TITLES AND ABSTRACTS OF PAPERS 107 



WORLD VIEW OF MINERAL WEALTH 

 BY JOSEPH B, UMPLEBY 



(Abstract) 



The desirability for a world view of mineral wealth has not been felt, until 

 recently, as strongly in the United States as in the leading European countries, 

 and consequently our mining literature is built largely around deposits in this 

 country. At present, however, it is opportune to seek to form a world view of 

 mineral wealth as a basis for expanding trade with foreign countries and as a 

 guide in the wisest exploitation of our own resources. 



Mineral commodities, manufactured and raw, represent about one-third of 

 the total value of international trade. But, even more important than this, 

 minerals are vanishing, whereas most other raw materials are renewable assets. 

 They are also peculiarly localized in distribution and mutually dependent in- 

 dustrially. 



The mineral production of a country or a continent, if viewed in the light of 

 its industrial development and labor supply, may be taken as a general index 

 of its relative mineral wealth. The value of the 1913 world output of the 30 

 leading mineral commodities may be taken as a basis of comparison. Of this 

 amount the percentage contribution of the United States was 36 ; Germany, 15 ; 

 United Kingdom, 11 ; Russia, 5 ; Union of South Africa, 4 ; Australia, 3, and 

 smaller amounts for other countries. In any scheme of international agree- 

 ments providing for pooling and allocation we should recognize clearly that the 

 United States has more to contribute than any other nation. 



Estimates of the world's mineral reserves are only available for coal and 

 iron, but as tonnage is the great item in the distribution of industrial centers, 

 they are the controlling factors. Together they represent over 90 per cent by 

 weight of mineral production. Both the coal and iron reserves of the world 

 occur predominantly in the North Atlantic drainage basin. 



Consumption of mineral commodities, like production and reserves, is in 

 countries tributary to the north Atlantic Ocean. Seventy-nine per cent of the 

 1913 output of eleven representative mineral commodities was consumed in the 

 United States, Great Britain, Germany, and France. Thirty per cent of the 

 total consumption was in the United States. 



For centuries industry has centered about the north Atlantic and for cen- 

 turies to come it is destined to continue here, its locus, however, moving from 

 the eastern to the western shore. 



Eead in full from manuscript. 



Discussed by Messrs. W. H. Emmons and G. 0. Smith. 



INTERNATIONALIZATION OF MINERAL RESOURCES 

 BY C. K. LEITH 



(Abstract) 



A brief outline of world movement of "minerals" is followed by discussion of ; 



(1) International movement under normal trade conditions. 



(2) National control of imports and exports through tariff, bonus, embargo, 

 or other measures, including war restrictions due to ship shortage. 



