| IRON tons | COPPER tons | |
| July to December, 1917 | 272,403 | 41,809 |
| January to June, 1918 | 218,301 | 52,569 |
| Total | 490,704 | 94,378 |
On the south side of the Sierra de Cubitas, in the Province of Camaguey, a distinctly marked zone of this excellent iron ore runs parallel to the main chain of the Cubitas for many miles. Grass covered hills, rising more or less abruptly from the surface, seem to be composed of solid masses of iron ore. So great is the value of this mineral zone that the North Shore Road of Cuba, now under construction and practically completed from its eastern deep water terminus on Nuevitas Harbor to the Maximo River just east of the Sierra de Cubitas, was primarily intended as a means of exploiting and conveying the ore from this zone to the sea coast.
In the western portion of the Organ Mountains of Pinar del Rio, other deposits of nickeliferous iron have been denounced and registered, although the cost of building a railroad to deep water on the north coast up to the present prevented the development of the mines, located about 20 miles southeast of Arroyo de Mantua.
With the enormous amount of constructive work that will undoubtedly follow the great European War, in which iron and steel will play such an important part, there is every reason to believe that capital will be forthcoming with which to build the necessary roads and to develop the nickel bearing iron ores of Cuba.
Structural steel, today and in the future, will probably play a greater part in the world’s progress and development than any other one of the products of nature. The demand for steel, of course, was greatly accentuated by the European conflict, without which modern warfare would be practically impossible. The splendid steel turned out in our mills of today would be impossible of manufacture without the addition of a certain percentage of either manganese or chrome. The alloys of these two metals with iron gives steel its elasticity, hardness and real value.
Manganese ores are found in California, Colorado, Arkansas, Georgia, Michigan, New Jersey and Virginia, but nowhere within the limits of the United States have the United States have the deposits of manganese proved to be sufficiently extensive to supply the domestic requirements of the country, even in normal times. The total output of manganese in the United States in 1901 was less than 12,000 tons. Southern Russia contains very large deposits of the metal, but up to 1919, 70% to 80% of the manganese consumed in the United States had been brought from the interior of Southern Brazil.
The immediate and imperative demand for both manganese and chrome, impelled the Government at Washington to seek other sources, closer by, in order to save the time consumed in securing shipments from Brazil.
Small amounts of manganese had been secured from Cuba during the ten years previous to the War, but the extent of these deposits remained unknown until, in the spring of 1918, the United States Geological Survey and Bureau of Mines sent two expert engineers, Messrs. Albert Burch, consulting engineer of the Bureau of Mines, and Ernest F. Burchard, geologist of the United States Geological Survey, to Cuba in order to ascertain the quality and quantity of manganese and chrome that might be furnished by that Republic.
The party reached Havana in the latter part of February, and were there joined by Sr. E. I. Montoulieu, a Cuban mining engineer, detailed by the Treasury Department to act as an escort and associate throughout research work in the Island. During the two months of their stay these gentlemen made a rapid survey of the more important chrome and manganese zones, the report of which was made to the United States Government in September of 1918.