United States and Canada.
—The great bulk of the bauxite deposits of the United States seems controlled by the Aluminum Company of America, through its subsidiaries, the American Bauxite Co. and the Republic Mining & Manufacturing Co. There are small holdings of bauxite lands controlled by the National Bauxite Co., a subsidiary of the E. I. du Pont de Nemours Co., and by the Norton Co., of Worcester, Mass., makers of artificial abrasives. Aside from these more important holders, there are a few independent operators of bauxite mines, but their combined output is so small that it can be disregarded.
All of the aluminum works of the United States and Canada are controlled by the Aluminum Company of America, which is dominated by the Mellen banking interests, of Pittsburgh, Pa.
The Guianas.
—It is reported that the Aluminum Company of America controls about 2,030,000 acres of bauxite land in the British and Dutch colonies. In British Guiana the ownership is seemingly in the Canadian Bauxite Co. Associated with the Aluminum Company of America in the British Guiana holdings is the Merrimac Chemical Co., of Boston. It is also reported that the Norton Co., of Worcester, Mass., has acquired in Dutch Guiana small holdings of bauxite lands. There are no works utilizing bauxite in Dutch Guiana.
France.
—Prior to the war, some of the large deposits of high-grade bauxite in the Province of Var were controlled by the “Bauxites de France,” a German enterprise, but this control was naturally suspended at the beginning of hostilities, and it will probably not be resumed. The French bauxite industry is largely in the hands of the French producers of aluminum mentioned below, though some deposits are said to be controlled by the British Aluminum Co. through its control of the Union des Bauxites company.
The French aluminum industry is centralized under one selling agency, L’Aluminium Française, in which the following five companies participate:
Compagnie des Produits Chemiques d’Alais et de la Camargue, Société Electro-Metallurgique Française, Société d’Electro-Chemie, Société des Forces Motrices de l’Arve, Société Electro-Metallurgique de Pyrenees.
It is said that the stock of the selling company is owned by participating companies in proportion to their output of aluminum, which would indicate that the control of l’Aluminium Française rests with the first two companies above.