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Show HEBGUBr OUTPUT MKESjpSE Price for Metal Extraordinarily Extraordi-narily High, Yet Production Produc-tion Remains Low. U'ASHINOTON, Pe". 20. Although cpiickcllver Is not a precious metal, and. unhke iron and copper, is not one of the gre.it basic materials of industry, nevertheless never-theless its unique position as the only I metal that ia liquid at ordinary temperatures tempera-tures and its varied and special applications applica-tions in science and the arts give It peculiar pe-culiar interest. Tho report of the United Srates piological survey, department of the interior, on quicksilver In IMS, pre-; pre-; pared by F. L.. Hnnsome. not only gives ! the domestic production as a whole and bv .states for the year, but presents, also, the latest ohtainable flffura for the world's production and contains Information Informa-tion on the quantity and character of ore treated, methods of reduction, prices, imports im-ports and exports, and us-s of quicksil-I quicksil-I ver. The report also contains notes on thrt operations at individual mines and a i tih!e wheroln are listed most of the ' quU-ksllver mines of the United State?, with notes on the character of deposit, workings, reduction equipment and tota.1 output of each mine. According to Mr. Ran some, -producers in the United States reported for the period pe-riod July 1 to September 30. Inclusive, ti total output of 5207 flasks of quicksilver, of seventy -five pounds net each. It 1b estimated that three or four small operators opera-tors in California and two or three In Nevada, from whom no returns have yet been received, may have produced from ton to twenty flasks, and that It will he sufficiently accurate, pcndlnt? final figures for the entire year, to consider the total production for the third quarter as 525 flasks. This Is an Increase of 12S5 flasks j as compared with the second quarter, or ; about 32 Tier cent. The total production j in 1918 was 32,883 flasks. As the production produc-tion for tho first three quarters of 1919 has been only 15,125 flasks, if the total frr the. -n.,T Ir tn r.nial int nf 1 i 1 fl th( output for the fourth quarter will have to amount to 17,758 flasks. This Is far boy on '1 any reasonable expectation, and the outlook at present indicates that the total production for 1919 will be about L'0.000 flasks. Sixteen mines were reported report-ed as productive durlnff the third quarter, quar-ter, or the same number as in the second quarter. Of tho 5207 flasks'reported, 3903 fUi.sk s were produced in California, 1209 in Texns, snventy-ono In Nevada and twenty-four in Orejjon. Quicksilver reported on hand at the mines or in transit to market at th end of the quarter amounted to 2185 flasks, as asainst 1635 flasks at the end of the second sec-ond quarter and 2800 flasks at the end of the first quarter. The average monthly prices of quicksilver quick-silver In San Francisco for the first nine months of TUB, as quoted in the Mining and Scientific Press, were as follows: January $103.75 February 0.00 March , 72.80 April 73.12 May 84!80 Juno t Si. 40 July 300.00 August 103.00 September 102.60 As compared with the prices In all previous years, except 1S74, these prices are extraordinarily hlph, yet the output for the year does not seem likelv to surpass sur-pass the 20,524 flasks produced in 1912, when the average price was only $42.05 a flask. |