Dr. F. H. Hatch—The World’s Copper Supplies. 38 
War a considerable use was made of the metal and its alloys in 
the manufacture of war material. 
Such remarkable increases in consumption demanded fresh sources 
of supply, which did not fail to be discovered. During the nineteenth 
century new deposits of copper ore were developed, at first in South 
America and in Cuba, and, later on in the century, in the United 
States, Australia, South Africa, and Canada. Another source of 
supply from the sixties onward was the copper smelted at British 
ports from the cupriferous pyrites imported in vast quantities from 
Spain and Portugal for its sulphur content. 
In the following table will be found the world’s production of 
copper for every fifth year from 1803 to 1918.4 
TABLE I. 
Wortp’s PropuctTion oF CoppER FOR EVERY FrrtH YEAR. 
Year. | Metric Tons. || Year. |} Metric Tons. 
1803 15,000 1863 96,000 
1808 16,000 1868 110,000 
1813 17,000 1873 122,000 
1818 19,000 1878 154,000 
1823 23,000 1883 199,000 
1828 27,000 1888 262,285 
1833 31,000 1893 310,704 
1838 |, 36,000 1898 441,868 
1843 42,000 1903 609,985 
1848 52,000 1908 790,238 
1853 63,000 | 1913 | 1,002,300 
1858 78,000 1918 | 1,395,160 
} 
At the beginning of the nineteenth century the world’s copper 
consumption of some 15,000 tons per annum was easily covered by 
the production of the United Kingdom, Russia, (Bogoslovsk), 
Japan, Chile, Sweden (Falun), Norway (R6ros), and Germany 
(Mansfeld), together with small amounts from other countries. 
This order is that of the importance of the contribution. The chief 
producer—the United Kingdom—furnished nearly a half of the whole 
world’s production from mines in Cornwall, Devonshire, Anglesey, 
and Ireland. 
The introduction of copper sheathing for wooden ships was 
responsible for a gradual but not rapid increase in consumption until 
the forties, when it reached close on 40,000 tons per annum. The 
United Kingdom was still the largest producer (accounting for a 
third of the whole), followed by Chile, Russia, and Japan. 
1 The figures for 1803 to 1883 have been estimated from the world’s 
decennial production given in Messrs. Nicol Brown & Turnbull’s A Century of 
Copper. Subsequent figures up to the year 1908 are from the Chief Inspector 
of Mines’ Report, part iv. The figure for the year 1913 is from Merton’s Tables, 
and that for 1918 from the Engineering and Mining Journal. 
VOL. LVIII.—NO. I. 3 
