DOMESTIC SUPPLY.
The
remarkable gain in the domestic supply of gold indicated by the great
excess of $530,200,000 in imports over exports in 1916, of $180,000,000
in 1917, and of $21,000,000 in 1918 had come to a halt in the early
part of 1919, but was resumed in 1920 owing to large imports of foreign
bullion and coin.
The
value of the excess of exports of silver in 1920 was about $124,000,000
less than in 1919, owing to the large decrease in the shipments to
China, Japan, and India.
The
total number of silver dollars remelted under the Pittman Act was
270,232,722, which if all had been of exact legal weight would have
contained 209,009,120.9 fine ounces of silver, but which yielded on
remelting 208,622,056.8 fine ounces. The purchases of silver from
domestic mines in 1920 at the price fixed under the Pittman Act were as
follows, in fine ounces: May, 332,088; June, 6,168,505; July,
3,288,856; August, 3,429,277; September, 3,815,733; October,
4,634,860; November, 3,638,870; December, 4,599,172; total, 29,907,361.
The purchases in May, the first month in which the fixed Mint price was
higher than the open-market price, were comparatively small. The
average monthly purchases for the remaining seven months of 1920 were
about 4,220,000 fine ounces, which would be about 50,700,000 ounces a
year. The purchases in 1921 by months were as follows, in fine ounces:
January, 4,677,188; February, 4,615,842; March, 5,912,065; April,
4,334,741; May, 6,836,500; June, 4,442,000; July, 4,670,119; August,
4,913,614; September, 3,471,436; October, 5,917,997; November,
3,447,000; December, 5,424,025; total, 58,662,527. The total purchases
to December 31, 1921, were 88,569,888 fine ounces, leaving about
120,052,000 fine ounces to be purchased under the Pittman Act in 1922
and succeeding years.
Resumption
of mining at base-metal mines will increase the quantity of domestic
silver, but it is impossible at present to predict when the total
purchases will reach the total quantity of silver necessary to replace
the silver dollars remelted. From present indications the period
required will probably be slightly more than two years from January 1,
1922.
The
domestic supply of new gold comes chiefly from dry or siliceous gold
ores, treated mainly in gold mills by amalgamation or cyanida-tion or
both and partly by smelting, and from placer gravels worked largely by
dredges. As shown on page 534, these ores and placer gravels supplied
more than 89 per cent of the yield of gold in 1920. Considerable gold
is now recovered also from the refining of copper bullion from copper
ores, especially in the West Mountain or Bingham district, Utah, and
the Summit Valley or Butte district, Mont. In 1920 the copper ores of
the United States produced 7.2 per cent of the total gold, against 6.8
per cent in 1919. The natural tendencv has been for the proportionate
output from gold ores to decrease with declining yield from some of the
principal gold camps and for that from copper ores to increase, with a
general net decline of total yield of gold owing to the preponderant
output from gold and gold-silver ores. This tendency was suspended in
1919 owing to the large decrease in the output of copper.
