MINERALS OF THE UNITED STATES — PEHRSON 187 



merit. The United States is fortunate in having the largest reserve in 

 the world, but the tremendous contribution of coal to the Nation's 

 welfare is too little appreciated by the public, which is prone to regard 

 the coal industry as an occasional source of annoying labor-manage- 

 ment disputes and disagreeable fuel shortages. We have no serious 

 difficulties of supply in sight, although the reserves of high-grade 

 coking coals are none too plentiful and may present some problem in 

 the not-too-distant future. Our disposition to take coal for granted 

 because of the magnitude of the reserves is illustrated by the fact that 

 little reliable information is available on our coking-coal reserves de- 

 spite the fundamental importance of the commodity. The same 

 apathy confronts the conservationist who views with alarm the 30- to 

 40-percent average loss of coal sustained in mining. Some of this loss 

 is unavoidable, but much could be prevented if economic conditions 

 in the industry permitted. Conservation can also be promoted through 

 further progress in the technology of coal use, and some have ques- 

 tioned the wisdom from a national viewpoint of consuming limited 

 reserves of high-grade coking coals in noncoke uses. If we are to 

 turn to our coal resources for liquid fuels in the future, the rate of 

 exhaustion probably will more than treble, and the need for conserva- 

 tion will be correspondingly greater. 



While we have used up a substantial part of our anthracite, our 

 basic position in coal is outstandingly good, although it would seem 

 that a wiser Nation would use its reserves a little more prudently 

 even though the day of reckoning on shortages is centuries away. 



Iron ore. — Iron ore ranks second to coal in national importance only 

 because experience indicates that steel-making slightly favors the coal 

 areas. Four of the five great centers of industrial power have out- 

 standing iron resources. Japan is notably deficient and has attempted 

 to overcome this weakness through aggression and commercial expan- 

 sion. The United States is well supplied with iron ore, although the 

 reserves do not match those of coal by a wide margin. It is estimated 

 by Ernest F. Burchard of the Geological Survey and Albin C. Johnson 

 of the Bureau of Mines that the reserves of iron ore of present com- 

 mercial or usable grade total 5,478,000,000 long tons, of which about 

 a third is classed as inferred ore. Total production through 1943 was 

 2,613,000,000 tons so that 68 percent of the original reserve, based on 

 present estimates, still remains. Opinions differ as to the price at 

 which this ore is available but it is believed that it can safely be as- 

 sumed that virtually all of it could be mined at prices that have pre- 

 vailed in the past or at moderately higher prices. In addition to this 

 commercial reserve there is a potential reserve of 63,000,000,000 tons 

 of submarginal ore, the utilization of which will depend on tech- 

 nologic advances and economic conditions. 



