Various countries have from time to time played important rôles in supplying the world’s demand for chromite. One country after another has been displaced, as cheaper or better grades of chromite came into the market. At times these changes were caused by the finding of larger bodies of higher-grade ores than had previously been mined, and at other times they were caused by cheaply transported ores replacing ores inconveniently situated with reference to centers of consumption.
Thus, at the beginning of the nineteenth century and up to about 1830, the Ural Mountain region of Russia supplied the major part of the world’s requirements for chromite, which were small. About 1830, important discoveries of chromite were made in the eastern United States, particularly in Maryland, and the United States soon displaced Russia as the leading producer of chromite. After this, for many years, the United States continued to lead in chromite production until about 1870, when the domestic deposits gradually approached exhaustion and important deposits discovered in European Turkey and Asia Minor began to be extensively developed.
Asia Minor was the principal chromite-producing country from about 1870 until about the beginning of the twentieth century. The deposits continued to be worked fairly steadily on account of their richness and large size, although they were inconveniently situated with reference to transportation. Only certain deposits, such as those in the Macri and Alexandretta regions, were so near to the coast that the ore could be carried on muleback or by camel to the shipping ports. From the larger deposits, such as Daghardi, the ore had to be transported by animals to railroad stations, often a distance of many miles, and then by rail to the coast. Because of these difficulties, Turkish ore was largely replaced by ore from the important New Caledonian and Rhodesian deposits as soon as those were developed.
In New Caledonia labor is cheap and the deposits are all near the coast. By means of sailing vessels and tramp steamers which charge low rates and often require such heavy materials as chromite for ballast, this ore can be delivered to points of consumption at a relatively small cost. The Rhodesian chromite deposits are not as accessible from the coast, but they are large and rich and the rail freight rates to the shipping port are exceptionally low. For this reason, Rhodesian ore has been able to successfully compete in the market with New Caledonian ore, and these two sources have, therefore, in recent years, jointly supplied most of the requirements of the principal nations for chromite.
During the war, because of abnormal conditions arising from the shortage of shipping facilities, there was considerable uncertainty as to whether it would be possible to supply American consumers of chromite with imported ores. Under the stimulus of much higher prices, the production of chromite in the United States increased from 255 long tons of crude chromite in 1913, to about 82,350 tons in 1918, mainly from California, Washington and Oregon. This production was larger than the annual production of crude ore from any single source (except 82,910 tons from New Caledonia in 1906) since the chromite-mining industry began. This production, of course, could not be continued without a rapid depletion of American chromite reserves, and does not represent a normal development.
CHAPTER VI
NICKEL
By C. S. Corbett
USES OF NICKEL
Nickel is used chiefly in the manufacture of special steels. It is estimated[65] that about 60 per cent. of the entire nickel production goes into steel making in normal times and more under war conditions. Nickel steels are the most important of all the alloy steels and are the most used.[66] They are used where unusual tensile strength is required. Nickel-chromium steels are used in the manufacture of armor plate.
[65] Report of the Royal Ontario Nickel Commission, 1917, p. 300.
[66] Stoughton, Bradley: “The Metallurgy of Iron and Steel,” 1911.