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8 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF ALABAMA 



ply being largely imported and mainly drawn from Can- 

 ada. 



Biotite, occurs to some extent in Alabama mica mines, 

 but not in recoverable amounts. 



Roscoelite has value only as a source of vanadium, and 

 lepidolite mainly as containing a small percentage of 

 lithium. Mariposite finds limited uses in the arts by 

 reason of its color. None of the last named varieties 

 have been as yet identified or have received any atten- 

 tion in this State. 



PRODUCTION. 



Prior to the Great War, the world's suppiy of mica 

 had been largely drawn from India, Canada, and the 

 United States, with lesser but considerable amounts sup- 

 plied mainly from Brazil, Southwest Africa and Ceylon. 



The United States during the pre-war period, was nev- 

 er able to produce more than forty per cent, of its con- 

 sumption of sheet mica, and in the higher grades, meet- 

 ing the requirements for high-potential electrical uses, 

 its maximum production fell far short of that percentage 

 of its requirements. 



As the estimated total annual consumption and produc- 

 tion of sheet mica approximately balance, practically all 

 the sheet mica annually mined, being consumed; the ne- 

 cessities for the carrying out of Government orders alone, 

 wholly irrespective of other requirements, for the year 

 1919, called for at least 1,000,000 pounds, or 500 short 

 tons, of which amount three-fourths necessarily there- 

 fore, required to be imported muscovite. Average an- 

 nual domestic requirements under normal conditions prior 

 to the war, having approximated 1700 tons of sheet mica, 

 substantial increases in production under the stimulus 

 of the relatively higher level of war prices were impera- 

 tively demanded and confidently looked for but were only 

 partially realized. 



Similar shortages, and the necessity for speeding up 

 production under the war regime but under more diffi- 

 cult conditions of realization, existed also coinciden tally 

 abroad, and were necessarily of world-wide extent. 



