Abstract
IN response to the latest of the periodic scares of impending bankruptcy due to the exhaustion of fuel, ore, or soil, the Geological Survey of the United States has been instructed to estimate the national economic mineral resources. Its report (Bull. No. 394), dealing with quantities on a continental scale, may excite the envy of the single countries of Europe; and though the factors are uncertain, the available supplies of most minerals are sufficient to render political restriction of output unnecessary. Thus, in the case of coal, Pennsylvania is known to have enough to last for 492 years at the rate at which the material was being exhausted in 1907. Ohio has only used 0.9 per cent, of its proved supplies, and at the rate of production in 1907 they will last for two thousand years. In Maryland the coal will last for another 948 years. Mr. Gannet, in a general summary of the extent of the coal reserves, estimates that only one-third of one per cent, of the known and easily accessible supply was mined during the last century.
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References
United States Geological Survey. Bull. 341.— M. R. Campbell . Contributions to Economic Geology, 1907. Part ii., Coal and Lignite. Pp. 444, xxv pis., 7 figs. (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1909.)
Bull. 347.— F. E. Wright and C. W. Wright . The Ketchikan and Wrangell Mining Districts, Alaska. Pp. 210 + v, xii, pls., 23 figs. (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1908.)
Bull. 374.— F. H. Moffit and A. G. Maddren . Mineral Resources of the Kotsina-Chitina Region. Alaska. Pp. 103, x. pls., 9 figs. (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1909.)
Bull. 379.— A. H. Books and others. Mineral Resources of Alaska, Report on Progress of Investigations in 1908. Pp. 418, x pls, 21 figs. (Washington: Government Prinring Office, 1909)
Bull. 380.— C. W. Hayes and W. Lindgren . Contributions to Economic Geology, 1908. Part I, Metals and Non-metals, except Fuels, Pp. 406, ii pls., 32 figs. (Washington: Government Printing; Office, 1909)
Bull. 394.—Papers on the Conservation of Mineral Resource. Reprinted from Report of the National Conservation Commission, February, 1909 Pp. 214, xii pls., 2 figs. (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1909)
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G., J. The Mineral Resources of the United States 1 . Nature 84, 511–512 (1910). https://doi.org/10.1038/084511a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/084511a0