POLITICAL AND COMMERCIAL CONTROL
The British Empire, through state sovereignty, controls 75 per cent. of the present sheet-mica production of the world. In Brazil and Argentina, which have important potential resources of mica, and in the United States, political control is determined by state sovereignty.
For the most part, the ownership of mines and concessions in India has been in the hands of natives. In the Hazaribagh district, F. F. Christen & Co., an English firm, owns rights over large areas of land outside the government forest and has mined on a considerable scale. At the outbreak of the war, Germany, through commercial interests, had obtained a large measure of control over many Indian mines. S. O. Fillion & Co., of New York, is the one American firm known to be working mines in India.
The most important producing phlogopite mine in Canada, at Sydenham, Ontario, is owned and operated by the General Electric Co., of Schenectady, New York. The same company owns several other properties in the vicinity and has a large mica-manufacturing plant at Ottawa, Ontario. Other smaller interests are held chiefly in Canada.
Davol & Co., of New York, is the only foreign firm known to be actively working mica mines in Brazil at present.
Mica mines in the United States are, as far as is known, all owned by Americans.