Show bureau of mines mi nes war WV ar aati activities vi ti es WRITTEN FOR THE MINING REVIEW the necessities of the war situation have stimulated in many ways to greater activity the functions of the bureau of mines department of the interior whose normal field covers the production of metals and minerals and joins joing that of the war industries dus tries board which is concerned with manufactures and supplies and prices of raw materials for the same much of this increased activity has fallen to the war Aline minerals rals investigation branch of the bureau of mines provided for by special congressional appropriation under this branch most of the special war activities have been grouped in the field of actual mining and milling numerous field engineers have been active and the policy has been adopted of having these men afford immediate help in the way of advice as to correct mining and milling methods where this advice is needed and also regarding all other mining and marketing problems A great volume of work has been done along these lines which has made for greater efficiency in production and which is not intended to form part of any special study or memoir in the various bureau of mines experiment stations special problems of ore treatment have been and are under investigation satisfactory experiments in the concentration cent ration of the western chrome ores have been made at seattle and experiments on the west texas sulphur ores show their probable amenability to the f flotation lo tation ni method ethod these are only examples of numerous investigations on milling methods which cover manganese graphite and other war ivar minerals laboratory investigations with the view of increasing the supply of electrodes so as to make them available for western electric furnaces iurna ces are under way in colorado the subject of the production of has been thoroughly investing invest investigated ig abed b field eld parties in all parts of the country and ln III edition addition the bureau of mines engineers have ve investigated newfoundland and cuba the latter in conjunction with the U S geo logical cical survey the war minerals investigation organization has provided for handling the ques eions ons of priorities both of railroad transportation and of supplies and fuel and a very large arge umber of applications have been handled aled the bureau has also had to act as adviser to the railroad administration 41 8 to the construction of short lines de signed to tap P mines the problem being as to whether ether such construction was a war feces r ty or could be postponed similarity rily the bureau of mines has acted as s adviser in mining matters to other gov ernnie ament nt organizations it has acted as the advising engineer of the capital issues committee of the war finance corporation as to whether proposed issues of mining stock were essential to carrying on the war or could be postponed it has also worked in operation cooperation co with and acted as adviser to the war industries board especially in certain matters such as pyrite sulphur and sulphuric acid tungsten etc and in the decisions and measures taken by the board on these subjects it has played an important part the bureau has in some cases undertaken the difficult problem of highway construction st where this was necessary as the outlet for an important war mineral and in the case of the important discoveries of in siskiyou you county california the efforts of the bureau working through the forest service the office of public roads the local county government and the operators themselves succeeded in promptly starting the construction of the necessary highway the labor section of the war minerals investigation has proved a useful undertaking and is cooperating with the department of labor and in general handles the whole subject of mining labor in that connection in many cases labor difficulties to which important war mines were submitted as a result of unfair labor competition have been relieved and in general the measures taken by the united united states employment service to allocate unskilled labor have been directed as regards mining labor in such a way as to bring about the maxi maximum muni efficiency fici ency cooperation with the war department has also been undertaken supplying classification of the mining men according to their work as a basis for deferred class classification fi and cooperating with the war department part ment and the man alan power committee of the department of labor in seeing that the mining industry is included to maintain maximum production As a result of the investigation 0 of the bureau as to the dangers which threaten production of war minerals secretary lane has written to chairman kitchen of the ways and means committee recommend rec recommending ommen ding that the excess profits tax be suspended in the case of those mines producing a war wai essential sent ial until special installations put in III for that purpose should be amortized and this recommendation has been universally approved of by those in possession of th facts the platinum situation has been cIO closely slY studied by the bureau and in cooperation with the war industries board plans and regulations have been drawn up which it is be believed lieveld will enable a satisfactory handling of tal this s commo commodity city and these regulations will be put into effect through the war industries dus tries board special committees have been formed to study special problems the committee on gold representing both the bureau ani and the geological survey has been appointed by the secretary of the interior at the suggestion of the bureau with mr hennen jennings as chairman and is investigating the whole problem similarly a committee on potash has been appointed which has reported to the secretary the situation with recommendations for active further investigation ti by the bureau of mines the tin problem has also been studied by a special committee commilee comm idee and recommendations to the other government departments interested have been made close cooperation has been maintained with the U S geological survey which has been investigating the war minerals from the geological standpoint in the carrying out of its especial functions as the representative of the mining industry in the production of war minerals an increased expansion of activity of the bureau is to be expected |