MINING GEOLOGY 
335 
MINING GEOLOGY 
America's Mountain of Gold, With that remarkable movement 
of gold across the Atlantic into the United States after the be¬ 
ginning of the Great War this country suddenly found itself the 
money center of the world. After the entrance of America into 
the great struggle European nations discerned a rapid reversal of 
usual trade conditions. They fully expected America soon to 
lose much of its wealth prestige that it had so quickly acquired. 
,Never before in the history of mankind had there accumulated 
in a single country so vast a store of flowing gold. Probably 
never again will there be repetition. 
Since the recent flow of the world’s gold to the Occident set 
in thoughtful minds direct their attention not only to the probable 
distribution of the world’s money supplies during the next few 
years, but to the natural reserves of the precious metals which 
each warring nation is in possession. At the present time the 
world’s annual production of gold is not far from half a billion 
dollars. Of this huge amount the United States furnishes some- 
thingf more than one-fifth, with a material increase from year 
to year. 
Introduction into the mining practice of the seeking and ex¬ 
ploiting large bodies of low-grade ore instead of, as formerly, 
small veins of high-grade ore, witnessed a great expansion of the 
output of the principal metals. At the same time actual and 
potential ore reserves are enormously augmented. In the case 
of copper and lead this has already transpired. It seems soon 
also to obtain for other leading minerals. Gold in particular 
is especially susceptible to the new practice. For instance, a 
few years ago when a practicable method was devised to treat 
the sands of deserts, which often contain considerable amounts of 
