacture of electric 
lamps and in scientific instrument trades. The salts of molybdenum form 
valuable chemical re-agents and are also used in colouring pottery. The 
production of molybdenite has temporarily stopped owing to large stocks 
on hand at the end of the war. In 1926 the production was 25,168 pounds 
of concentrate, containing 20,943 pounds of molybdenite, valued at $10.472. 
Copper.—Until recently copper mining in the province of Quebec 
had been restricted to the Eastern townships where some of the earliest 
settlements in Canada were established. Within the last few years, 
“ * “ Molybdenum, metallurgy and uses”, by V. L. Eardley-Wilmot, Mines Branch, Department of Mines 
Ottawa. 
QRINh—HAL