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Show March 5, 1943 The Western Mineral Survey, Salt. Lake.. City, .Utah; 3 Y Has ear Big ining U Metals Produced In Great Quantity American metal production in 1942 was unusually high: so much the Bureau of Mines freely, states, without fear of divulging strategic infohiiation of value to the enemy. The bureau declines to' state for ! publication, however, as has been its: practice in past' years, 'Just how great was that' production or to release full specific figures on the output of strategic metals. The Western Mineral Survey,: ..which in years past has' made a practice of bringing to its read ers the full reports of the Bureaiu of Mines on U. S. mineral production, hereby presents a gen eral picture of American mineral production : in 1942 without' revealing any information . which the bureau of the Office of Censorship might object to having made public. Throughout the year 1942, the metals, production of especially copper, lead and zinc, was strongly emphasized by government. industry. As a natural ' result output was high: in some instances, undoubtedly, new. all time production records were established, in other the records were equalled or approached.-Femines producing strategic, metals fell below 1941 output in 1942, and these invariably ' were, subject to special condi--. tlons. Copper production in the United-States equalled or' surpassed the all time record in 1942, with Arizona (leading state) very near the peak ' figures of 1929, Utah setting a . new record and Montana producing considerably more of the . red metal in 1942 than in 1941,. but not reaching its all time record. In : 1942 copper production, Arizona led. the states' with Utah coming second, followed by Montana, Nevada, New Mexico and Michigan in that order. The biggest difficulty in the way of greater copper production . . r . non-ferro- . copper-producin- - g, was that of a restricted labor supply. Had there been a suitable reserve of copper mining labor, meii thoroughly trained in the exact .type 'of mining in which they were called to work, there1 would undoubtedly have resulted a substantial increase over the very high output figures of last . year. In. the latter part of theyear, the army released a number of soldiers who .had been miners to go into the copper producers and the results of this move were excellent, for it made. for a full 100 per cent increase over the summertime low in production when the labor shortage., 'was acute. Even so, the results: were not what they might have, been. Most of the soldiers who went into the mines were trained miners, but unfortunately many of them were not trained' in the exact type of mining which they were called upon to do. Open pit miners werd" in many cases sent underground and vice versa; men trained to use one type of mining machinery were called upon to use another, and valuable time was lost s in learning efficiency with new tools. The mm, of course, were sent to the nearest place where miners were needed and the complications of sorting them out .'and sending them to the places where they could work with the greatest efficiency would per-- , have been too great to be r haps, considered for the possible result. In' any case, the net result of the move was excellent, although faling shot of the full, possibilities of the situation. In output of the highly important zinc, the West continued to play an important role, with the western states states from the - . . - zinc In - . - - . . . : by-pro-d- - -- . . , . . - ; - . . lead production in 1942 over 1941, but 1943 is. decidedly uncertain, as lead is not neatly so critical a metal as copper, zinc and many others and very, likely no effort will ' be made to approach capacity production of lead, with all possible resources : being concentrated in the more critical fields. Gold and silver porduction in 1942 showed a very checkered ' pattern. States which produce the two metals directly from fill- icious ores and placers showed a definite drop in output, as WPB orders shut many mines down completely, while, on the other hand the states with large phon phyrous copper deposits, where gold and silver come as ucls of base metal mining, showed notable gains. Utah; for example, ' probably reached its all time high in gold output in ' 1942, due to the great activity in. mining of- - copper and other strategic metals. California continued to rank No. 1 among the states and territories in gold production, followed in order' by Alaska, South Dakota, Utah, Nevada, Colorado; Arizona and Montana." Silver production for 1942 found the states in about the same relative position as in 1941, with Idaho leading the parade and Montana, Utah, Arizona and Nevada following in that order. Most of the silver produced in the United States is turned out of other, types as a of mining, but there are some straight silicous silver ore mines, (Continued on Page 10) - - . ' - . . Utah Coppers famous open ent mine played an unusually Important role in 1942. Not only was copper prodnd were highly In demand. The mine even turned out to be Utah a ho, 1 gold producer for the year. various by-produ- that lf - : . close to double of the. previous year. In lead production in 1942, Missouri ranked nrst among the states, with Idaho placing second and Utah third. The western bloc of state turned out just of 'the total na- -' about one-hatlonal supply. Idaho and Utah were followed, among western states, by Montana and Arizona in lead output. Some states showed Increased - r - . 1942 - metal.-When,-late- .. , . and these all showed a drop in mark, due to the labor shortage. Of all the states, Colorado and New Mexico have the greatest to show percentage ' opportunity gains in zinc output in 1943,- and these same states showed a very notable gain last year over 1941; with Colorados production of . , . eastern edge' of the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Coast producing about 42 per cent of the total national, output of this metal in 1942. Oklahoma continued to rank as No. 1 state in zinc production, with New Jersey coming second, and Idaho, first of the western states, ranking th.rd. In. .the West, was, of course, the No. 1 zinc producer, followed by Montana, Utah, New Mexico and .Colorado in that order. Idaho production was increased, over 1941, as was out-- , put in Utah, New Mexico and but Montana figures Colorado, fell under those of 1941,.. a fact entirely due to the labor shortage. This .was1 in fact so bad that Anaconda had to shut down zinc operations in .June but for which' fact the statetmight have pressed .Idaho hard for first place among western producers in the of the year, the soldiers were released for mining, . copper ranked . as No. 1 need and there were not enough army mining men to fill copper needs' and get around to zinc, so . that Montana, never was able to get back to normal output throughout the year. The brightest spot In the 1942 zinc picture was the work done at. the Tooele slag fuming plant opening up immense new pos - sibllities for : the future. The Tooele establishment was modeled on one already operating In Montana and another, is 'now ready to go into operation in Idaho; promising well for 1943. The greatest thing about the slag fuming process, is that, the zic. thus recovered and made would available for ' Industry otherwise have been almost completely 'lost It is estimated that in 1943 some 35,000' to 40,000 tons of zinc will come from the three slag fuming plants, which is a net surplus over anything Which the nations mines might ' have produced. This estimated 1943 production would be about double the 1941' output from this source. ores of In 1943, the zinc-lea- d Idahos main zinc, producers should do better- .than in 1942, but even so they are approach- ing the limit of their . capacity. Utah mines definitely can ex--, ceed their 1942 output (which fell under the 1941 figures,) and Montana is still a major question high, but |