544 The Imperial Institute Map 



owing to the prevailing abnormal economic conditions, gold-mining 

 is now labouring under peculiar difficulties, since gold is the only com- 

 modity whose price cannot fluctuate; hence, while mining costs 

 rise, the selling price cannot be increased to correspond. For this 

 reason some low-grade propositions have been obliged to shut down, 

 and the total output has fallen off. Since the Rand mines work on 

 a very small margin of profit, they have been specially hardly hit by 

 these untoward circumstances, and some form of Government 

 subsidy has been suggested as a remedy. It is to be noted that gold 

 occurs in every country of the Empire, even in the British Isles, 

 though the amount now actually mined in the latter is very small 

 indeed. On the other hand, Australia, Canada, and India are all 

 the homes of well-known gold-fields. From the mineralogical point 

 Ol view one of the most interesting occurrences is the telluride gold- 

 ores of Western Australia; this is a rare type, but is known also in 

 Colorado and in Hungary. 



Of silver the British Empire yields between one-fifth and one- 

 sixth of the world's annual supply, Canada being an easy first in 

 this respect with 26,600,000 oz., Australia coming next with 

 8,780,000 oz. South Africa and New Zealand show rather under 

 a million ounces each, while the rest are nowhere. 



Perhaps the most striking fact in the mineral wealth of the 

 Empire is the dominant position held by it in the tin industry. Out 

 of a total annual yield of about 100,000 tons, in 1915 the Empire 

 produced 67,000 tons. As is well known, tin has now reached 

 fabulous prices, and the value of this output is very great. The 

 Malajr States alone are responsible for nearly 50,000 tons of tin, 

 thus yielding considerably more than all the rest of the Empire put 

 together, and half the total world's output. The other important 

 British tin-fields are the United Kingdom, Queensland, and Nigeria. 

 In Cornwall there has lately been a considerable recrudescence in 

 tin-mining, and this has been assisted to a certain extent by the 

 tungsten boom. 



In lead and zinc Australia easily takes the lead over all other 

 British countries, producing about three-fourths of the lead andnine- 

 tenths of the zinc. A very large proportion of this comes from the 

 wonderful deposits at Broken Hill in New South Wales. A very 

 notable recent addition to our resources of these two metals is the 

 Bawdwin Mines in Burma, which are now undergoing rapid develop- 

 ment and seem likely to become an important increment to the 

 world's supply in the immediate future. 



With regard to nickel the facts are very striking. There are only 

 two really important nickel fields in the world, namely Canada and 

 New Caledonia. In 1915 Canada yielded almost exactly three- 

 fourths of the nickel of the world, mainly from the well-known 

 occurrences at Sudbury in Ontario. This has been frequently 

 described and is of groat scientific as well as economic interest. 

 A promising occurrence of a somewhat similar nature has lately been 

 discovered at Insizwa in Zululand, and it is hoped that when con- 

 ditions improve this may also turn out to be a practicable source of 

 nickel. It seems probable that in the immediate future cobalt will 



