Great Britain.
—Although deposits were formerly worked in Cornwall, Devon, and elsewhere, no antimony has been mined in England since 1892, but before the war England was the chief smelting center of the world, and several brands of British antimony, such as Cookson’s and Hallett’s, had a world-wide reputation. Deposits of considerable importance exist in many of the British possessions.
Cookson & Co., of Newcastle, control mines in the Catorce district, San Luis Potosi, Mexico, and operate a smelter, the output from which was shipped to England for further refining until 1915, when the supply was in large part diverted to the United States.
England, through her smelting interests, has played an important part in the antimony trade of the world. Seven smelters in England refine ore and crude metals that come chiefly from China, but also from Mexico, Australia, and Hungary, and, during the war, in large quantities from Bolivia and Spain. The better British brands have been considered more pure than other grades, and before the war virtually monopolized American markets.
British trading interests have exerted important control both in securing raw material for British smelters and in obtaining markets for British metal. Until 1914 the Chinese Eastern Antimony Co., a subsidiary of Cookson & Co., held contracts for the production of the Wah Chang Mining & Smelting Co., the most important antimony producers in China. In 1914, the Wah Chang Co. established an independent selling agency in the United States. During the great demand for antimony in 1915 and 1916, British interests secured the greater proportion of the output of Bolivian mines and completely controlled the industry of that country.
Italy.
—Italy is the third important antimony producer of Europe. The principal deposits are those in the southern part of the island of Sardinia. During the war, however, the Tuscan deposits were reopened and there has been also a small production from Sicily. The grade of the ore is low, probably on the average less than 25 per cent., and the production, which was 7,609 tons of ore in 1900, had fallen in 1913 to 1,822 tons. War conditions stimulated the industry, and in 1915, 1916, and 1917 the production averaged over 5,000 tons annually, although the imports of metallic antimony also increased, being as follows: 191 tons in 1914; 825 in 1915; 155 in 1916; and 1,247 in 1917.
The low metallic content of the ore, together with the fact that in the Sardinia deposits the calcite gangue makes recovery more difficult, renders it probable that under peace-time conditions and prices, Italy will not become an important factor in the world’s antimony production.
The chief producing company, Minière Fonderie d’Antimonio, was, prior to the war, closely connected with the German Metallgesellschaft, and the richest Sardinian ore went to Germany for smelting. Besides mines in Italy, this company owned several productive deposits in France.