Mineral wealth

“ We have untold stores of mineral wealth, and auriferous areas of many thousands of square miles. Who can doubt that the dazzling discoveries of the past will be repeated? Then we have vast stores of coal, tin, copper, silver—the richest silver mines in the world, buried right in the heart of the continent. ”

“ The treasures of commercially valuable ore-deposits have been hid by nature whimsically throughout the earth, here and there, by no rule of geography or latitude, and with a great disregard of equality. A nation’s needs or desires for mineral wealth have no stated relation to its actual mineral possessions ”

“ It has all the different forms of mineral wealth—gold, silver, copper, iron, lead, besides coal, oil and salt. No other country on the globe can begin to compare with it in the variety of its products; it combines the utility of them all. It is as if all others had contributed their choicest seeds, as they have their peoples, to fill up the variety with which this should be blessed. ”

“ MONEY IN THE ROCKS—THE UNDERGROUND WEALTH OF OUR COUNTRY—VALUABLE MINERALS DISGUISED—HOW GREAT FORTUNES ARE MISSED—NUMBER OF MINERALS IN THE UNITED STATES—OBJECT OF THIS WORK AND HOW TO USE IT—THE BEST MINERAL REGIONS.
MINERALS head the list of the sources of our nation’s wealth. Gold, iron, coal and marble have not only contributed largely to the enterprise and opulence of America, but at this very moment they exert a commanding influence in political circles. No one can prophesy the greatness of the commercial power which is sure to rise on their foundations. ”

“ While a large part of the area is level ground, there is much elevated territory, and the mineral wealth is very important. It includes gold, silver, platinum, iron, copper, coal and salt, all of large occurrence. ”

“ One of the most important sources of national prosperity, [341] growth, and riches is to be found in our mineral deposits. Here we see rich specimens of almost every known mineral, and all found within our own borders. Within the list are tin, zinc, copper, silver, gold, iron and coal, with unnumbered others; but these mentioned are the principal, and these are the factors which enter largely into all problems of modern progress and civilization; they add to the riches, if not the wealth of any people; and wisely used, they will add to the wealth as well as riches. ”

“ The value of land increases with its proper use, but in the case of minerals, the value is absolutely destroyed. Surely, it is a crime against posterity to allow the strictly limited mineral wealth of our country to be made private property, and very largely sold to foreigners, solely to increase the wealth of individuals and to the absolute impoverishment of ourselves and our children. ”

“ While intrinsically the precious metals are the more valuable, in the aggregate, the nonprecious metals have probably contributed as much or more to the general wealth of the country.
A division of lands into agricultural and mineral would also be a most uncertain guide to a proper construction of the word 'mineral,' since most of the lands included in the limits of this grant are neither one nor the other, but desert or rocky land, of no present value for agriculture, and of little value for their mineral deposits. ”

“ Professor Tennant states there have been already described 500 minerals, more than half which number are found in the British Isles; whilst more than 450 are found in our colonies. In the International Exhibition of 1862, our vast colonial mineral wealth was shown in remarkable specimens of gold, silver, copper, precious stones, &c., many of which had been found by working miners who had been sent out from this country. Yet, miners are generally ignorant of the value of minerals, which they reject as not worth collection: now, the gold they collect is worth 4l. ”

“ Granite or mica-slate debris in the beds of rivers or the level fields which they occasionally overflow, imply granite or mica-slate in the hilly region from which they take their rise. Whence has all the gold come which in the alluvial plains of California is producing such treasures, and changing prices over the whole world? It has come down from the mountains. And what must be the metallic riches with which they are charged, when the washed-down gravel at their feet is so prolific of mineral wealth! ”

“ It is not possible for the most pessimistic person to fear that Nature has, by a strange coincidence, concentrated all the mineral wealth in the only part that is populated—that southern fringe which, though still only imperfectly prospected, has yielded over four hundred million tons of iron ore, nearly five thousand million pounds of copper, and immense quantities of silver and the other minerals I have mentioned. ”

“ The importance of the metallic ores and other mineral substances, considered as instrumental in the advancement of national prosperity, is obvious to every one. In announcing that a certain country possesses extensive and skilfully worked mines, either of coal, of iron, copper, tin, lead, or other of the numerous ores, we at once proclaim her wealth in terms that all must understand. ”

“ This desolate region, which is rainless and absolutely barren, and was considered worthless for three and a half centuries, is now a treasure-house of mineral wealth, abounding in copper, silver, lead, nickel, cobalt, iron, nitrates and borax. It is occupied by many mining settlements, and includes some of the most productive copper and silver mines of the world. ”

“ The immense discoveries of gold, silver, quicksilver, tin, copper, lead, iron, and coal, within our limits, justify the estimate that our mineral riches exceed the aggregate metallic wealth of the globe. In a state of peace, with adequate revenue from ordinary sources, the Government has interposed no obstacle to the free access of our citizens and of the people of every nation, to work the mines, of which the United States are the undisputed owners, and by which individuals, in the aggregate, have realized some nine hundred millions of dollars.' ”

“ The chief source of mineral wealth is the noted durable granite, which is quarried at Aberdeen, Kemnay, Peterhead and elsewhere. An acre of land on being reclaimed has yielded L. 40 to L. 50 worth of causewaying stones. Sandstone and other rocks are also quarried at different parts. The imports are mostly coal, lime, timber, iron, slate, raw materials for the textile manufactures, wheat, cattle-feeding stuffs, bones, guano, sugar, alcoholic liquors, fruits. ”

“ As based upon the territorial and commercial control of the fundamental minerals, it appears that the earth is owned by the two great Anglo-Saxon nations, the United States and the British Empire: the former by destiny and good fortune and without political plan or policy, in that such a vast store of mineral wealth was found in the great sparsely populated wilderness of America which it occupied ”

“ It is, in fact, one of the mineral magazines which nature has provided in the heart of this vast realm of fertility, and which, in connection with the immense beds of coal on the same river, seem garnered up as the elements of the future wealth and power of the mighty West. ”

“ I have very large ideas of the mineral wealth of our nation. I believe it practically inexhaustible. It abounds all over the Western country, from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, and its development has scarcely commenced. ”

“ As the gold is found in quartz rock, and only to a small extent in gravel or other alluvial deposits, the mining requires capital, and will be carried on by companies. It will be carried on quickly, and so quickly with the aid of the enormously improved scientific appliances we now possess, as to exhaust at no distant period the mineral which the rocks contain. ”

“ We have mines of gold, lead, copper, iron, and tin, but up to the present, though there have been a few gold rushes, very little attention has been given to our mineral resources, and we really know little about them. ”

“ Missing from the lists of the most abundant minerals and rocks, are the greater part of the commercially important mineral resources—including such as coal, oil, gas, iron ore, copper, gold, and silver,—implying that these mineral products, notwithstanding their great absolute bulk and commercial importance, occur in relatively insignificant amounts as compared with the common rock minerals of the earth. ”

“ Every country in the globe is deficient in supplies of some minerals. The United States is better off than any other country, but still lacks many mineral commodities (see pp. 396-399.) No single continent has sufficient reserves of all mineral commodities.
For the world, however, it may be stated with reasonable certainty that the reserves of the principal minerals are now known to be ample with the exception of those of oil, tin, and perhaps gold and silver. By ample we mean sufficient to give no cause for worry for the next few decades. ”

“ We supply forty-five tons out of every hundred of iron ore, twenty-two tons of gold, thirty tons of silver, thirty-three tons of lead, nearly twenty-eight tons of the zinc, about fifty-five tons of the copper, and sixty-three tons of the petroleum consumed by all civilized countries.
This would be a cause for great national pride if we did not need also to consider the shameful fact that our wastes or losses in the mining, handling, and use of our mineral products are estimated at more than $1,500,000 per day, or, for the year, the gigantic sum of $547,500,000. ”

“ Thus, from the wreck of forests that waved upon the surface of the primeval lands, and from ferruginous mud that was lodged at the bottom of the primeval waters, we derive our chief supplies of coal and iron, those two fundamental elements of art and industry, which contribute more than any other mineral production of the earth to increase the riches, and multiply the comforts, and ameliorate the condition of mankind. ”

“ The region so long remaining almost unknown, has suddenly become the desired bourne for men and women of all classes. It has always been known that its mineral resources were fine, and gold has been found there in small quantities, but the hardships endured in getting it from the soil were too great in proportion to the amount, but a new impetus to the labors of the gold seeker has been given by the discovery of the precious metal in such large quantities that thousands have rushed to this field eager to dig for the yellow ore. ”

“ The mineral resources also include nearly every variety required for manufacturing industries. In the production of the two minerals which constitute the basis of modern manufactures, coal and iron, the United States ranks foremost, and, indeed, produces nearly a third of the world's output of each. Moreover, the deposits of these minerals, together with deposits of limestone, which is needed in fluxing the iron ore, are frequently found in the same locality. ”

“ I have been looking through the reports of the geological exports of the Commission of Investigation which my husband organized soon after he came to live here, and, according to them, our whole mountain ranges simply teem with vast quantities of minerals, almost more precious for industry than gold and silver are for commerce—though, indeed, gold is not altogether lacking as a mineral. ”

“ Some will be accidentally brought to light; but the majority are so disguised that their real nature is not seen. How unpromising are the best ores of iron, zinc and silver and the rarest gems! Then, again, there is “mimicry” in the mineral kingdom; worthless stones are often good imitations of the valuable, and fortunes have been sunk in mining pyrites for gold, mica for silver and slate for coal. But if we wait for mineralogists to develop our mineral resources, we must wait a millenium, our country is so vast and scientific laborers so few. ”

“ Virginia, "the mother of Presidents," is rich in minerals of the more useful sort, and some of the precious metals. Her list of mineral treasures includes gold, copper, iron, lead, plumbago, coal, and salt. The gold mines are not available except to capitalists, and it is not yet fully settled whether the yield is sufficient to warrant large investments. ”

“ Mineral Resources.—Transvaal yields to no other African region in the abundance of its mineral resources, while it is altogether un rivalled in their extraordinary variety. These include, besides the precious metals and diamonds, iron, copper, lead, cobalt, sulphur, saltpetre, and coal, this last with gold, copper, and iron being probably the most abundant and widely distributed. ”

“ Minerals.—The mineral resources of the kingdom, though capable of further development, are not rich. They are chiefly confined to the mountains, where iron, coal, copper, lead, zinc, silver and sulphur are mined in small quantities. ”

“ But to the three or four industries enumerated the colonists have added seven or eight more, each respectable in size and profitable in the return it yields. To gold their miners have added coal, the output of which is now two million tons a year. Another mineral—or sort of mineral—is the fossil resin of the giant Kauri pine, of which the markets of Europe and North America absorb more than half-a-million pounds’ worth yearly. ”

“ Every addition to our knowledge of the mineral resources of other parts of the world carries us nearer and nearer to the conclusion that the old idea of the superlative abundance of the natural mineral resources of England is a delusion. We are gradually discovering that, with the one exception of tin-stone, we have but little if any more than an average supply of useful ores and mineral fuel. ”