The Rio Tinto Co. is the principal producer, contributing about one-third of the total output of the whole district (Spain-Portugal). It is owned by British and French capital. Mining is largely by open-pit methods, and the company employs 25,000 men. The ore carries about 2 per cent. copper, making this company the largest European producer of that metal. The reserves are estimated as 250 to 300 million tons, representing the major part of the whole district. The Rio Tinto Co. furnishes about 60 per cent. of the 1,000,000 tons of Spanish pyrite normally imported by the United States.
The second principal producer is the Tharsis Sulphur and Copper Mines (British), with about one-eighth of the total production. British capital is predominant in the district as a whole, with the balance French and Spanish. Huelva, Spain, is the principal point of export, located from 30 to 40 miles from the mines. Under normal conditions the pyrite moves at cheap ballast rates, and has been sold at from $6 to $7 per long ton (12 to 16 cents per unit of sulphur), delivered in United States ports. Normally this Spain-Portugal district exported one-quarter of its output to the United States, one-eighth to England, one-eighth to Holland, one-eighth to Germany, and most of the balance to France and Belgium.
Norway and Sweden.
—Norway produces from 400 to 500 thousand tons of pyrite per year (about 8 per cent. of the world’s total), and her output is steadily increasing. The ore usually carries from 1 to 3 per cent. copper and from 42 to 49 per cent. sulphur; and is free from arsenic. Seven-eighths of the output is exported to Sweden, Germany, England and Russia. When Sweden’s import of sulphur (about 40,000 tons) was cut off during the war, she changed the equipment of her cellulose plants to burn pyrite instead of sulphur and took about one-half of the Norwegian output, since her own production of pyrite (about 30,000 tons) was of minor importance.
The Norwegian deposits are widely distributed from south of Bergen to the extreme northern end of the peninsula. The ore is generally massive cupriferous pyrite, occurring in flat lenses in chlorite schists in areas of regional metamorphism. About 250,000 tons comes from the Trondhjem district, where the Lokken mines of the Orkla Mine Co. are the largest producers.
The northern district is second in importance, with about 150,000 tons annual production, chiefly from the Sulitjelma mine at the Swedish frontier, near the Polar Circle. In the eastern district the Fodal Copper & Sulphur Co. has a production of from 75,000 to 100,000 tons. Norway has sufficient known reserves to last for thirty years at the present rate of production and probably for much longer. The largest reserves are in the Trondhjem district. Sweden is also reported to have large reserves, although there has been little development so far.
The commercial control of the mines is principally English and Norwegian. It was reported that mines with large reserves near Narvik were owned by German interests, but were purchased by Swedish interests during the war.
France.
—For many years France has produced about 300,000 tons of pyrite per annum, or about 5 per cent. of the world output. The principal deposits are at Sain-Bel, near Lyons, in the Department of Rhône. The product is high in sulphur. The known reserves are probably from ten to twelve million tons. The output is used for home consumption, and in the past was supplemented by the import of Spanish pyrite, and Sicilian and United States sulphur.