ECONOMICS 291 



for 1912 were valued at $47,800,000. The exports for the same 

 yai were valued at $70,272,000, or $22,472,000 in excess of 

 the imports. The imports were largely silver ore and bullion 

 from Mexico and Canada. The exports were almost wholly in 

 refined bullion and coin and went chiefly to the United Kingdom, 

 although large amounts were shipped to France and China, with 

 smaller amounts to British India. 



World's Silver Production. The silver production of the 

 world in fine ounces for 1912 as given by the Engineering and 

 Mining Journal is as follows: 



Mexico 76,500,000 



United States 62,369,903 



Canada 35,250,000 



Australasia 17,950,000 



Other countries. . 37,500,000 



Total 229,569,903 



As will be seen in the table given above Mexico still holds the 

 position of the first producer and the United States the second. 

 By a comparison of these figures with those of 1911 it will be 

 seen that the production of Mexico decreased approximately 

 3,000,000 oz., while that of the United States increased approxi- 

 mately 2,000,000. The remarkable increase during the past 

 three years is in Canada where the production was more than 

 13,000,000 oz. greater in 1912 than in 1909. The one field giving 

 rise to this condition is Cobalt where large supplies of silver ore 

 have been opened in recent years. This field is somewhat 

 augmented by outputs from the South Lorrain and Gowganda 

 districts. 



PLATINUM 



Production. Some platinum of recent years has been pro- 

 duced at the placer mines in Butte, Humboldt, Siskiyou, Trinity, 

 Calaveras, Sacramento and Del Norte Counties, California, 

 together with a small amount from western Oregon. Three- 

 fourths of all the domestic platinum comes from Butte County. 



The most noteworthy event in the platinum industry during the 

 present century is the discovery of the comparatively new mineral 

 sperrylite, the arsenide of platinum, PtAs 2 , which occurs in the 

 nickel-bearing ores of Sudbury, Ontario, and in the Rambler 

 mine of Wyoming. 



