To sum up, the production in Mexico at present is three-quarters American controlled (of which one-half may be assigned to group 3 and one-quarter to groups 2 and 4), while the remaining one-quarter is French controlled. But present output and known reserves give no true picture of future possibilities. Mexico can become of first importance as a copper producer, ranking possibly second only to the United States or equaling Chile and Japan among the world’s producers. The natural resources are there and in the future will surely be developed much more extensively than ever before. _German capital_ must be taken into consideration, and especially the activities of the American Metal Co. in Mexico, notably more vigorous since 1914 than before. It is believed that the company has made substantial profits from Mexican mining investments in this period and has obtained a very strong foothold. The Compañia Metallurgica de Torreon is one of the American Metal Co. subsidiaries, owning promising mines, chiefly in the development state, and smelters already equipped to produce 20,000,000 pounds of copper yearly. The Mapimi smelter is also owned by the American Metal Co., as are many other companies. What is the future Mexican political situation to be and what part will the American Metal Co. or the German metal combine play in the Mexican copper industry? There is no more pertinent question in the entire field of the political and commercial control of the copper resources of the world, particularly as American capital is largely interested in Mexican copper mines and has made enormous investments there. Also the natural tendency is for most of the Mexican copper to be shipped to the United States for refining and marketing. American refineries, with cheap fuel and efficient methods, are the natural destination for Mexican raw copper. SOUTH AMERICA South America is the second largest copper-producing continent of the world, but at present stands far behind North America. The copper-producing countries of South America, in the order of their importance, are Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Venezuela and Argentina. CHILE Chile is a copper producer of rapidly increasing importance, as indicated by production records of recent years.[120] [120] According to Chilean statistics, and estimate for 1917. 1914 1915 1916 1917 Metric tons 44,665 52,341 71,288 95,000 The largest mines of Chile are controlled by _American capital_. Group 2 of Table 38 (the Morgan-Guggenheim interests) controls the Chile Copper Co., Braden Copper Co. and the Caldera and Carrizal custom smelters. The developed ore reserves of the Chile Copper Co. are the largest in any known copper deposits in the world and the reserves of Braden are among the largest known. Group 3 of Table 38 (Anaconda Copper Co.) has a property with large developed ore reserves--the Andes Copper Co. This mine is not yet (1918) producing.