Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 16.djvu/487

Rh DIFFERENT COUNTRIES.] G 469 excellent red and brown haematite from tlie Bilbaa mines. Murcia comes next in importance to Biscay, with a production of 539,3*28 tons. Portugal. The great mineral belt of Huelva extends into Portugal, and deposits of cupreous pyrites almost identical with that of Kio Tinto have been wrought from very early ages. The principal mine, Sun Domingos, is close to the Spanish frontier. It is estimated that the workings had yielded up to the year 1877 no less than 3,578,745 English tons of cupreous pyrites, by far the greater part of this having been extracted in recent times. The quantity of ore raised from the mine in 1882 was 405,029 tons. Portugal possesses notable manganese mines, but produces com paratively small quantities of iron, lead, and copper. Norway. The mines at Kongsberg are famous for the large quantities of native silver they produce, and enormous masses are sometimes met with. The annual output is from 10,000 to 12,000 troy ounces. Copper ore and cupreous pyrites are also mined in Norway, and there are important workings for nickel and cobalt and for apatite. Alluvial gravels have been washed for gold in Norwegian Finland. Sweden. The most important mineral obtained in Sweden is iron ore, much being in the form of magnetite ; red haematite also is mined, and brown haematite is dredged up from some of the lakes. The principal iron-producing districts are those of Norberg, Danne- mora, Nora, and Perseberg. The output of the Swedish mines in 1880 was Iron ore 775,205 tons. Lead ore 12,988 Zinc ore 43,452 tons. Copper ore 29,380 ,, Greece. One of the most interesting undertakings of modern times has been the re-working of the Laurium mines, which are situated in the southern extremity of Attica ; and an account of them written by Cordelia furnishes many curious details concerning the methods of mining, washing, and smelting employed by the ancients. The workings for lead and silver appear to have been carried on with the greatest vigour between 600 B c. and the Peloponnesian War, and were finally abandoned in the 1st century of the Christian era. Huge piles of slag which had accumulated from the old smelting works were found to be well worth being re-worked for silver and lead, and operations were commenced in 1864. Five years later the old heaps of mine refuse began to be treated, and at last in 1875 a French company resumed working the mine. A Greek company employing some 3000 persons is now producing annually from the old mine heaps no less than 8000 to 9000 tons of pig lead, yielding 45 oz. of silver to the ton, whilst the mines of the Compagnie fran^aise des mines du Laurium made an output in 1881 of 30,664 tons (metric) of roasted calamine, with 40 to 60 per cent, of zinc, in addition to lead ore and mixed ores. Cordelia cal culates that during the three hundred years the Laurium mines were worked by the ancients the total amount of lead produced was 2,100,000 tons, with 22 million troy ft of silver. Besides this the ancients left behind two million tons of lead slags containing on an average 10*67 per cent, of lead, 109 million tons of mine refuse with 1 J to 18 per cent, of lead, and excavations to the extent of 51 million cubic yards with lead ore still in sight. They did not touch the calamine deposits. 1 Next in importance to lead, silver, and zinc conies bay-salt, and after that emery. The island of Naxos furnished 3300 metric tons of emery in 1877, valued at 28,000. Africa. Algeria is rich in iron, and three-fourths of the value of its total mineral output are due to ores of this metal. In 1880 the iron mines produced 614,000 metric tons of ore, Mokta- el-hadid mine, near Bona, alone yielding about 300,000 tons. Algeria also possesses mines of copper, lead, zinc, and antimony. The name &quot; Gold Coast &quot; applied to part of the shores of Africa, denotes its productiveness of the precious metal, and it is probable that very important supplies of gold will one day be derived from various districts of the Dark Continent. Cape Colony possesses rich copper mines in the Namaqualand division, which in 1882 produced ore and metal worth 331,546; however, the most valuable and remarkable mineral deposits of Africa at the present time are the diamond mines. The first diamonds were obtained from recent gravel in the bed of the Vaal river, and it was afterwards discovered that the precious stones could be obtained from the so-called dry diggings. The most im portant of these, the Colesberg Kopje, now known as the Kimberley mine, produced in 1881 diamonds weighing 900,000 carats, worth 1,575,000. Three other neighbouring mines are Old De Beer s, which yielded 300,000 carats in 1881, worth 600,000, Du Toit s Pan, and Bulfontein. The value of the diamonds raised in South Africa since 1870 amounts to forty millions sterling; 2 indeed the Kimberley mine alone was estimated in 1877 to have already pro duced ten million pounds worth of diamonds, extracted from 4 million tons of diamantiferous rock. 1 A. Cordelia. &quot; Mineraloeisch-geologische Reiseskizzen aus Griechenland,&quot; Berg- und hu/tenmdntiische Zeitung, vol. xlii., 1883, p. 21. 2 A. J. Macdonald, &quot;The Value of the Cape as a Dependency of Great Britain,&quot; The Timts, 3d May 1883. 4sm.Yor many centuries InJL was regarded as possessing fabulous mineral wealth, and a strong basis for this idea may be found in the existence of traces of mining on a very extensive scale. No doubt in early days India did supply what then appeared to be very large quantities of metals, and a country that produces gold and precious stones is apt to bo endowed by the popular mind with boundless riches. The actual amounts of mineral raised in India at the present day are comparatively small. Gold exists over con siderable areas, but it remains to be proved that the gold mines of the Wynaad and Mysore can be profitably worked by British com panies. Diamonds occur and are worked in alluvial diggings and in a conglomerate belonging to the Vindhyan formation. Sapphires and rubies are obtained from Upper Burmah. Ceylon 3 produced in 1880 no less than 10,286 tons of graphite or plumbago, valued at 1 92,879. Petroleum is abundant in Upper Burmah, and oil from wells has been utilized for upwards of twenty centuries. The total output in 1873 was estimated to be about 10,000 tons yearly. Tin ore occurs and is worked in Tenasserim. Passing into Siam and the Malay Peninsula we find deposits of alluvial tin ore, producing what is known in commerce as Straits tin. A little to the east are the islands of Bancaand Billiton, which for many years have been a source of wealth to the Dutch Government. The sales of Banca tin in 1881 amounted to 4339 tons, and those of Billiton tin to 4735 tons, whilst 11,475 tons of Straits tin were exported from Penang and Singapore. 4 Stanniferous alluvia are also worked in Karimon, Singkep, and Sumatra, whilst the latter island possesses also valuable seams of coal. Borneo furnishes coal, antimony ore, and some cinnabar; and river-gravels are washed for diamonds, gold, and platinum. There is no doubt that the mineral wealth of China is enormous. In addition to important coal-fields it possesses numerous metallic mines. The province of Yunnan in the south of the empire seems to be specially favoured with regard to metalliferous wealth, for mines of gold, silver, copper, lead, tin, and iron are worked there, whilst jade and precious stones are found in the beds of rivers. Japan produces more than 3000 tons of copper yearly, or about as rmich as the British Isles. The output of lead and tin is insignifi cant, but the quantity of silver, exceeding 300,000 oz. yearly, is worthy of notice. Gold, iron, and petroleum are other products of Japan. The gold of Siberia has been mentioned in speaking of Russia. Canada. The Dominion of Canada is rich in minerals. Gold- bearing quartz veins are worked in Nova Scotia, whilst in British Columbia alluvial deposits are the main source of the supply. Silver occurs on Lake Superior, the most important mine being that of Silver Islet, which from 1869 to the spring of 1877 yielded 24 million ounces of silver, and gave a profit of 200,000. Rocks resembling the copper-bearing strata of the United States territory are mined in Michipoten island in Lake Superior. Iron ores, in the form of magnetite, red haematite, limouite, and ilmenite, are worked in various parts of Canada. Petroleum is derived from oil wells in &quot;Western Ontario, and the quantity refined in 1875 was about 210,000 barrels, each of 40 gallons. It is in Ontario also that the veins of apatite exist from which a large amount of that useful mineral has been raised. United States. The mineral wealth of the United States is admirably summed up by Mr Richard P. Rothwell in his address, to the American Institute of Mining Engineers. 5 &quot;Production of Coal, Metal, and Petroleum in 1881. Anthracite 30,261,940 tons (&amp;lt;&amp;gt;f 2240 to). Bituminous coal 42,417,764 (of 2000 Ib). Pig iron 4,144,000 (of 2240 Ib). Lead 105,000 Copper 31,000 ,, Quicksilver 59,000 flasks (of 76J Ib. avoir Gold $31,870,000 (=1,541,711 oz.). Silver $45.078.000 (=34,865,960 oz.). Petroleum 27,264,000 ban-els (of 42 gallons). &quot; The statistics of other useful minerals and metals show an equally marvellous advance during the past thirty years. The production of pig iron, which in 1852 was 541,000 net tons, in 1861 was 653,000 tons, and in 1871 was 1,708,000 tons. Ten years later, in 18S1, we produced no less than 4,144,000 tons, an increase in thirty years of nearly 800 per cent. &quot; Lead, which appears at 14,400 tons in 1852, varied but little frnm that figure until the construction of railroads into the argentiferous lead-mining districts of the west about 1870. Eureka, Nevada, Utah, and more recently Colorado, with its Leadville bonanzas, rapidly raised the production from 18,000 tons in 1871 to 47,000 tons in 1873, 75,000 tons in 1877, and 105.000 tons in 1881. &quot;Our production of copper steadily increased from 1000 tons in 1852 to 31,000 tons in 1881, the enormous output of that unrivalled mine Calumet and Hecla steadying the production and neutralizing the fluctuations of the lesser mines. &quot; Quicksilver has shown wide fluctuations, due move to trade combinations than to the condition of the mines. In 1852 the output amounted to 20,000 flasks; 3 Statistical Abstract for the Several Colonial and other Possessions of the United Kingdom in each year from 1860 to 1880, London, 1882, p. 39. Hunt, if in. Stal. for 1881. p. 9. 5 Engineering and Mining Journal, vol. xxxiv. p. 174. 6 The total production of coal in the United States in 1882 amounted to 86.862.614 tons of 2240 tt&amp;gt; (Colliery Guardian for 1883, p. 731). The quantities of metals produced in 18S2 are estimated to be pig iron 4,623,323 gross tons of 2240 Ib each, lead 123,000 gross tons, copper 40,000 gross tons (Tht Iron, Steel, ar.&amp;lt;i Allied Trades in 1882, p. 188 ; Eny. and Min. Jour., vol. xxxv. p. 27).