DIVISION OF MINERALS AND STATISTICS.

Statistics, Museum, Laboratory.

WALTER W. BRADLEY, Deputy State Mineralogist.

STATISTICS.

California produces commercially at least fifty different mineral substances, with a total annual value averaging in recent years in excess of $250,000,000. There are several thousand operating properties, including mines, quarries, oil and gas wells, mineral springs, gravel pits, mills and smelters. The task of compiling accurate and dependable statistics covering these activities is a difficult one, requir ing care and a technical knowledge of properties and processes.

Blank report forms for the 1922 data were mailed to the operators, in January, 1923, followed by a 'second request' early in March. At present writing (March 15), the majority of the reports are in hand. Data for several substances are now complete and have been compiled, being presented herewith.

The data at hand indicate that there was no production in California of the following substances, which have at one time or another in the past been on the active list here: Antimony, bismuth, cadmium, mica, molybdenum, nickel, nitrates, serpentine, sulphur, strontium, tin, tungsten, vanadium.

ALUMINUM.

Bibliography: Bulletins 38, 67. U. S. G. S., Min. Res. of U. S. To date there has been no commercial production of aluminum ore in California. The first authentic find of bauxite in this state was noted in the April, 1922, issue of Mining in California' (see Report XVIII, page 198; also 'Pacific Mining News,' p. 13, May, 1922). It is in Riverside County, southeast of Corona, but as yet undeveloped.

Minerals containing aluminum are abundant, the most widely distributed being the clays. There are only two, however, thus far of consequence, commercially, in the production of the metal: bauxite (to which may be added the related, hydrated oxides, hydrargillite and diaspore). and cryolite. Cryolite is found in commercial quantities only in South Greenland, and was formerly the only ore of aluminum used, being still employed as a flux in the extraction of the metal. Bauxite has been, for some years, the most important source of aluminum and its salts. Its color varies from gray to red, according to the amount of iron present, the composition ranging usually between the following limits: Al2O3, 30%-60%; Fe20, 3%-25% ; SiO2, 0.5%-20% ; TiO2, 0.0%-10%. Besides its reduction to the metal, bauxite is also utilized in the maufacture of: aluminum salts, refractory bricks, alundum (fused alumina) for use as an abrasive: and in the refining of oil (stated to be of growing importance). The most important producing countries, both of bauxite and the metal, are the United States and France, the former yielding more than 60 per cent of the world's output. In 1913 France led.

Because of its light weight (2.58 specific gravity), the metal, aluminum, has many important industrial uses, particularly in the manufaeture of aeroplanes, airships, automobiles, cooking utensils, and electrical

apparatus. The use of aluminum dust in place of zinc dust for precipitating precious metal from cyanide solutions is increasing. In the Thermit process of welding and casting, aluminum in fine grains or filings is mixed with the oxide (usually iron oxide) to be reduced.

Present quotations for aluminum are 236-24¢ per pound, according to grade, for the refined metal.

ANTIMONY.

Bibliography: State Mineralogist Reports VIII, X, XII, XIII,
XIV, XV, XVII. Bulletin 38.

Production of antimony in Califórnia has been irregular, and small in amount except during the year 1916 when the high war-time prices permitted American producers, for a short period, to compete with Chinese antimony. The principal commercial production of antimony in California has come from Kern, Inyo, and San Benito counties, and other occurrences have been noted in Nevada, Riverside, and Santa Clara counties. The commonest occurrence is in the form of the sulphide, stibnite; but in the Kernville, and Havilah districts in Kern County there were notable deposits of the native metal, being among the few localities of the world where native antimony has been found.

California producers claim that they can not operate profitably unless the price of antimony be above 12 cents per pound. Present New York quotations are around 8 cents per pound.

Pure antimony metal, and manufactured antimony compounds are of considerable importance as pigments in the ceramic industry. The most important use of the metal, commercially, is in various alloys, particularly type-metal (with tin and lead), babbitt (with tin and copper), and britannia metal (with tin and copper).

The production of antimony in California by years since 1887 has been as follows:

Bibliography: Bulletin 67. U. S. G. S., Min. Res. of U. S.

Arsenic is found in a number of localities in California in the mineral arsenopyrite (FeAsS), which is frequently gold bearing; and in scorodite (FeAsO,+211,0), an oxidation product of arsenopyrite. The occurrence of realgar (ASS) has also been noted (see Report XVIII page 197). To date, there has been no commercial output of arsenic from California ores. The principal source of the arsenic of commerce

in the United States has been as a by-product from the metallurgical treatment of copper, gold, and lead ores. It is usually recovered in the form of the tri-oxide, or 'white arsenic,' for which there is a demand for the preparation of insecticides, for use in agriculture and horticulture, and especially against the cotton-boll weevil in the southern states.

BARYTES.

Bibliography: State Mineralogist Reports XII, XIV, XV, XVII. Bulletin 38. Eng. & Min. Jour.-Press, Vol. 114, p. 109, July 15, 1922; Vol. 115, pp. 319-324, Feb. 17, 1923.

The output of crude barytes in California during 1922 was 3,370 tons valued at $18,925, as compared with 1921 production of 901 tons, worth $4.809. This included, in part, witherite (BaCO3) from the deposit at El Portal, Mariposa County, which yields both the sulphate and carbonate. Most of the output of barytes in California, at present, is being utilized in the manufacture of lithopone.

The principal uses for barytes after washing and grinding, are as an inert pigment and filler in paint, paper. linoleum, oilcloth and rubber manufacture, and in the preparation of lithopone and a number of chemicals. The most important of such chemicals, other than lithopone, are: barium binoxide (used in preparation of hydrogen peroxide); barium carbonate (used by pressed brick and by rubber manufacturers to neutralize sulphur content); barium chloride (used in battery plates, and as a mordant by dry-color manufacturers, and in tanning leather); barium nitrate (used in munitions and in making 'red fire' material); barium sulphate precipitated, or 'blanc fixe' (used in rubber manufacture; for painting on interior steel of battleships and other sea-going vessels; also as a detector in taking X-ray pictures of the human body).

More than half of the total tonnage of barytes utilized in the United States is taken in the manufacture of lithopone. This is a chemically-prepared. white pigment containing about 70% barium sulphate and 30% zinc sulphide, and is one of the principal constituents of 'flat wall paints now so extensively used in office buildings and hospitals, replacing both paper and calcimine wall finishes. Present quotations for barytes vary from $5 to $9 per ton, crude, f. o. b. rail-shipping point, depending on quality. Most barite has to be washed and acid-treated to remove iron stains or other impurities before being suitable for paint use.

Known occurrences of this mineral in California are located in Inyo, Los Angeles, Mariposa, Monterey, Nevada, San Bernardino, Shasta and Santa Barbara counties. The deposit at El Portal, in Mariposa County, has given the largest commercial production to date, in part witherite (barium carbonate, BaCO3). The 1915 output was the first commercial production of the carbonate in the United States of which we have record. In 1916-1920, some tonnage of barytes came from a deposit opened up on Fremont's Peak, Monterey County, near the line of San Benito County; in 1919-1922, shipments were made from Nevada County. Shasta County is in the list for 1921-1922.

The first recorded production of barytes in California, according to the statistical reports of the State Mining Bureau, was in 1910. The annual figures are as follows:

Bibliography: Bulletins 38, 67. Am. Jour. Sci. 1903, Vol. 16. Several bismuth minerals have been found in California, notably native bismuth and bismite (the ochre) in the tourmaline gem district in San Diego and Riverside counties near Pala. Other occurrences of bismuth minerals, including the sulphide, bismuthinite, have been noted in Inyo, Fresno, Nevada, Tuolumne, and Mono counties, but only in small quantities. The only commercial production recorded was 20 tons valued at $2,400, in 1904, and credited to Riverside County.

In 1917, a few pounds of bismuthinite (Bi,S,) with associated bismutite (Bi,CO,.H,O), was taken out at the United Tungsten Copper mine, in the Morongo district, San Bernardino County. It is associated with scheelite in a contact deposit between limestone and granite.

Recovery of bismuth from blister copper in the electrolytic refinery has been noted,' ranging as high as 27.3 pounds of metallic bismuth per 100 tons of blister copper from the Iron Mountain, Shasta County, In the United States, the principal recovery of bismuth is obtained as a by-product from the refining of lead bullion.

ores.

The uses of bismuth are somewhat restricted, being employed principally in the preparation of medicinal salts, and in low melting-point or cliché alloys. These alloys are utilized in automatic fire sprinkler systems, in electrical fuses, and in solders.

Present quotations for bismuth are $2.55 per pound for the refined metal.

CADMIUM.

Bibliography: U. S. G. S., Min. Res. of U. S., 1908, 1918.

During 1917 and 1918, cadmium metal was recovered by the electrolytic zine plant of the Mammoth Copper Company in Shasta County. It was shipped in the form of 'sticks' and amounted to a total of several thousand pounds for the two years, the exact figures being concealed under 'Unapportioned.' That was the first, and thus far the only, commercial production of cadmium recorded from California ore. Cadmium there occurs associated with zinc sulphide. sphalerite, probably as the sulphide, greenockite. Cadmium also occurs in the Cerro Gordo Mine, Inyo County, associated with smithsonite (zinc carbonate).

There are several cadmium minerals, but none of them occur in sufficient quantities individually to be profitable as distinct ores. The cadmium of commerce is derived as a by-product in the reduction of

"Trans. Am. Inst. Min. Eng., Vol. 47, pp. 217-218,

zine minerals and ores, in nearly all of which it occurs in at least minute proportions, the average ratio being about 1 of cadmium to 200 of zinc. As cadmium behaves metallurgically much the same as zinc, it constitutes a fraction of 1 per cent of nearly all metallic zinc.

Cadmium is produced in United States in two forms-metallic cadmium and the pigment, cadmium sulphide. The principal use of the metal is in low-melting point, or cliché alloys, and its salts are utilized in the arts, medicine, and in electroplating. The sulphide is employed as a paint pigment, being a strong yellow, which is unaffected by hydrogen sulphide gas from coal smoke. It is also employed in coloring glass and porcelain. Cadmium cliché metal is stated to be superior to the corresponding bismuth alloy, for making stereotype plates. Cadmium is also used in bronze telegraph and telephone wires, and gives some promise of being utilized in electroplating.

Present quotations for cadmium are $1.15 per pound for the refined. metal.

COBALT.

Bibliography: Report XIV; Bulletin 67. U. S. G. S., Min. Res. of U. S., 1912, 1918.

Occurrences of some of the cobalt minerals have been noted in several localities in California, but to date no commercial deposits have been developed. Some of the copper ores of the foothill copper belt in Mariposa and Madera counties have been found to contain cobalt up to 3%.

The most important use of cobalt is in the manufacture of the alloy, stellite, in which it is combined with chromium, for making high-speed lathe tools, and non-tarnishing cutlery and surgeons' appliances. The metal is also used in electroplating, similarly to nickel; and the oxide, carbonate, chloride, sulphate and other salts are used in ceramics for coloring. Some of the organic salts of cobalt (acetate, resinate, oleate) are employed as 'driers' in paint and varnish.

Present quotations for cobalt are $2.65-$2.85 per pound for the refined metal.

GRAPHITE.

Bibliography: State Mineralogist Reports XIII, XIV, XV, XVII. Bulletin 67. U. S. G. S., Min. Res., 1914, Pt. II.

Graphite has been produced from time to time in the State, coming principally from Sonoma and Los Angeles counties. It is difficult for these deposits, which must be concentrated, to compete with foreign supplies, which go on the market almost directly as they come from the deposit. Graphite ores are concentrated with considerable difficulty, and the electric process of manufacturing artificial graphite from coal has been perfected to such a degree that only deposits of natural graphite of a superior quality can be exploited with any certainty of

success.

According to the U. S. Geological Survey, operators in this country who are working disseminated flake deposits must depend on their No. 1 and 2 flake for their profit. Graphite dust is merely a by-product and is salable only at a low price. Improved methods of graphite milling adopted promise to increase largely the production of flake of better grade.