| Country | Long tons | Manganese content (per cent.) | Per cent. of total production | Commercial control (estimated per cent.) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| North America | ||||||
| United States | 4,048 | 40+ | 0.16 | United States, 100 | ||
| South America | ||||||
| Brazil | 120,368 | 38-48 | 5.10 | - | Brazil, 80 | |
| Belgium, 5 | ||||||
| Germany, 15 | ||||||
| Europe | ||||||
| Austria-Hungary | 34,986 | ? | 1.5 | Austria-Hungary, 100 | ||
| Bosnia-Herzegovina | 5,709 | ? | 0.2 | ? | ||
| France | 7,610 | 30+ | 0.3 | France, 100 | ||
| Germany | 748 | 30+ | 0.03 | Germany, 100 | ||
| Italy | 1,596 | 18-45 | 0.07 | Italy, 100 | ||
| Russia | 1,289,370 | 41-48 | 55.4 | - | Russia, 65 | |
| Germany, 30 | ||||||
| France, 5 | ||||||
| Spain | 21,254 | 29+ | 0.9 | ? | ||
| Sweden | 3,938 | ? | 0.15 | ? | ||
| United Kingdom | 5,393 | 30+ | 0.21 | England, 100 | ||
| Asia | ||||||
| India | 815,047 | 42-54 | 35.0 | - | English and native, 90 | |
| United States, 10 | ||||||
| Japan | 18,516 | ? | 0.8 | Japan, 100 | ||
| Oceania | ||||||
| Australia | 27 | ? | ||||
| Total | 2,328,110 | |||||
The Carnegie Steel Co., of Pittsburgh, Pa., U. S. A., owns and works several deposits in India. Although Americans own deposits in the Nazareth district, Brazil, in Panama, and Costa Rica, and some of those of Cuba, there is no record of American ownership of any of the most important deposits of Brazil, nor of any in Russia.
From 1902 to 1914, about half the ferromanganese used in the United States was made in this country from foreign ore and half was imported from England, where it was made from imported ore. This tendency arises out of the limitations of blast-furnace smelting of the alloy and the difference between the cost of labor in the United States and in England, but does not represent definite control, for ferromanganese may be made in any modern blast furnace used to make pig iron. In order to smelt with maximum efficiency in making ferromanganese, however, a blast furnace should run continuously for long periods, and therefore make 20,000 to 35,000 tons of alloy annually. Although it is possible to pass without interruption from making ferromanganese to spiegeleisen and then to pig iron, the change causes losses. Small steel works in the United States therefore find it more advantageous to purchase imported ferromanganese than to make what they need.
POSITION OF THE IMPORTANT NATIONS WITH REGARD TO MANGANESE SUPPLIES
United States.
—Although from 1885 to 1890, deposits in the United States supplied half or more of the needed high-grade manganese ore, from 1890 to 1916 the domestic production rather steadily declined to a negligible minimum, while imports of foreign ore and ferromanganese steadily rose in accord with the rate of total steel production. On the other hand, during the period ending about 1908, when the rate of manufacture of steel by the Bessemer process (in which spiegeleisen is largely used) exceeded that by the open-hearth process, the annual domestic contribution of spiegeleisen largely made from domestic ores greatly exceeded the imports. In advance, therefore, of the exploitation of the large deposits of low-grade ores of Minnesota, which have been the source of most of the production since 1916, the United States demonstrated independence of foreign supplies of low-grade ore and alloys.
The experience and information gained during the war, largely during 1918, show conclusively, first, with respect to metallurgy, that 20 to 30 per cent. spiegeleisen, as well as 60 to 70 per cent. ferromanganese, instead of 80 per cent., may be used to make satisfactory grades of open-hearth steel without appreciably sacrificing rate of production or quality of product; and second, with respect to ore production, that known domestic deposits can supply for at least five and probably ten or more years, much more low-grade ore than is needed to make spiegeleisen, and for at least five years and possibly ten years, about one-third the high-grade ore needed for the manufacture of alloy with 60 to 80 per cent. manganese. The reader should note, however, that capacity of mines to meet demand is in large measure determined by the prices offered for the product, which during 1918 were about five times those prevailing before the war. Beyond doubt, at pre-war prices, the United States can not supply more than several per cent. of the high-grade ore needed to make ferromanganese.
Citizens of the United States have not shown great interest in purchasing foreign deposits of manganese ore. With Cubans, they have controlled the mines yielding a large part of the Cuban output, and about 1907 one company, the Carnegie Steel Co., purchased several deposits in India. That company, however, seems to purchase ore, in addition to the output of its mines. Not until 1917 did Americans enter the Brazilian fields; then the largest deposits of the relatively unimportant Bahia district were purchased by a Philadelphia group.
England.
—Before the war, England received about 50 per cent. of her manganese ore from India, 40 per cent. from Russia, 3 per cent. from Brazil, and small quantities from Spain and Portuguese India. Some low-grade ore also came from Spain, Algeria, and Greece. Domestic production was scarcely 1 per cent. of imports. Exports of ferromanganese, largely to the United States, however, have been equivalent to 35 to 45 per cent. of the total imports of ore. Two effects of the war were to eliminate Russia as a source of ore, the deficit being made up from India, and greatly to curtail exports of ferromanganese. In contrast with the United States and Germany, Great Britain does not seem to contain deposits of low-grade ores capable of supplementing the needs of high-grade ore.