TUNGSTEN
BY FRANK L. HESS
USES OF TUNGSTEN[74]
[74] Unless otherwise noted, the short ton of 2,000 pounds is used
throughout this chapter and “tungsten ore” means materials carrying
60 per cent. WO₃.
The essential uses of tungsten are as an alloy in high-speed tool
steel, for the making of filaments for incandescent lamps, for targets
and cathodes of Roentgen (“X”) ray tubes, and for electric contacts
for explosion engines or wherever an intermittent electric contact is
needed. Other uses are in saw and some other steels, as a constituent
of stellite, in a tungsten-iron alloy for valves in automobile
and airplane engines, for kenotrons and similar instruments, in a
manganese-chromium-tungsten-iron alloy for wire-drawing dies, in wire
cloth, luminescent screens for Roentgen (“X”) rays, mordants and minor
chemicals.
=Substitutes.=--The use of tungsten in high-speed steels is as standard
as the use of yeast in bread, and, though assiduously sought, no
substitute is known that satisfactorily takes its place. According
to report, in England and France molybdenum has been used to replace
about half of the tungsten in some high-speed tool steels, but this is
seemingly not a preferred method, being used only when the obtaining of
tungsten is difficult. In the United States the practice has had few
sponsors. The following quotation from the _Mining Journal_ (London)
for May 25, 1918, p. 318, shows that this sentiment is not unknown
abroad:
The manufacture of ferromolybdenum is stated to have been commenced
in Sweden, where the lack of ferrotungsten has forced the employment
of this substitute.
During 1917, 104 (metric?) tons of molybdenite was shipped from
Norway to Germany, where it probably was used as in Sweden. Henry E.
Wood reported finding molybdenum in the steel of a German helmet.
When tungsten was at the excessively high price of early 1916, many
experiments were made to find a substitute, but apparently without
full success, although lately several substitute steels containing
cobalt and chromium and especially intended for cast milling-cutters
and other multiple-edged tools have been placed on the market and
a cobalt-chromium-molybdenum steel and a uranium steel have been
offered for lathe tools. Stellite, the cobalt-chromium-tungsten alloy,
in which there is only one-third to one-half as much tungsten as
is used in high-speed steel, has grown in favor, and cooperite, a
nickel-zirconium alloy, is also a competitor, but the trade in the
combined list has made no appreciable impression on the demand for
tungsten steels.
A change in the manner of using tungsten steel, by which a thin plate
of high-speed steel is cemented to a more ordinary steel bar so as to
form the cutting edge of a lathe tool, has made the demand for tungsten
less than it would have been had the old practice been followed of
making the whole tool of high-speed steel.
CHANGES IN PRACTICE
No startling changes of practice in the metallurgy of tungsten are
known to have taken place, but there has been a steady betterment
of the art, improvement in the quality of ferrotungsten, a shifting
in localities of reduction, and a considerable change in the manner
of use. The wasteful, lazy demand for ores of high concentration
and of great purity common before the war has given way before more
enlightened and intelligent practice, until firms both in this country
and in England make a specialty of using low-grade or impure ores,
though seemingly much more advance has been made here than abroad.
One firm, the Chemical Products Co. (Washington, D. C.) was organized
specifically to buy ores carrying less than the 60 per cent. tungsten
trioxide (WO₃) demanded by other American firms, and ores containing
sulphur, copper, arsenic, bismuth, tin, antimony, phosphorus, or
other impurities to which most users objected. Two firms, the Black
Metal Reduction Co., and the Tungsten Products Co., both of Boulder,
Colorado, were organized to handle materials such as tailings carrying
as little as 1 per cent. tungsten trioxide, and they said that they
were able to pay for gold and silver in the ore.
Several firms make tungsten trioxide or tungstic acid (H₂WO₄) for
ferrotungsten makers. Firms have also made artificial scheelite (CaWO₄)
for the same trade, using off-color ores in the process. Powdered
ferrotungsten made by chemically precipitating an iron tungsten salt
from solution and reducing it to a metallic powder carrying 4 to 11
per cent. iron has been produced by several firms and seems to have
started a demand for powdered ferrotungsten, so that firms are now
finely grinding the massive ferrotungsten. Claims for better furnace
practice which greatly cuts down the consumption of current and makes a
saving of 90 to 96 per cent. instead of the usual 80 per cent. are also
made. Several firms are making ferrotungsten powder and tungsten powder
in iron tubes or other iron containers instead of in the graphite
crucibles used before the war.
In the milling of tungsten ores, the tendency in this country is to
get away from the uneconomic method of making concentrates very
high in tungsten trioxide (carrying more than 60 per cent. WO₃).
Few operators really know what the heads run, and the determination
of losses is mere guesswork. Some of the most careful operators in
the Boulder field before closing down at the beginning of 1919 were
making a high-grade product carrying nearer 50 per cent. than 60 per
cent. tungsten trioxide, and a lower grade product carrying about 20
per cent. tungsten trioxide, not attempting to raise its tenor. This
practice cuts down the losses largely. When the great shortage of
tungsten ore came in 1916, users were compelled to take lower grade
concentrates, and some improved their metallurgy accordingly. This
change has made the sale of 50 per cent. concentrates easier. Even in
England, 60 to 65 per cent. ores were accepted where formerly a content
of 67.5 per cent. or 70 per cent. WO₃ was demanded.
Formerly scheelite sold 50 cents per unit below other tungsten
minerals, even though freer from bothersome impurities, but with the
graduation from rule-of-thumb methods to more thoughtful, careful and
scientific practice, it came to command a premium. Huebnerite seems to
be still sold with and as “wolfram” in England, but in this country it
must be sold according to its composition, for to most metallurgists
the manganese is undesirable, though at least one firm now makes
ferrotungsten from huebnerite without prejudice or difficulty. This
growth in knowledge and technique has caused the price of the tungsten
minerals to rank about as follows in the order named: Scheelite,
ferberite, wolframite and huebnerite. This applies to tungsten used
in the manufacture of tungsten and ferrotungsten for steel making.
Scheelite is not wanted in this country for making filaments.
Before the war the United States imported considerable quantities of
German ferrotungsten, but metallurgists claim that the ferrotungsten
now made in this country is superior to any from Germany. For the
present, of course, the German export trade is dead. England, formerly
a small producer, is now making large quantities of ferrotungsten
and tungsten powder at a number of plants. One of the producers, the
High Speed Steel Alloys, Ltd., Widnes, near Liverpool, “is under
government assistance and is owned by 31 of the leading consumers
of Sheffield.”[75] The article quoted stated that the output was at
the rate of 500 tons of tungsten per annum. The Thermo-Electric Ore
Reduction Corporation,[76] Luton, was at the same time producing 140
tons of tungsten per month. The ferro produced carried 80 per cent.
and the powder 98 per cent. of metallic tungsten. Only one company in
the United States was producing as much as 60 tons of tungsten per
month during the same war period. The Thermo Electric Ore Reduction
Corporation owned mines from which it expected to produce each year
4,000 long tons of concentrates carrying 65 per cent. tungstic
oxide. There are at least seven other manufacturers of tungsten or
ferrotungsten in England.
[75] _Mining Journal_, London. “High Speed Steel Alloys, Ltd., Visit
of Inspection to the Works,” vol. 115, Nov. 25, 1916, p. 779.
JULIUS L. F. VOGEL has since written an article (_Min. Jour._,
London, vol. 20, p. 16, Jan., 1919) in which he says that government
aid, though proffered, was not accepted. This statement confirms the
government policy.
[76] _Mining Journal._ “Thermo-Electric Ore Reduction Corporation,
Ltd., Visit to the Luton Works,” vol. 115, p. 797, Dec. 2, 1916.
France had a number of ferrotungsten plants before the war, and these
are thought to be still in operation.
At the beginning of the war about half of the tungsten used in the
United States was introduced into steel in the form of ferrotungsten
and about half in the form of tungsten powder. This practice has
changed, so that now more than three-fourths of the tungsten used is
introduced as ferrotungsten, largely, it seems, because of the ferro
being now manufactured in purer form and partly because tungsten powder
could not be obtained for a while. At one time tungsten ores were put
in the charge and the tungsten alloyed directly with the steel; in
fact, tungsten steels were first made in this way, although the process
was patented in this country as new. The practice seems to have been
dropped because of the introduction into the steel of impurities that
may be eliminated when tungsten or ferrotungsten is made first.
In the making of tungsten steels a considerable change has taken place
through the increased use of the electric furnace. One considerable
producer, the Latrobe Electric Steel Co., makes all of its high-speed
tool steel in this way. The Vanadium Alloys Steel Co., one of the
larger producers, makes a large part of its steel in the electric
furnace, and the Crucible Steel Co. and some other steel companies are
understood to make a part or all of their steels thus.
The removal of tin, copper and other impurities from ferrotungsten by
grinding and chemical treatment has made possible the use of impure
ores in the production of high-grade ferrotungsten in the electric
furnace.
GEOLOGICAL DISTRIBUTION
Tungsten, even more than tin, is found almost exclusively with granitic
rocks. In a few places tungsten ores are found in volcanic, sedimentary
or metamorphic rocks, but as is postulated with certain tin deposits,
many of these deposits may be explained on the supposition that they
are not far vertically above underlying granite.
Among the deposits themselves there is a considerable variety of types,
and they may be classed as follows: Segregation deposits, pegmatite
dikes, veins, replacement deposits, contact metamorphic deposits and
placers.
Segregation deposits are few and of little importance and constitute
those deposits in which wolframite is segregated in granite, like
biotite or hornblende. A closely related type is the occurrence of
tungsten minerals in aplitic granite, and this grades almost insensibly
into the second type, the pegmatites.
The pegmatites are also of comparatively small importance, but do yield
certain quantities of tungsten minerals. The pegmatites also grade
into the next type, the veins, which have heretofore furnished the
greater part of the tungsten minerals of the world. Closely connected
with the veins are the fourth type, replacement deposits, in which the
country rocks alongside the veins, though the veins may be very small,
are replaced by various minerals, including those of tungsten. The
only known large examples are the wolframite deposits near Lead, South
Dakota, which were considerable producers under the high prices of the
Great War.
Among the replacement deposits are to be noted also such deposits as
those in the Deep Creek Mountains, Utah, in which solutions following
cracks in monzonite have replaced the rock with a mass of feldspar,
quartz, tourmaline, apatite, scheelite, wolframite (very little),
bismuth, copper, and molybdenum minerals, which under other conditions
would be unhesitatingly called pegmatite.
Closely related to the replacement deposits are the contact metamorphic
deposits, the fifth type. These only recently have begun to be of
commercial importance, but promise to be among the greatest, if not the
greatest, producers of this country and possibly of other countries.
They are of the familiar kind--limestones or limey rocks which have
been invaded by granites bringing large quantities of watery or gaseous
solutions of silicon, iron, aluminum and magnesium, with less chlorine,
fluorine, potash and sulphur, and, in this case, tungsten. In the
Great Basin broad areas of limestone, extending from northwestern Utah
to the Sierra Nevadas and around their southern extremity, have been
thus intruded and metamorphosed. Some large deposits of scheelite have
already been exploited in the region and others remain to be worked.
Similar deposits occur in Korea, Japan and Tasmania, and probably
exist, though as yet undiscovered, in China, the Malay Peninsula and
other countries. The tungsten mineral in such deposits is invariably
scheelite.
Placers, the sixth type, are formed from all grades of deposits, but
their value depends largely on local conditions. They are both residual
and fluviatile deposits and have been large producers of tungsten
minerals, especially of wolframite. A very large proportion of the
Burmese output has been from semi-residual and stream placers, and the
Chinese output in 1918, the largest ever made by any country in one
year, was almost wholly from placers.
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION
The distribution of tungsten ores is far from being as wide as the
distribution of the granitic rocks, and some regions with large areas
of granite have almost no tungsten minerals. Among such regions are
the Scandinavian peninsula, large stretches of Canada, the eastern
United States, and Brazil.
The world’s known large tungsten fields are grouped along the shores
of the Pacific Ocean--not always close to it, but somewhere in the
great mountain masses paralleling its margin, and the western shore
is much richer than the eastern shore. In 1918, fully 92 per cent. of
the world’s tungsten came from the shores of the Pacific, 61 per cent.
coming from Asia, Australia, and Oceania, and 31 per cent. from North
America and South America. Eastern Asia alone furnished 56 per cent.
There is only one considerable tungsten-bearing area not situated close
to the Pacific, that of the Iberian Peninsula, mostly in Portugal but
partly in Spain. Of the less than 8 per cent. not produced around the
Pacific, that area yielded nearly 5 per cent. There are, of course,
small deposits in England, Germany and other places near the Atlantic,
but together they produce less than 3 per cent. of the world’s tungsten
ores. The huge continent of Africa has only negligible known deposits;
none of consequence are found on the borders of the Arctic, Antarctic
or Indian oceans except along the narrow Malay Peninsula dividing the
Indian and Pacific oceans, and only minor deposits are known in Siberia.
Considered as a single metallogenic province, the region making by
far the greatest production is in southeastern Asia; it includes the
Malay Peninsula, Burma, the Shan States, Siam, Tonkin, and southeastern
China. The second largest producing metallogenic province is the
Cordilleran, including Bolivia and the adjacent closely related areas
of Peru, Argentina and Chile, to which the United States and Mexico
would be a close third.[77] Portugal, Spain and Italy form the fourth
province, to which are closely related the Cornish-French producing
areas. Australia, including Tasmania, is next in importance and is a
distinct province, practically all the ores being found in the ranges
of the eastern side of the continent. Japan and Korea also form a
rather distinct province which may continue into Manchuria. Mexico,
as has been indicated, should be included in the same province as the
western United States. There are numerous small more or less isolated
areas, like Connecticut, Nova Scotia, Manitoba, etc., that are at
present of little importance and give no promise of future greatness.
[77] It may be quite justly objected that the idea of a metallogenic
province is considerably stretched to include the Boulder and Black
Hills deposits with those of the southwestern states and Mexico, but
for convenience they are here so grouped--with a frank confession of
the license taken.
PRODUCTION BY COUNTRIES
The world’s production of tungsten ores by metallogenic provinces and
political areas is shown in the following table:
TABLE 28.--THE WORLD’S PRODUCTION OF TUNGSTEN ORE, 1913 TO 1918, BY
METALLOGENIC PROVINCES AND POLITICAL AREAS[78]
In short tons (2,000 pounds) of concentrates containing 60 per cent.
WO₃.
-----------------------------+-------+-------+-------+
Province and area | 1913 | 1914 | 1915 |
-----------------------------+-------+-------+-------+
_Africa_ | | | |
South African province: | | | |
Rhodesia | 4| ...| ...|
Union of South Africa | ...| ...| ...|
+-------+-------+-------+
| 4| ...| ...|
| | | |
_Asia_ | | | |
Chino-Malayan province: | | | |
Burma | 1,891| 2,605| 2,963|
China | ...| ...| ...|
Dutch East Indies (Billiton| | | |
and Singkep) | 7| 1| 7|
Federated Malay States |[80]252|[80]292|[80]326|
French Indo-China (Tonkin) |[80]101| 119| 220|
Siam | ...| 301| 475|
Unfederated Malay States: | | | |
Johore[80] | ...| ...| 2|
Kedah | 32| 27| 14|
Trengganu[80] | 94| 160| 161|
| | | |
Indian province: | | | |
India (excluding Burma) | ...| ...| ...|
Japo-Korean province: | | | |
Chosen (Korea) | ...| ...| 74|
Japan | 272| 215| 411|
+-------+-------+-------+
| 2,649| 3,720| 4,653|
| | | |
_Australia_ | | | |
Australian province: | | | |
New South Wales |[80]191|[80]220| [80]93|
Northern Territory[79] | 217| 159| 366|
Queensland | 402| 270| 468|
South Australia | ...| ...| ...|
Tasmania | 76| 53| 106|
Victoria | 1| ...| 16|
Western Australia[80] | 1| 1| ...|
+-------+-------+-------+
| 888| 703| 1,049|
| | | |
_Europe_ | | | |
Erzgebirgan province: | | | |
Austria | 57| 62| [82]75|
Germany |[80]318|[82]100|[82]150|
Franco-Cornish province: | | | |
England | 204| 229| 370|
France | 301|[82]200|[82]200|
Iberian province: | | | |
Italy | ...| ...| ...|
Portugal | 1,241| 735| 1,029|
Spain | 186| 149| 208|
Russian province: | | | |
Russia | ...| ...| ...|
Scandinavian province: | | | |
Norway | 3| 4| ...|
+-------+-------+-------+
| 2,310| 1,479| 2,032|
| | | |
_North America_ | | | |
American province: | | | |
Alaska | ...| ...| ([83])|
United States | 1,537| 990| 2,332|
Canadian province: | | | |
Southeastern Canada | ...| ...| ...|
Southwestern province: | | | |
Mexico | ...| ...| ...|
+-------+-------+-------+
| 1,537| 990| 2,332|
| | | |
_Oceania_ | | | |
Oceanic province: | | | |
New Zealand[80] | 248| 228| 217|
| | | |
_South America_ | | | |
Brazilian province: | | | |
Brazil | ...| ...| ...|
Cordilleran province: | | | |
Argentina[80] | 679| 499| 201|
Bolivia[80] | 339| 330| 947|
Chile | ...| ...| 10|
Peru | 357| 235| 455|
+-------+-------+-------+
| 1,375| 1,064| 1,613|
+-------+-------+-------+
Total | 9,011| 8,184| 11,896|
-----------------------------+-------+-------+-------+
-----------------------------+-------+------------+----------
Province and area | 1916 | 1917 | 1918
-----------------------------+-------+------------+----------
_Africa_ | | |
South African province: | | |
Rhodesia | 2| 12| 37
Union of South Africa | 1| 9| 19
+-------+------------+----------
| 3| 21| 56
| | |
_Asia_ | | |
Chino-Malayan province: | | |
Burma | 4,166| 5,018| 4,919
China |[79]120|[79,80]1,500|[80]11,662
Dutch East Indies (Billiton| | |
and Singkep) | 52| [81]61| [81]61
Federated Malay States | 578| 794| 398
French Indo-China (Tonkin) | 183| 422| [82]450
Siam | 584| 800| [82]800
Unfederated Malay States: | | |
Johore[80] | 25| 2| 1
Kedah | 19| 139| 582
Trengganu[80] | 303| 225| 691
| | |
Indian province: | | |
India (excluding Burma) | 47| 69| 45
Japo-Korean province: | | |
Chosen (Korea) | 613| 992| [82]1,102
Japan | 770| 808| [79]651
+-------+------------+----------
| 7,460| 10,830| 21,362
| | |
_Australia_ | | |
Australian province: | | |
New South Wales |[80]296| [80]274| [79]325
Northern Territory[79] | 401| 427| 614
Queensland | 415| 406| 298
South Australia | 1| ...| ...
Tasmania | 119| 270| 416
Victoria | 1| 25| 4
Western Australia[80] | 4| 1| 5
+-------+------------+----------
| 1,237| 1,403| 1,662
| | |
_Europe_ | | |
Erzgebirgan province: | | |
Austria |[82]150| [82]150| [82]150
Germany |[82]351| [82]200| [82]200
Franco-Cornish province: | | |
England | 441| 270| 338
France |[81]182| [81]182| [81]182
Iberian province: | | |
Italy | 9| 1| ...
Portugal | 1,563| 1,742| [82]1,300
Spain | 468| 491| 4,741
Russian province: | | |
Russia | 36| [79]108| [82]150
Scandinavian province: | | |
Norway | 1| [82]10| [82]10
+-------+------------+----------
| 3,201| 3,154| 7,071
| | |
_North America_ | | |
American province: | | |
Alaska | 47| 32| 12
United States | 5,876| 6,112| 5,056
Canadian province: | | |
Southeastern Canada | ...| ...| 13
Southwestern province: | | |
Mexico | 13| 207| 165
+-------+------------+----------
| 5,936| 6,351| 5,246
| | |
_Oceania_ | | |
Oceanic province: | | |
New Zealand[80] | 298| 181| 190
| | |
_South America_ | | |
Brazilian province: | | |
Brazil | [80]7| ...| ...
Cordilleran province: | | |
Argentina[80] | 963| 1,251| 724
Bolivia[80] | 3,624| 4,646| 4,082
Chile | 2| ...| ...
Peru | 587| 471| 295
+-------+------------+----------
| 5,183| 6,368| 5,101
+-------+------------+----------
Total | 23,318| 28,308| 40,688
-----------------------------+-------+------------+----------
[78] Figures unaccompanied by footnote references are taken from
official sources or other authentic publications. In all cases
the original quantities have been reduced to their equivalent in
concentrates containing 60 per cent. WO₃.
[79] Figures partly official and partly estimated by the United
States Geological Survey.
[80] Exports.
[81] Figures estimated by the Allies when it was proposed to allocate
the tungsten ores of the world among themselves.
[82] Figures estimated by the United States Geological Survey.
[83] Less than half a ton.
DEVELOPMENTS AND CHANGES IN KNOWN GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION IN THE NEAR
FUTURE
=Asia.=--The increase of output from eastern Asia has been marvelous.
In 1913 it amounted to 2,497 tons and in 1918, as already stated, to
20,228 tons--more than 56 per cent. of the world’s production. As
elsewhere, production must decrease until the accumulated stocks in
the reducing centers are used, then production will again proceed. The
alluvial deposits of _China_ are by no means exhausted, the veins are
scarcely touched, the tungsten-bearing area is large and only partly
prospected, and such prospecting as has been done has been almost
wholly for placers; labor is cheap, and a large future output is sure.
More liberal ideas of trade and government are slowly taking root in
China and ultimately educated Chinese or trained foreigners will work
the deposits; the output for a long time will be large, though it may
never again be as large as it was in 1918.
So far as can be learned, the easily worked placers and the upper parts
of the veins in _Burma_ are becoming exhausted rather rapidly,[84] and
recourse must therefore be had more and more to the mining of those
parts of the veins below water level and in harder rock, and this
will probably mean a diminution rather than an increase in output.
_Siam_ seemingly should give an increased production, as the mines
are comparatively new, and there still should be opportunity for
discoveries. The _Federated Malay States_ and the unfederated states
(_Johore_, _Kedah_ and _Trengganu_) should produce at least as much
in the immediate future as in the past--given the demand and an equal
price.
[84] Burma Chamber of Commerce and Tavoy Chamber of Mines, “Memorial
to Sir George Barnes,” _Mining Jour._, London, vol. 121, 1918, May 4,
p. 261.
=Australasia.=--Like other British possessions, _Australia_ labored
under the handicap of a comparatively low fixed price for tungsten
ores during the war. This price, at first 55 shillings per long ton
unit c.i.f. London, was later raised to 60 shillings. During the
earlier part of the war the price paid in Australia averaged less than
one-half the price paid in the United States, and only a little more
than half that paid in regions other than the British provinces. In
consequence the Australian tungsten production did not increase during
the war as it might have done had prices been higher. The cream of the
known deposits is gone except in Tasmania, where contact metamorphic
deposits on King Island have quadrupled the Tasmanian output. The
tungsten minerals mined in Australia are largely wolframite with
smaller quantities of huebnerite and scheelite. The huebnerite seems to
be rarely recognized as such in the British market, but is all sold as
wolframite. Except for the contact metamorphic deposits on King Island,
Tasmania, the deposits worked are mostly veins, with some pegmatites.
In New Zealand, the production is wholly scheelite; it increased
considerably during the war until the last year--1918--when, apparently
from a lack of efficient labor, it fell to the lowest point since 1909.
The probabilities are that there will be a stoppage of output for the
present.
=South America.=--In _Bolivia_ the increase of production has been
great. The deposits seem to be wholly veins and derived placers.
The veins are closely connected with the tin deposits, and in many
veins tin and tungsten are associated, but many tungsten deposits
contain little or no tin. The tungsten minerals mined are ferberite,
wolframite, scheelite and some huebnerite. In some veins the minerals
are mixed and in others wholly separate. The mines are in and on both
sides of the eastern Cordillera of the Andes through a distance of
nearly 400 miles from a point near Puerta Acosta, on the northwest, to
Chorolque, on the southeast. Mining costs during the war rose greatly
in sympathy with the rise in other parts of the world. Wages did not
rise to great heights, but the cost of materials advanced decidedly.
Transportation conditions are always bad in most of Bolivia, and
heavily increase expenses. Because of circumstances the output is
extremely sensitive to a decrease in demand or prices, and hence it
fell quickly after the armistice, but should high prices come again, it
will probably again increase quickly. Some modern plants were placed at
mines before or just as the armistice was signed, and when world stocks
of tungsten are used and when there is again a demand, some ore will be
produced even at less than $10 a unit, though the average cost seems to
be about $12 a unit, at the mine.[85]
[85] HAZELTINE, ROSS, United States consul, La Paz. Report dated May
14, 1919.
The output of _Peru_, as now produced, seems to depend upon high prices
and with such prices could probably remain at the level of 1916 for
several years. The Huaura deposits are reported to be large, though of
low grade, and may under proper management yield much ore even at lower
prices. They were under the control of German firms during the war and
probably still are.
=North America.=--Until 1911 the _United States_ was the leading
tungsten-producing country, but in that year it was passed by Burma,
which kept the lead until 1916, when the United States again became the
principal miner of tungsten ore. In 1918 China entered the excessively
high-priced market with an output that exceeded by nearly 1,000 tons
the world’s production of any year before 1915. North America increased
its output from 1,549 tons in 1913 to 6,512 tons in 1917, but dropped
back nearly 1,000 tons (to 5,406 tons) in 1918. In the United States
the decrease of production was due almost wholly to the fall in price,
and only partly to exhaustion of deposits. In the Boulder, Colo.,
tungsten field some of its best ore bodies are worked out and the cost
of production has risen greatly owing to the impoverishment of others,
and the same thing is true in some other places, but it seems possible
that in the country as a whole the production can be made about equal
to what it has been before, _provided prices are equally high_, through
the discovery of the contact-metamorphic deposits of the Great Basin.
In _Mexico_ the tungsten deposits are seemingly a continuation of those
of southern Arizona. So far as known, all the Mexican deposits carry
scheelite, in places partly replaced by cuprotungstite. The known
worked deposits in the Sahuaripa district of Sonora are described as
veins containing scheelite with copper minerals and a pegmatite dike in
which are large masses of scheelite and molybdenite.
=Europe.=--European production increased about 50 per cent. between
1913 and 1918, mostly in _Portugal_, and the output of tungsten ores in
Portugal apparently did not reach its maximum. Both placers and veins
have been exploited and there seems to be placer material still to be
worked as well as veins that are said to be far from exhausted. The
official statistics of production given by Portugal during the greater
part of the war are declared by engineers conversant with the situation
to have been too low, because of ore being smuggled into Spain and
on board ships bound for England. On the other hand, in 1918 England
and France objected to the shipment of Portuguese ore to the United
States, but would not pay equivalent prices. The Portuguese government
therefore issued an order preventing the export of tungsten ore except
at fixed prices approaching the current American prices. American
owners could not work their mines successfully under the British-French
embargo, with the result that the output was probably much smaller than
in 1917. In spite of the uncertainties the official estimates have been
used as far as they are available, for no better figures are at hand.
As to the Spanish output, prophecy is difficult because the data
concerning the mines are meager. It seems probable that under similar
prices about the same output as in the past may be expected from the
English and French deposits. The English output decreased in 1917 and
increased only a little in 1918. No accurate data are available from
France. The German and Austrian deposits were probably worked so hard
during the World War that less is to be expected from them than they
have heretofore produced.
=Summary.=--The principal changes in the distribution of production
during the next few years would seem to be: Further development in
Korea; possible development in Manchuria; development of deposits in
southern China and Siam; further development in Bolivia; a tendency
in the United States to largely increased production from deposits in
the Great Basin; and development of both veins and contact-metamorphic
deposits in Mexico. Production will possibly decrease in the Atolia and
Boulder fields of the United States; and in Australia, Japan, Germany
and Austria.
POLITICAL AND COMMERCIAL CONTROL
The actual control of the world’s tungsten deposits differs
considerably from that indicated by the production within political
areas. Actual control is justly obtained through ordinary competitive
buying, ownership by nationals (sometimes by governments) of deposits,
and through commercial alliance. Control through ownership of banks
and transportation lines may be just or it may be by coercion
and commercial brigandage, seizing ports for coaling and repair
stations--methods that are merely refinements evolved since the days
when “They sought their fortunes as they pleased abroad, the crown
annoying them with no inquiry to embarrass their search for Spanish
treasure ships, or their trade in pirated linens and silks.”[86]
[86] WILSON, WOODROW. “A History of the American People,” vol. 1, p.
25.
TABLE 29.--ACTUAL CONTROL OF THE WORLD’S TUNGSTEN OUTPUT IN 1917 AND
1918.
IN SHORT TONS OF 2,000 POUNDS
--------------------------+-------------------+--------------------
| 1917 | 1918
--------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------
| |Percentage| |Percentage
|Quantity|of world’s|Quantity|of world’s
| | output | | output
--------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------
British: | | | |
_Possessions_ | | | |
Burma and Shan States | 4,600 | | 4,870 |
Federated Malay States| 853 | | 920 |
Trengganu | 350 | | 350 |
Johore and Kedah | 200 | | 582 |
India | 75 | | 46 |
Australia | 1,404 | | 1,662 |
New Zealand | 241 | | 146 |
England | 265 | | 330 |
South Africa | 24 | | 37 |
+--------+ +--------+
| 8,012 | 28.4 | 8,943 | 24.9
| | | |
_Obtained through trade | | | |
and political pressure_ | | | |
Japan and Korea | | | |
(including ores for | | | |
France) | 790 | | None |
China and Hongkong | | | |
(including ores for | | | |
France) | 1,105 | | 900 |
Siam | 600 | | 600 |
Billiton and Singkep | 60 | | 60 |
Argentina } (including| | | |
Bolivia } ores for | 2,035 | | 950 |
Peru } France) | | | |
Portugal | 960 | | 800 |
Spain (including ores | | | |
for France) | 446 | | 425 |
+--------+ +--------+
| 5,996 | 21.3 | 3,735 | 10.4
Total ores under | | | |
British control | 14,008 | 49.7 | 12,678 | 35.3
| | | |
French: | | | |
France | 182 | | 180 |
Tonkin | 422 | | 450 |
Siam | 170 | | 190 |
Portugal | 650 | | 440 |
Bolivia (See Great | | | |
Britain) | ? | | ? |
Argentina (See Great | | | |
Britain) | ? | | ? |
+--------+ +--------+
| 1,424 | 5.3 | 1,260 | 3.5
| | | |
German: | | | |
Germany | 200 | | 200 |
Austria | 150 | | 150 |
Norway | ? | | |
Portugal | ? | | ? |
Spain | ? | | ? |
+--------+ +--------+
| 350 | 1.2 | 350 | 1
| | | |
American: | | | |
Mexico | 340 | | 326 |
Peru } | | | |
Bolivia } | 4,320 | | 4,680 |
Argentina } | | | |
Japan and Korea | | | |
(including some | | | |
Chinese ore) | 1,010 | | 1,650 |
China and Hongkong | 395 | | 9,300 |
Portugal | 130 | | 60 |
Siam | 30 | | 12 |
Domestic production | 6,144 | | 5,068 |
+--------+ +--------+
| 12,369 | 43.9 |21,150 | 59
| | | |
Japanese: (Quantity | | | |
smelted only) | | | |
China | ? | | 300 }|
| | | }|
Norwegian: | | | }|
Norway | 10 | | 10 }| 1.3
| | | }|
Russian: | | | }|
Russia | 110 | | 150 }|
+--------+ +--------+
Total | 28,178 | |35,832 |
--------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------
Owing to the close relationships between some foreign governments and
private firms--as illustrated by the German government’s interest
in dye, potash, and shipping firms, and the British government’s
participation in nickel mining and ferrotungsten-making companies--it
is not practicable to draw a line between governmentally and privately
controlled deposits. In countries with weak governments, the deposits
owned by British subjects are to all intents and purposes British; but
foreign deposits owned by Americans are not necessarily under American
control; in fact, instead of helping and encouraging our pioneers in
foreign trade we are apt to harass them and destroy their business with
drastic tariff laws.
In effect, the preceding table merely shows where the ores of different
countries go for treatment; it is, of course, only a generalization,
for trade conditions constantly change. For instance, Japanese
electric furnaces are beginning to smelt tungsten ores, though at
present to the extent of only 10 to 15 tons of contained tungsten per
month, but it is conceivable that the output may be increased greatly.
Although Japan could control the disposition of its ore, it is given
credit for control only of its smelted ores. The exact distribution of
ores from Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Portugal and Spain can not be given.
=British Control.=--During the war the British government demanded
and obtained all of the tungsten ores produced in its colonies and
possessions. This restriction was later lifted as regards to Canada,
and a new rule allowed Canada to ship tungsten ores to other Entente
nations, but as Canada was not a producer the license granted amounted
to nothing except as it eased the feelings of the Canadians. Scheelite
deposits had been discovered in Manitoba, however, that for a time
seemed to be potential producers. Nominally Siam has remained free
from British control because more or less under the zone of influence
of the French, but diplomatic pressure seems to have been exercised
at Bangkok. The Siamese ores mostly contain some tin and have gone to
Singapore for separation; and when once within the British possessions,
of course they could not be exported. The English control of Siamese
shipments, however, seems as complete as if the ores came from an
English province. Mr. Nassuer, of the Siamese American Trading Co.,
testified before the Tariff Commission at San Francisco, June 28,
1918, that his company wished to ship ore to the United States but the
British minister to Siam would give no permit. The company took the
matter up with our State Department and finally got permission to ship
10 tons.
In February, 1918, the Chemical Products Co., of Washington, D. C.,
protested to the Department of State at Washington with reference to
British interference with exportation of tungsten ore from Siam to the
United States, stating that the company was working under conditions
peculiar to itself in that it employed an expensive process developed
to handle low-grade ores obtainable at a much lower price than the
regular grades on the market; that it entered into an agreement with
an American working tungsten mines in Siam for the purchase of his
tungsten ore, only to find that through control of port privileges at
Singapore and Hongkong the British effectually prohibited it or any
other American firm from obtaining the material. Of course, this, like
other incidents mentioned, took place under the shadow of a desperate
war when strictness was to be expected, but the shipments asked were
to an ally from a country not openly under control of Great Britain.
Doubtless no such objections would be offered now, but the incidents
show the efficiency of these methods of controlling commerce.
In southern China, Hongkong being the port for Kwangtung and
Kwangsi, and parts of southern Kiangsi and Hunan, the British for a
while exercised control over the export of ores produced in those
districts,[87] refusing to allow the reshipment of ores unless they
were sent to England.
[87] ANDERSON, GEORGE E.: American Consul General, Hongkong, China.
“Tungsten from South China.” Commerce Reports, Nov. 9, 1917, p. 546.
Foreigners, including Americans of course, are not allowed to own
mining property in Burma, the Federated and Unfederated Malay States,
or Australia, territory producing nearly all the tungsten ores of the
British Empire.
In Argentina small tungsten mines are owned by English companies.[88]
[88] SHARP, RALSTON C.: “Wolfram Deposits in the Argentine.” _Mining
Magazine_, London, vol. 18, May, 1918, pp. 230-233.
In Bolivia the English and French governments during the war leased
mines directly, and came into direct competition with American business
men engaged in buying or producing tungsten ores.
British traders are constantly striving to increase their control of
Bolivian tungsten ores. At present the English seemingly have complete
control of the financial system of Bolivia, so far as foreign exchange
is concerned. An American interested in a tungsten mine in Bolivia
has informed the writer that it is almost impossible to do business
with English banks, because they insist that if they extend commercial
courtesies, even for pay, the recipient must buy only English mining
machinery. The buddle, which for dressing tungsten ore is obsolete
in other countries, is said to be still used in Bolivian mills under
English control. If miners do not wish to deal through English banks,
they are compelled to cable money to and from New York at considerable
expense. The American banking interests represented in Bolivia seem
conservative in advancing money on ore shipments, whereas German
and English representatives are said to advance up to 80 per cent.
of the market value of ores shipped. Mining corporations controlled
by English firms ship to England, and Americans can not compete for
the production. Such a firm is Aramayo Francke Mines, Ltd., which
produced 2,050 long tons of tin concentrates, 226 tons of wolframite
concentrates, and a considerable output of bismuth in the year ending
May 31, 1916. Control of the Bolivian mines by the English is not yet
dangerous to American interests, except through the banking system, but
entire control may be passed to them, to the Germans or the French,
through American tariff legislation.
In Portugal, English companies control a number of the mines, and
it has been alleged by at least two Americans[89] that the English
government, through its representations at Lisbon, for a period of more
than two years, prevented title passing to American companies. The
Thermo Electric Ore Reduction Corporation, Ltd., seems to be the chief
English owner of Portuguese tungsten mines.
[89] Personal communications.
In the Dutch East Indies, the British are understood to control the
present wolframite production of about 5 tons a month.
=French Control.=--French control of tungsten deposits is not large.
It includes the production of France and of Tonkin, a part of that
from Portugal, and a comparatively small interest in Bolivia. During
the war, control in Portugal was attempted by England and France. The
prices offered by the English and French were much below the market
prices at New York, and the Portuguese government stepped in and raised
prices to a point somewhat lower than those of the United States, but
20 per cent. higher than the prices offered by England and France.
=Japanese Control.=--Japan has within her own borders a considerable
number of tungsten deposits in the southern part of the islands, but
all are small. In Korea important deposits have been discovered and
actively worked, especially within the last two years. Deposits in
Manchuria are said to be controlled by the Japanese; little is known
of them, and if they exist they are probably small. Japanese ores have
largely come to the United States for several years. As has been said,
Japanese firms have erected electric furnaces in which a part of the
tungsten ores are reduced, probably the equivalent of 25 to 35 tons per
month of concentrates carrying 60 per cent. WO₃.
=American Control.=--The United States controls entirely the tungsten
deposits within its own borders and Alaska. Americans operating in
Mexico have produced 200 to 300 short tons of scheelite concentrates
per year, from deposits in the Sahuaripa district, Sonora. Wolframite
is said to have been shipped from Sinaloa to the United States, but its
real origin is unknown. Contact metamorphic deposits about 60 miles
southwest of Nacozari carry 0.7 per cent. WO₃ and 1 to 2 per cent.
copper. They are owned by Americans but are not now productive.
In Bolivia, Americans own some of the more important tungsten mines.
The American firms known to own tungsten properties there are W. R.
Grace & Co., local address, La Paz; Stewart, Wilson & Hepburn, Oruro;
Easley Inslee, La Paz; and C. Dillon, Oruro. Their total output is
estimated to amount to about 1,600 tons, out of a total output of more
than 4,000 tons for the country.
In southern China, American firms have largely developed the tungsten
trade, so that through this source the United States (or rather
American capital) controls, unless hindered, a yearly output of perhaps
9,000 short tons of tungsten concentrates.
In Siam one or two United States companies have attempted to produce
tungsten, but English influence during the war made difficult the
shipment of even small lots of ores to this country.
Because it offered higher prices than other countries, and because
the more direct and shorter trade route made trade with this country
advantageous to the Japanese, the United States largely controlled the
Japanese output of tungsten ore in 1918. This trade probably has been
somewhat curtailed and will be further diminished through the erection
of electric furnaces in Japan. The table following shows the tungsten
ores imported for consumption into the United States in 1918, but gives
a poor idea of the ores shipped from the countries of origin; Chinese
ores lag three months and South American ores about two months. The
table gives only the ores actually received during the year. Table 29
shows more nearly the ores shipped to the United States during the year.
Chinese ores are treated as averaging 67.5 per cent. WO₃ and other ores
65 per cent. WO₃.
TABLE 30.--TUNGSTEN-BEARING ORES IMPORTED INTO THE UNITED STATES
IN 1918, BY COUNTRIES AS LISTED AT PORTS OF ENTRY, AND BY PROBABLE
COUNTRIES OF ORIGIN
-------------------------------++------------------------------------
|| Probable origin and equivalent
As listed at ports || in 60 per cent. WO₃
------------+------+-----------++-----------------+------+-----------
| Quan-| || | Quan-|
| tity,| || | tity,|
| short| || | short|
Country | tons | Value ||Country | tons | Value
------------+------+-----------++-----------------+------+-----------
Argentina | 536|$ 730,722||South America, | |
Bolivia | 88| 122,357||including: | |
| | ||Argentina | |
| | ||Bolivia | |
Canada | 56| 115,863||Chile | |
| | ||Colombia | |
Chile | 1,251| 1,209,864||Costa Rica | |
| | ||Ecuador | |
China | 2,384| 2,068,636||Panama | |
| | ||Peru | |
Colombia | 56| 65,124||Salvador | 4,181|$ 3,746,299
Costa Rica | 18| 19,081|| | |
Ecuador | 6| 9,979||China, including:| |
| | ||Hongkong, | |
France | 29| 3,400||“Other British | |
| | ||East Indies;” | |
Hongkong | 3,595| 3,511,046||also Canada | 6,811| 5,708,616
| | || | |
Japan | 1,361| 1,700,332||Japan | 1,474| 1,700,332
| | || | |
Mexico | 264| 224,247||Mexico | 286| 224,247
| | || | |
“Other | | ||Portugal, | |
British | | ||including: | |
East Indies”| 19| 13,071||France | 61| 21,160
| | || | |
Panama | 37| 40,614|| | |
| | || | |
Peru | 1,827| 1,488,516||Siam | 12| 8,583
| | || | |
Portugal | 27| 17,760|| | |
| | || | |
Salvador | 40| 60,042||Unaccounted for | 157| 142,981
| | || | |
Siam | 11| 8,583|| | |
| | || | |
Unaccounted | | || | |
for | 145| 142,981|| | |
+------+-----------++ +------+-----------
|11,750|$11,552,218|| |12,882|$11,552,218
------------+------+-----------++-----------------+------+-----------
Unhindered by other governments, this country would have imported even
larger quantities of ore, because of its paying higher prices and being
more liberal regarding impurities.
The table shows that the United States imported 36 per cent. of the
tungsten output of the world; this amount added to the domestic
output makes a total of 17,921 tons, or 50 per cent. of the world’s
production. Owing to the lag in shipments from South America and China
the South American ores received in January and February were from
the output of 1917, as were the Chinese ores arriving up to the end
of March. Subtracting the ores arriving from the two regions during
the first two and three months, respectively, of 1918, and adding
the ores arriving during a like period in 1919, make the quantity
of ore controlled by the United States in 1918 (as shown on page
153) equivalent to 21,131 tons of concentrates carrying 60 percent.
WO₃, or 59 per cent. of the world’s production. These ores were all
controlled through the private initiative of American firms who
offered better prices and better terms than could be obtained abroad.
Probably a larger proportion could be handled in the future, should
interference not come from within our own borders. It is now proposed
to put a tariff of $10 a unit on tungsten ores without regard to
purity or quality, with a correspondingly high tariff of $1 a pound,
plus the 15 per cent. ad valorem duties now in force, on metal in any
form--element, alloy or salt; and such a bill has passed the House of
Representatives. Its advocates believe that the price, now about $7 a
unit in New York, will be raised to $17 a unit.
Hereafter the quantities of tungsten ore handled will be much smaller
than during 1916, 1917 and 1918; and will be confined to peace-time
needs unless some unforeseen war arises. England, according to
government estimates about January, 1920, had two years’ supply, and
France is probably as well supplied. The United States probably had on
hand an equivalent of quite 8,000 tons of ore carrying 60 per cent.
WO₃. Makers of tool steel figured on a consumption of 7,500 tons during
1919, but because of the lack of market for ore this was much too high;
and probably 4,000 tons is large enough, so that there will likely be
little market for new supplies for nearly two years, except as ore may
be bought speculatively. During this time, mines everywhere must remain
idle until a demand again arises, except for those mines required to
furnish tungsten for Germany, Austria and Russia and the small quantity
required by Sweden, Norway and Italy. If industries in Germany, Austria
and Russia recover so that they can buy and use tungsten, Germany will
have regained in the ores that will be eagerly offered by producing
nations needing a market, a part of the trade she has lost. Traders of
England, France and the United States will be glad to sell tungsten and
ferrotungsten, but Germany will undoubtedly reach out for raw material
in order that she may make as much use as possible of her abundant
unemployed labor. Should a tariff law like that now proposed be passed,
the United States will have cut off its foreign supplies and will have
ended its control of any considerable part of them. However, should a
high price be maintained, artificially or otherwise, the development of
other alloy steels for use in multiple-edged tools may have reached a
point where not so much tungsten will be needed.
=German Control.=--Germany had no considerable tungsten deposits at
home, and none in the foreign territory she held, but in 1913 her
control through business alliances covered about two-thirds of the
world’s output of tungsten ore. In that year, according to the German
official figures, 5,295 short tons of tungsten ores were imported. Most
of this probably carried 65 per cent. or more WO₃, equivalent to, say,
5,736 tons of concentrates carrying 60 per cent. WO₃. Adding the 106
tons of Saxon concentrates produced in that year shows that Germany
treated a total of approximately 5,840 tons out of a world’s output
of 8,864 tons, or about 66 per cent. of the total. The United States
in the same year produced 1,537 tons and imported 449 tons of unknown
content, but the whole was probably equivalent to more than 2,000 tons
of ore carrying 60 per cent. WO₃, leaving only about 1,000 tons for
other countries, most of which seems to have been treated in France.
This trade Germany lost when with Austria she started the World War.
With the cutting off of all shipments by ocean to Germany, most of the
foreign ores were denied her, but undoubtedly small quantities leaked
in through Sweden and Norway for some time after the war began. The
small output of Austria was always available, and it is said that a
considerable quantity of ore was smuggled across the border of Portugal
into Spain, thence by water to the western frontier of Italy, into
Switzerland, and from there shipped direct to Germany. A considerable
part of the Spanish production is said to have reached Germany in this
way also, and the “crippled” submarines that ran into Spanish ports
are reported to have carried out cargoes of tungsten for Germany.
From available data it is impossible to confirm or to disprove these
reports, and, in giving them, their doubtfulness is fully recognized,
but such possibilities must be acknowledged.
In the Allied countries and the United States, the German interests
were taken over by the governments, but in South America the German
firms still hold some control of tungsten-bearing properties. In
Bolivia four German firms are said to have an output of about 600
metric tons of ore a year. In Peru what is said to be the larger part
of the tungsten deposits has been controlled by firms thought to be
German, E. y W. Hardt and Carlos W. Weiss y Cia. In Argentina the Hansa
Mining Co., a German concern, is the principal producer. Its output
is said to be about 500 tons of concentrates a year, but even this
output is said to have come to the United States during the war. If the
United States is placed under a prohibitive tariff, Germany may easily
recover a large part of her control of the world’s tungsten trade.
PRODUCTION PLANTS AND PROCESSES
The spread of knowledge, particularly that regarding electric furnaces,
makes the control of the tungsten trade through secret processes or
superior skill extremely difficult, and so far as the United States,
Great Britain and France are concerned, gives little advantage to any
one. Japan is perhaps somewhat less advantageously placed. Smelting
plants are so easily, quickly and cheaply erected that they do not
offer any great chance for monopoly. Cheap power, high technical skill
and knowledge, originality and boldness in experiment, excellence
of organization, generous dealing with producers, an honest product
honestly sold, good transportation facilities, and broad sane laws are
the elements that will give control. The United States may have this
control through reasonable effort, but selfish laws may still more
easily wreck control of the larger part of the world’s trade, reduce
our tungsten business to a provincial scope, and make the product high
priced for all time.
WHAT CONTROL MEANS IN THE UNITED STATES
In years of good business before the World War, the United States
used an equivalent of 3,000 to 4,000 short tons of concentrates,
carrying 60 per cent. WO₃ per annum. When the war began there was a
lull while the attacked countries caught their breath and prepared
for a long struggle. After plans had been made, and the manufacture
of munitions had begun on a grand scale, the demand for tungsten rose
enormously. All kinds of ores were taken at fabulous prices. Ores
carrying tin, phosphorus, sulphur and bismuth, that before would not
have been considered by steel makers, were taken with avidity, and
there was a great scramble for deposits. In October, 1918, the United
States was using tungsten ores at the rate of 20,000 tons per annum.
Meanwhile prospecting had uncovered so many new deposits and they were
so actively exploited that great stocks of ores were accumulated in
the Entente countries. On the other hand, in this country many of the
known deposits showed signs of impoverishment, a number after being
worked profitably for a short time became wholly inoperative, and it
is likely that some of the deposits that have seemed to be the richest
will never again produce largely. Among the new discoveries were the
contact metamorphic deposits of the Great Basin, in California, Nevada
and northeastern Utah. They were partly developed, and several promise
well, but the irregularity of contact metamorphic ore deposits is
notorious.
In 1916 with prices ranging from $15 to $93.50 per unit, the United
States produced 5,969 tons of concentrates; in 1917 while still under
the impetus of the 1916 boom, with prices ranging around $25 per unit,
6,144 tons; and in 1918, with prices still averaging about $25 per
unit, 5,041 tons, although little was produced in December. Under a
price of $17 per unit, which tariff advocates think can be reached
by means of a tariff of $10 per unit, it seems improbable that the
United States can depend on a production of more than 3,000 tons per
annum for the next three years. There are, of course, possibilities of
a larger production and there are equal possibilities of a smaller.
Should another great war take place, an event that is not beyond the
range of imagination, the United States would probably begin by using
tungsten at the rate of 20,000 tons of concentrates per annum. Unless
the price were even more extravagant than the highest price in 1916,
$93.50 per unit, the United States could not produce half of its needed
concentrates, and the time required to reach even that output would be
far too long for safety. Of course, such a production would be much
better than none, but the United States should, for safety, have within
reach at least a year’s supply.
The Pacific, around the borders of which are the largest tungsten
deposits, is by many looked upon as the next large theatre of war, and
however vitally they were needed, the obtaining of supplies of tungsten
ores might become impossible though the blocking of trade routes.
It would, therefore, seem vastly better that, instead of putting a
premium on the quick depletion of our own supplies, which are already
too meager, we should use the rich low-priced ores now being mined in
the Orient. These cheap ores we may have in trade for the asking, and
it would be one of the best forms of national life insurance for the
government to store 10,000 tons of these ores while they may be had.
The argument is often made that by putting a high tariff on tungsten
ores we would have our own deposits so developed that quick production
could be made when needed; also that with the need we would find more
ores. Both arguments are specious. What is meant is not development but
removal. No one will open a tungsten mine to let the ores stand against
the country’s day of need. The finding of new ores is a probability,
but the quantity is wholly a question. Few tungsten mines of the United
States can be profitably worked at the present price of about $7 per
unit, and the mines are now closed. The number of persons dependent on
the mining of American tungsten ores is small, probably less than 900
in peace times. At present most tungsten miners have already obtained
other employment, and practically all could obtain employment fully
as profitably in other mines, many of which are short handed, so that
no great hardship would be worked. As a matter of national economy,
the United States can not afford to throw away its chance to buy cheap
tungsten ores while they are available. Aside from the question of
insurance and even of existence during another war, not to buy South
American ores is to throw away South American trade. In a degree this
is also true of Chinese and Japanese ores.
The metallurgy of tungsten, like that of other metals, is being
improved constantly, and should our ores remain in the ground for a
time they will be of greater absolute value when mined, for there
will be less waste in conversion. If our ores are mined now under an
artificially high price, we will always pay a high price for tungsten
ores, for when ours are used the ores in other countries will have
diminished in quantity and increased in cost; prices would be higher
and we would have to buy at the advanced rate. On the other hand, by
holding our markets open to cheap ores from any quarter, we will stand
on an equal footing with other countries and will always have a reserve
of high-priced ores available in an emergency.
There is but one crop of ore. Deliberately to turn over all the cheap
tungsten ores of the world to our competitors, allowing them this
advantage in making high-speed steels with which to compete in foreign
trade with our steels and with all products on and in which they are
used; to put a premium on the early depletion of our own deposits of
this indispensable metal; and to compel our use always of high-priced
ores--these would be economic crimes.