MINERAL  PRODUCTS.

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a  capital  of  several  million  dollars,  has,  it  is  understood,  been  organized ­
  by  an  amalgamation  of  certain  French  and  Swiss  interests
and  of  certain  metal  interests  in  the  United  States.  The  company
contemplates  erecting  a  plant  where  more  than  100,000  horsepower
will  be  developed.  Whether  the  European  war  will  interfere  with
the  progress  of  this  work  can  not  be  stated,  but  it  is  hoped  that  it
will  not.
The  mineral  bauxite,  the  raw  material  from  which  metallic  aluminum ­
  is  made,  comes  from  Arkansas,  Tennessee,  Georgia,  and  Alabama. ­
  Arkansas  furnishes  the  bulk  of  the  ore  used  in  the  manufacture ­
  of  the  metal.  The  three  southern  Appalachian  States  named
produce  the  greater  part  of  the  bauxite  used  in  the  manufacture  of
aluminum  salts.
In  1913  we  produced  210,241  long  tons  of  bauxite,  a  marked  increase, ­
  amounting  to  more  than  30  per  cent,  over  the  production  of
the  preceding  year,  and  in  fact  a  marked  increase  over  the  production ­
  of  any  previous  year  in  the  history  of  bauxite  production.  This
increase  is  attributable  in  large  measure  to  the  advance  in  the  metallic ­
  aluminum  industry.  The  imports  of  bauxite  in  1913  were
21,456  long  tons,  valued  at  $85,746,  or  less  than  one-tenth  of  the
domestic  output.  Most  of  this  foreign  ore  came  from  France,  which
is  to-day  the  leading  bauxite-producing  country  of  the  world.  With
the  interference  with  mining  and  shipping  caused  by  the  war  it  is
a  question  whether  this  supply  will  not  be  greatly  curtailed  or  completely ­
  cut  off.  This  should  greatly  stimulate  the  search  for  new
deposits  and  the  working  on  a  larger  scale  of  the  known  deposits  in
the  southern  Appalachian  States.
Bauxite  is  not  only  used  in  the  manufacture  of  metallic  aluminum
but  is  employed  extensively  in  making  alum  and  the  aluminum  salts
in  general,  bauxite  brick  for  furnace  linings,  and  artificial  abrasives.
ANTIMONY.
Antimony  is  ordinarily  one  of  the  cheaper  metals,  selling  at  one  and
a  half  times  to  twice  the  price  of  zinc;  but  after  the  outbreak  of  the
European  war  it  reached  more  than  20  cents  a  pound,  a  price  higher
than  that  of  aluminum,  though  it  is  now  lower.  During  the  six  years
from  1908  to  1913,  inclusive,  the  price  of  Cookson’s  antimony  ranged
from  7.45  to  10.31  cents  a  pound,  and  the  yearly  averages  ranged
from  8.24  to  8.58  cents  a  pound.  Much  of  the  time  during  the  present
year  the  price  has  been  still  lower,  and  toward  the  end  of  July  it
Was  quoted  as  7  to  7.10  cents.  Other  brands  have  ranged  from  0.25
to  1.25  cents  lower.  As  has  been  pointed  out  in  the  United  States
Geological  Survey’s  reports,  at  these  prices  antimony  ores  can  not
he  worked  profitably  under  the  high  labor  costs  prevailing  in  the
mining  regions  of  the  United  States  unless  the  deposits  are  very