SEA’S WEALTH

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 September 1943, Page 2

SEA’S WEALTH

VAST POSSIBILITIES PROGRESS OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH. ROTARY CLUB ADDRESS. “The Wealth of the Sea” was the subject of an interesting address by Mr C. R. Mabson, Borough Engineer, at today’s meeting of the Masterton Rotary Club. Mr Mabson referred to the progress of scientific research as a result of the war and the consequent exploitation of the sea. It was estimated that the elements chemically combined in a cubic mile of ocean are worth., at least £1,000,000,000, and as there were approximately 418 million cubic miles of sea water it would be seen that the sea was worth £4lB thousand billion. The accumulation of chemical wealth had been going on ever since the seas and the rains commenced erosion of lands and rivers drained into the seas silts bearing gold, silver, copper, iron, potassium, iodine, aluminium, calcium, radium, chlorine, bromine, ' sulphur, magnesium, and other elements. In 1933 a chemical company in America set up a plant near Wilmington to recover bromine from the Atlantic. Bromine was an element essential in the manufacture of high-test ethyl petrol and was present in sea water to the extent of 67 parts per million. About 4 gallons of sea water contained enough bromine for one gallon of petrol. Today 220,000 gallons of sea water were treated every minute and 100,000 lbs. of bromine was produced every 24 hours. Magnesium was also being recovered. One cubic foot of magnesium could be recovered from 1,000 cubic feet of sea water. The plant, working at full capacity would take eight centuries to extract the 5,700,000 tons of r agnesium contained in one cubic mile of sea. During the first two years of operation a square mile, 76ft. deep, was pumped through the bromine extraction plant. From that vulume 4,000 tons of bromine worth 430,000 was recovered. However, among the metals and chemicals estimated to have got away were 861bs. weight of gold, 13 tons of silver, 2 million .tons of salt, | a million tons of Epsom salts, 100,000 tons of calcium chloride, 52,000 tons of potassium, 42,000 tons of magnesium, 120 tons of aluminium, 8 tons of copper, 125 tons of iron, enough Strontium to colour 1 million rockets and 2| tons of iodine, or enough to paint 6,750 million mosquito bites. Since the war began new extraction plants were recovering some of the above chemicals formerly pumped back into the sea.