MINERALS 251 



there are large mining areas in both Arizona and Montana that 

 become practically ghost towns the minute the price of copper 

 drops below 8 or 9 cents a pound. 



TRANSPORTATION 



One of the chief reasons there are still large areas of low 

 and medium grade coal in the Middle West is the fact that 

 there was no way of bringing it to the industrial East where it 

 could have been used during the period of industrial expansion 

 when coal was the major source of energy. Today that coal is 

 within the range of railroads, and markets are growing up 

 around it. However, the price that such coal would bring is 

 hardly enough to pay the cost of mining. On the other hand, 

 if a mineral is not too bulky and if it can be produced cheaply, 

 the opening of lanes of transportation will greatly increase pro' 

 duction. Again copper is a case in point. In Africa there are 

 vast copper deposits which were of little importance until a rail' 

 road was built from the mines to the sea coast. As soon as this 

 was completed, African copper began to flood the market. It 

 could be produced cheaply with native labor, and it was of high 

 quality. The building of this railroad was one of the chief causes 

 of the failure of many American lowgrade copper mines. 



INTERNATIONAL ASPECTS 



Today the principal countries of the world are industrial, 

 that is to say, the chief occupations of the people are industrial 

 and the chief source of wealth is from industry. The minerals 

 are the chief industrial resources. Therefore, if a modern in 

 dustrial nation is to be a success, it must have access to cheap 

 minerals. This cheap supply may be from within the country 

 itself. Nations of this type are the United States and Russia. 

 If the country cannot supply these minerals, they may be 

 brought from colonies. England is a prime example of this type 

 of industrial civilisation. But it was the coal and iron supplies 



