The Mond Nickel Co. is controlled by British interests. It owns the following mines: Garson, Worthington, Levack, Victoria and Kirkwood. The Levack has proven reserves of good ore amounting to 4,500,000 tons. The reserves of the other mines are not given.
The British-America Nickel Corporation, Ltd., has $20,000,000 of common stock, of which $14,500,000 is held by the British government in the name of Alan Anderson, trustee. By the end of 1916, this company had 11,000,000 tons of workable ore blocked out. Its mines are the Murray, Gertrude, Elsie, Blue Lake and Frood Extension. The reserves of the Murray alone are put at 9,000,000 tons.
In the southeastern part of the district an ore body 7,500 feet long, 10 to 120 feet thick, and extending to a depth of 1,020 feet in one place at least, has been found recently in diamond drilling operations by the E. J. Longyear Co., of Minneapolis. This company and its associates, all American, control the ore body. The ore tonnage of this deposit is estimated at 6,000,000 tons above the 500-ft. level. A few drill holes have gone to greater depths and found ore. It is not possible to estimate the reserves of this deposit below the 500-ft. depth.
The Alexo Mining Co. Ltd., which is mining the Alexo ore deposit north of the Sudbury district, is a Canadian concern. An estimate of the quantity of ore in this deposit is not available, but the deposit is small compared to that of the Sudbury district. The total may be several hundred thousand tons.
The largest and most important owners of nickel-holding lands in New Caledonia, in relative order of the importance of their holdings, are: (1) La Société le Nickel, a company which has been mining in the island for many years. (2) The International Nickel Co., represented in New Caledonia by its two subsidiary companies, The Nickel Corporation and La Société Minière Caledonienne. The International does not mine in the island, but some of its lands are worked on lease by persons associated with La Société le Nickel. (3) Les Hauts-Fourneaux de Noumea.[73]
[73] Report of Ontario Nickel Commission, 1917, p. 253.
La Société le Nickel was under control of the Rothschilds of France at the time of the discovery of the Sudbury deposits. Mr. F. E. Merry, an English metallurgist, in testifying to the Ontario Nickel Commission, reported that Germans were in control of the company at the outbreak of the war. The German firm of Krupp had also acquired some nickel property in New Caledonia.
The International Nickel Co., the second largest holder of New Caledonian nickel lands, is the same American firm which owns the Canadian Copper Co.
Les Hauts-Fourneaux de Noumea is owned, at least since the outbreak of the war, by French interests.
According to Mr. Merry, the nickel mines and smelters of Norway were also mainly in control of the same German group that had gotten control of Le Nickel. It worked under the name “Metallgesellschaft.” One mine and smelter reopened recently were under English control.