"The discovery of the Cyanide process must be regarded as one of the greatest achievements of modern time. And there can be no doubt that Cyaniding will be held by the coming generation for its importance, not so much to the mineral industries directly, as for its bearing upon world economies in rendering possibly a greatly increased output of gold and silver year after year. In a comparatively brief twenty-year interval since 1890, when Messrs. McArthur and Forrest brought the modern perfected Cyanide process prominently before the mining world, the output of gold has amounted to 284,081,289 fine ounces. This is a most astonishing showing, especially when compared with a total output of 401,311,148 fine ounces for the entire 397 years previous from 1493 to 1890, a period lacking just three years of being four centuries. "For the great expansion in the world's output, particularly noticeable in the past fifteen years, the spread of the Cyanide process is directly responsible. Nor, if we except the Klondike, has this record production been boomed by the development of new fields. The cream of the world's gold fields had already been skimmed in previous years in California, Australia, South Africa, Siberia, India, and elsewhere. It is mainly on the cast-off leavings of the old field that the Cyanide process has achieved a record production of the yellow metal. And among those leavings, we must not forget the innumerable low-grade properties whose exploitation has been rendered fundamentally possible only by the Cyanide process. It is these latter which now furnish the bulk of the world's supply of gold, and upon which the world must depend very largely for its future requirements." MR. BANKER: Those figures are startling. We must be getting more gold than we need for banking purposes. MR. LAWYER: On the contrary, our banking resources are increasing faster than our gold supply. In 1890 the banking resources of the world were estimated at $16,000,000,000, less than one-third of what they are today. That is, the banking resources have trebled since 1890, and the gold supply for reserve or monetary purposes has only doubled. MR. BANKER: What about the gold supply for the future? MR. LAWYER: The production during the past four years has been about stationary, averaging $450,000,000 each year. You must remember there have been no gold discoveries of any consequence during the past ten years, and it is very probable that the production will remain almost stationary for a few years to come. At present it looks as though the gold supply, and the demand for gold for monetary purposes, would run along about equal. Of course the more intimate the business relations of the nations of the earth become, the more efficient will the reserve of gold become, because the reserves of the world will become more and more mobilized, and therefore more efficient in the conduct of the world's business.