Abstract
LIEUT.-COLONEL EDGAR PAM, president of the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy, delivered his presidential address at the annual general meeting of the Institution held on May 17. He pointed out that a not inconsiderable part of mankind as a whole depend for their living, or for their comfort and convenience, on base metals such as copper, zinc, lead and nickel; any important trend aftecting their availability is therefore of great general interest. One eftect of the War has been the concentration of a limited labour force on production at the expense of development work; the ore reserve of most important mines has been seriously depleted and, in spite of efforts intensified during the War, no ore bodies of real importance have been discovered for many years. Progress has been made in mining and metallurgical methods, but no epoch-making improvement stands to our credit since the development of notation. With the relaxation of the demand for war uses, the supply in the near future should be ample; but within a few years a shortage seems indicated.
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Future of Base Metals. Nature 155, 630 (1945). https://doi.org/10.1038/155630a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/155630a0