The Mineral Wealth

The United States is noted for a great number and a great variety of mineral resources. Its territory possesses over 100 kinds of various minerals. In resources of coal and natural gas, tungsten and molybdenum, lead and phosphorus the United States holds the first place. In resources of copper, zinc and sulphur — the second. In resources of gold, silver, uranium, mercury and as­bestos — the third. The United States is rich in oil, iron ore, va­rious metallic ores. At the same time the country lacks a suffi­cient supply of some of the minerals required for modern indus­tries. These must be imported into the United States. They include tin, nickel, manganese, chrome, cobalt, industrial diamonds.

Modern industry demands more and more of the nation's mi­neral wealth. Each new electric plant needs many kilometers of copper wire. Machines require iron, lead and other metals. Coal, oil and natural gas must drive the machines.

The total resources of coal of the United States are equal to 1.5 trillion tones. The principal deposits of high-grade coals are concentrated in the eastern part of the country. The main pro­ducing areas are in the Appalachian region. Some other less im­portant coal basins are to be found in the middle reaches of the Mississippi, in the north of the Great Plains and in the Rocky Mountains.

The total reserves of oil are estima­ted to 5 thousand million tones. The chief oil-bearing area is in the southern part of the Interior Plains and the Gulf Coast Plain. Other important oil fields are situated in the Pacific southwest (California) and the Rocky Mountains (Wyoming). Extensive oil-bearing areas have been discovered in the northern part of the Great Plains. Less important oil-fields are in the western Appala­chians. Closely connected with oil­fields are the vast deposits of natural gas (8 trillion cubic meters).

It is believed that the greatest part of America's heavy industry depends upon three resources: iron ore from the Lake Superior area, coal from the Appalachians of western Pennsylvania and West Virginia, and transportation across the Great Lakes. In the total resources of iron ore (11 thousand mil­lion tones) the United States is third only to India and Brazil. The chief deposits of iron ore, as has been men­tioned above, are concentrated in the region of Lake Superior. The iron content of the ores of this area is 50 to 58 per cent, though these ores have been partly worked out. There are some deposits of iron ore in the south of the Appalachians, Birmingham, but the ores of this region are of a poorer quali­ty, having lower iron content. The proximity of the deposits of high-grade coal anthracite contributed favorably to the development of ferrous metal­lurgy in the region.

Pittsburg, in the heart of coal-fields, was the first of the great steel cities, because it was cheaper to bring the ore to the coal than the coal to the ore. Today, the Pittsburgh area still pro­duces about one-fifth of the nation's steel, and also supplies coal to the other great steelmaking centers — Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Buffalo.

Large deposits of non-ferrous metals are to be found mostly on the territory to the west of the Mississippi River — zinc, copper, lead and others. Principal resources of such metals as gold, silver and rare elements are in the Cordilleras. The main deposits of uranium are in New Mexico. In the total resources of uranium the United States is after the South African Republic and Ca­nada.

Today the nation's largest open-pit copper mining centre is Bingham, Utah, in the Great Basin. This method is so efficient that the mining of ore costs only a few cents per tone and the great supply will last for many years.

The Cordilleras and Florida contain huge deposits of phosphorus, while the Gulf coastal plain possesses the world's largest reserves of sul­phur.

With the discovery of gold in Cali­fornia in 1848 there were the greatest mass movements of modern history. Thousands of people came to California from all over the world in search of their fortunes in the rocks. Largely because of the gold rush, the whole continent was settled within the cen­tury, although it had once been estima­ted that this process would require 2,000 years. Now some old mining districts contain ghost towns which once were rich, wild cities whose mines produced unbelievable amounts of wealth and then were suddenly exha­usted. With no further reason for existing, the towns were abandoned. One such town is Rhyolite near Death Valley. Rhyolite was born, became rich and died — all during a period of four years.

As a whole, the United States has considerable resources of minerals for the development of in­dustry.

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