In Australia the Broken Hill district may be expected to yield about 450,000 tons of concentrates annually for some three years, after which the output should drop to about 300,000 tons. The increase of production from Tasmania will largely depend upon the construction of electrolytic zinc plants, but the island will be a factor in production in the immediate future.
The greatest new factor in the world’s output of zinc will be the Bawdwin mines, in Burma, which within a short time will be equipped to produce about 300,000 tons of ore annually or about 75,000 tons of high-grade zinc concentrates and 100,000 tons of low-grade concentrates or middlings for treatment by the Ganlin process. The extent to which the zinc concentrates from this ore will be treated in India will be determined by the development of the local market for sulphuric acid. The remainder of the concentrates will be treated in England.
Recent developments in the Altai Mountains of southwestern Siberia have proved immense bodies of complex zinc-lead ores. The extent of their exploitation will, however, be determined largely by the extent of the Russian market as affected by social and political conditions. Removal of the stringent tariff on importations from abroad to the manufacturing centers of Warsaw, Petrograd and Moscow might greatly restrict the market for the output of these mines. Their extreme geographic isolation will prevent the deposits from becoming an important factor in the world market for a long period, notwithstanding their large size and excellent grade.
The utilization of the Rhodesia Broken Hill deposit in South Africa will be delayed by the difficulty of separating the oxidized lead and zinc minerals, the lack of fuel, and geographic and commercial isolation.
POLITICAL CONTROL
Political control of the zinc resources of the world up to the outbreak of the war in 1914 seems to have had only a minor effect upon the industry. Economic factors made ineffective any control not international in scope. A very large percentage of the zinc ores of the world were transported from the country of production to another for treatment, in some cases even being re-exported, sometimes after calcination, for the purpose of utilizing the sulphur content in the production of acid. Tariffs were imposed by some countries, as, for example, by the United States, on certain classes of zinc ores. Such measures had some effect on production in Mexico and Canada. Russia had imposed heavy import duties which subsidized domestic production and stimulated exploration and development. The chief European countries importing and smelting zinc ores admitted them free of duty.
During the World War, however, political jurisdiction was largely invoked to restore control of national resources to citizens of the given country or its allies. This movement was particularly marked in the British Empire, wherein there now exists a joint political and commercial control. Alien interests have been eliminated by government action and the government retains a share in the control through interests in marketing organizations or through financial participation in treatment works. Canada has established a small bounty on zinc produced in Canada from domestic ores and given financial aid to attempts to establish domestic smelting and refining plants.
In the United States the Alien Property Custodian has been active in eliminating all alien enemy control. His appointees will control many important companies for several years. Such action as has been taken does not appear to have disturbed such centralization of control as had been effected.[138]
[138] See Chapter on Copper, [pages 232]-[235], for discussion of German interests in the American metal trade.