The United States possesses limited antimony resources which can be exploited only at very high prices, and is dependent almost entirely upon outside sources of supply. In the past this supply has been drawn largely from England, but more recently from the Orient and Mexico. Germany has insignificant antimony resources of her own, and depended for her supply during the war upon the Hungarian deposits, which were apparently inadequate to meet the demands. Her interests prior to the war were chiefly those of the smelter and middleman, and did not extend very largely to foreign deposits. The United States, France, Germany and Great Britain normally consume 85 per cent. of the antimony of the world, and of these France alone is independent of foreign sources of supply. The antimony trade of the world is largely controlled by a few companies, of which the most important are: Cookson’s (British), Wah Chang Co. (Chinese), and Société de La Lucette (French). The Mitsui Co. (Japanese), largely through shipping interests, has a considerable share in the Chinese and Japanese antimony trade. CHAPTER X MOLYBDENUM BY R. B. MOORE USES OF MOLYBDENUM Molybdenum is used in the manufacture of ferro-alloys for making steel. As wire, it is used for supporting the filament in incandescent electric lamps. The wire is also employed for winding electric resistance furnaces and for this use has proved cheaper and better than platinum because of the quicker heating and higher temperatures attainable. The metal has been successfully substituted for platinum and for platinum-iridium in electric contact-making devices. Molybdenum compounds are used in chemistry, particularly ammonium molybdate for the determination of phosphorus. Fast colors in a variety of shades may be produced on leather by employing molybdenum tannate in conjunction with logwood extracts. It has been employed for color glazes in porcelain and in coloring silks and rubber. The addition of molybdenum to steel increases the elastic limit without diminishing the ductility. Molybdenum can be substituted for a certain percentage of tungsten in high-speed steel, as a rule one part of molybdenum taking the place of two to three parts of tungsten. GEOLOGICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION Up to about 1916, practically all of the molybdenite concentrates produced came from Queensland, New South Wales, and Norway. Shortly after the opening of the war, interest was shown in the production of molybdenite in Canada, principally in the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia. During 1917 and 1918 there was a great deal of interest in the United States in molybdenum ores, and at the present time this country can probably produce molybdenite concentrates in quantity equaling if not exceeding the rest of the world put together. Some molybdenum is produced by Spain and Peru.