Recently considerable publicity has been given to the discovery of what are reported to be among the largest deposits of high-grade chromite in the world in the Umvukwe Hills in the Lomagundi district 30 miles from Banket Junction, southern Rhodesia. The ore is said to occur over a large area in bodies in serpentine. More than two million tons is reported to have been uncovered. The deposits were discovered by Albert Peake, of Umvukwe Ranch, and are owned by Peake Brothers, who are said to have offered them to the Imperial government on special terms.
Chromite was mined in Rhodesia for the first time in 1905, the ore coming from claims near Selukwe held by the Bechuanaland Exploration Company, Ltd. Production steadily increased, slowly at first but more rapidly after 1910, when the Selukwe mines were taken over by the Rhodesia Chrome Mines, Ltd. In 1910 the staking of chromite claims in the Hartley district was reported and in 1911 chromite was discovered at Victoria. Shipments from Selukwe stopped in August, 1914, after the declaration of war, but began in December and increased during 1915 and 1916. In 1917 the discovery of the large and valuable deposits of chromite in the Lomagundi district (already mentioned) was reported. Previous to 1916 the entire production of Rhodesian chromite came from the Selukwe mines of the Rhodesia Chrome Mines, Ltd. In 1917, however, another company, the Rhodesia Metals Syndicate, Ltd., entered the field and is producing important amounts of ore.
Asia.
—Before Turkey lost most of her European possessions after the Balkan wars, the chromite deposits of the Kossowo, Uskub, and Monastir district of Serbia and the Saloniki district of Greece were within her borders. Now, however, only the deposits of Asia Minor remain to her.
Chromite deposits are widely scattered through many parts of Asia Minor and are said to be numbered by the hundreds. The most important deposits are grouped into three districts: In the regions of Brussa and Kutahia south of the Sea of Marmora, where the important Daghardi deposits are found; near Macri, Denislu and around the Gulf of Adalia in the southwestern part of the peninsula, as well as on the neighboring Island of Rhodes; and near Mersina, Adana, Aleppo, and elsewhere in the region around the Gulf of Alexandretta northeast of the Island of Cyprus. Smaller deposits are reported in the vilayets of Angora and Kastamuni in the north central part of Asia Minor and near Beirut and Damascus in Syria. All the ore bodies are found in more or less schistose and decomposed serpentine in groups of lenslike or irregular bodies.
The chromite mines of Asia Minor have produced important quantities of ore. From about 1870, when Turkey began to supplant the United States as the world’s principal producer of chromite, to near 1900, Asia Minor furnished the bulk of the chromite for the world’s consumption. Most of the ore mined has come from the mines in the Brussa region on the south and southwest slopes of the Mysian Olympus and from the mines of the Macri region. The Brussa and Kutahia deposits are said to have produced an average of about 20,000 tons annually for many years, of which the Daghardi mine is said to have furnished nearly three-fourths. This deposit consists of high-grade ore averaging 51 to 55 per cent. chromic oxide and has been estimated to contain about 10,000,000 tons of ore. Probably this is somewhat an exaggeration, although doubtless the deposit is large and important.
The chromite mines in the Macri region have furnished a considerable part of the output of Asia Minor, but much of the ore mined in recent years has been of low grade, running as low as 40 per cent. chromic oxide. The chromite near Denislu and that near the Gulf of Adalia, on the other hand, is said to be very rich, some deposits containing ore averaging as high as 56 per cent. chromic oxide.
Most of the chromite mines of Asia Minor are probably now under the control of the Turkish government, having reverted back ten or fifteen years ago when increasing competition of New Caledonia chromite in foreign markets resulted in the shutting down of many of the mines. The taxes on both worked and undeveloped mineral properties are so heavy in Turkey that unless mines are bringing in continuous and substantial revenues, they cannot be held by private individuals.
It has been the policy of Turkey not to allow her mineral properties to fall into the hands of foreigners. Even while the exploitation of the chromite deposits was most vigorous, therefore, the mines, although in many places worked by foreign firms, were largely owned by the Turkish government or by Turkish subjects who leased them. Thus in 1904 the principal deposits near Brussa were owned by an officer of the Porte and were operated by J. W. Whittal & Co., an English firm in Constantinople, while other deposits in the same district were worked by Patterson & Canghellari, an English company located in Smyrna. The famous Daghardi deposit, in the Kutahia region, at that time was owned by the Turkish minister of marine and was operated by a Turk named Raghit Bey.
In the Macri district, a number of low-grade deposits were in 1904 under the control of Patterson & Co., of Smyrna, and the mines near the Gulf of Adalia were controlled by a French syndicate. Some large deposits near Denislu, in the interior, north of Macri, are said to be lying undeveloped owing to the refusal of the Turkish government to permit mining.