Political and commercial geology and the world's mineral resources
Science
Political and commercial geology and the world's mineral resources
Geology, Economic; Mines and mineral resources
The production of the Rhodesian chrome mines has in recent years
averaged in the neighborhood of 60,000 tons annually or about 35 per
cent. of the world’s production, and doubtless the output could be very
greatly increased if other known deposits were developed. However,
even the present production is more than twice the actual chromite
requirements of Great Britain. These requirements, however, do not
represent the needs for metallic chromium or chromium compounds, and if
France should cease to supply Great Britain with ferrochrome, a much
larger amount of the raw material, chromite, would be necessary for the
English steel industry.
Besides the chromite deposits of South Africa, chromite deposits of
importance are found in other British colonies, notably in British
India and Canada. Amounts of chromite varying from 2,000 tons to 10,000
tons have been produced annually in British India for many years,
coming mainly from Baluchistan, in the northwestern part, but a small
production has come also from Mysore, in the southern part. In early
years, India furnished a more important part of the world’s supply of
chromite than at present. Transportation is a serious difficulty in the
mining of these deposits and when New Caledonian and Rhodesian ores
became developed, the Indian ores dropped in importance.
The Canadian deposits, while of considerable extent, and having ready
accessibility to eastern American markets, have not been extensively
or continuously mined, on account of their low-grade character. By
concentration, a medium high-grade product can be obtained, but
concentration methods are expensive and bring the cost of the material
up to such an extent that it can not compete with other ores now on the
market. Thus, the cost of producing both Indian and Canadian ores is
such that under normal conditions it is difficult to find a market for
them, but in case of necessity, a considerable tonnage can be supplied
from these sources.
Other British colonies in which deposits of chromite exist are New
South Wales, Tasmania, and New Zealand. As far as known, the deposits
in these countries are small and only those of the first have furnished
a small production.
Besides controlling chromite deposits in many parts of the world
through her colonial possessions, Great Britain controls deposits
through British firms with foreign possessions. Thus, the Chrome
Co., Ltd., of mixed British and French interests, controls not only
the Rhodesian chromite output but also owns and controls most of the
important New Caledonian mines.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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