WELLINGTON NEWS

Hokitika Guardian, 17 May 1929, Page 3

WELLINGTON NEWS

COPPER SUPPLIES AND USES. (Special Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, May 16. Copper is an industrial metal, second only in importance to iron, and its use lias increased substantially with the development cf industry throughout the world. In 1923 European industry was operating-at from 60 per cent to 80 per cent of its 1913 capacity, while at present it appears to' he operating above the pre-war level owing to the partial recovery of the older branches and to the marked expansion in tie production of automobiles, artificial silk, and electrical equipment. As is well known American industry lias made srreat strides since the war ils annual production being now about <lO per cent higher than in 1919. Can adian manufacturing shows that output is now 50 per cent greater than at the peak of war-time activity. The electric industry, including telegraph, telephone and hydro-electricity com panies uses over 40 per cent of the copper made available, the automobile industry about 12 per cent and the building industry about 5 per cent. World production of electricity ha: more than doubled since 1913, hut as far as can be ascertained not more than 15 per cent of the world’s available water power has been utilised, the greatest development so far having taken place in North America, where rapid progress may be expected to or cur. Italy and France have extensive water power resources; about twothirds of the potential power still awaits development for - the rapidly growing French industries, as compared with about .30 per cent in Italy. German industry is electrified for mo tivc power to the extent ol about il- - cent. Great Britain and Belgium lacking water power but possessing large coal reserves, are highly industrialised countries, and the former has planned additional re-organisation of its electrical supply at a cost of over £20,000,000. Even the most advanced European countries, Great Britain, France, and Germany, are poorly served by electricity for domestic purposes For not more than 25 per cent of the houses are wired for this service, hi general • tho world has scarcely commenced to. meet its needs lor electricity a situation that opens a vast field for the use of copper. f World consumption, lofgho’ppor’ is now very large and some authorities anticipate that it will go on expanding and that'a,l consumption of 5,000,000 tons per annum will he reached in another 20 years;- There is no alarm regarding supplies. Market prices are hound to fluctuate, but . within cbniparativcly narrow limits. r l here are known to be at least 2,500,000,000 tons of ore available for mining, sufficient to last lor 20 years or more without investigating new sources, aiid while the world smaller industries have recently operated at about its normal level there appears still to ho room for expansion. While most of the copper mined requires smelting and refining, some ores do not need to be put through these processes. Leaching by acid, one of the oldest forms of separating, copper from rock, has been developed on a fairly large scale, and can be applied to great, quantities of oxidised ores of exceptional richness found in the Belgian Congo. Leached ere does not require smelting. Jn addition copper is derived from ores mined primarily for other minerals such as gold, silver, lead, zinc, and sulphur. Furthermore, secondary copper, that is copper recovered from smelting copper scrap is increasing now and constitutes a fair proportion of the available supply. An abnormal increase in price, besides stimulating production will cause consumers to turn to substitutes, such as lead, a I uni....urn and rustless iron. In view of the abundant reserves, low production costs, the various sources of the metal and the, wide range of substitutes it seems that a shortage of refined copper cannot extend over a lengthy period. The ore reserves in the United States have been officially estimated at over 1,500,000,000 tons, which with a great metallurgical plant would permit of n hi r ire increase on present output <>l 1,000,000 tons a year. Chile is reported to nave about 1.000,000,000 tons of ore in sight, and the output from all South American mines should be at least 250,000 tons of copper by 1933. There arc extensive ore bodies in Belgian Congo and Rhodesia, and tho development in the latter eountiy is expected to add largely to world supplies. Expansion at the greatest rate dining the next four or live years will probably be in Canada, where the output last year was 160,000 tons.