England controls fully 90 per cent. of the Indian output, probably through ownership by resident English and native Indians. On the other hand, England seems to have no control, direct or indirect, of the output of Brazil, Russia, or of other important contributions to supplies.
France.
—Of the needed manganese ore, France imports from 35 to 45 per cent. from India, 40 to 55 per cent. from Russia, about 10 per cent. from Spain, and several per cent. from Brazil, and produces about 2 per cent. The domestic material, however, contains 30 per cent. or less manganese. In addition, France imports, as well as exports, a little ferromanganese from time to time.
So far as available data indicate, the French have made practically no foreign investments in manganese deposits, except in the Nicopol district, Russia. A company with a French name mined about 1,300 tons in India in 1907, out of a total of 899,055 long tons.
Germany.
—Germany’s position with respect to manganese is very similar to that of the United States. For four years prior to 1914, Germany imported 48 to 68 per cent. of the total receipts from Russia, 25 to 35 from India, 3 to 7 from Brazil, and small quantities from Spain, Greece, and Sweden. Domestic production of ore with more than 30 per cent. manganese is negligible. Germany probably exports small quantities of ferromanganese to Sweden and other European countries, and from time to time has exported alloy to the United States.
Like the United States, however, Germany possesses extensive deposits of ferruginous manganese ore with 12 to 30 per cent. manganese; and from 1908 to 1913, produced 260,000 to 330,000 metric tons of such material, as well as 2,300,000 to 3,000,000 tons with 5 to 7 per cent. manganese. There can be little doubt that although Germany, through accumulated stocks of manganese ore and seizures in Belgium, possessed in 1914 at least two years’ supply, she was able to maintain a fairly constant rate of steel production for four years by adapting processes to economize high-grade ore and use low-grade.
Germans appear to have purchased manganese deposits in Russia and Brazil only, and these have yielded only a small part of the annual imports. In the Chiaturi district of Russia, however, where most of the deposits are owned by natives, a German company, Gelsenkirchen Gesellschaft, reported to be a subsidiary of the Krupp company, was established about 1910, to purchase property as well as trade with and offer financial assistance to the producers. It is reported that this company alone exported about one-third of the output of the district. Germans are reported to own a part of one of several companies operating in the Nicopol district, Russia.
SUMMARY
A review of the manganese ore industry, including features of the deposits, their geographic distribution and ownership, indicates several definite conclusions: