February, 3,444,740; March, 5,370,980; April, 8,117,748; May, 4,122,400;
June, 5,204,750; July, 2,841,000; August, 8,325,000; September,
4,377,445; October, 7,105,625; November, 3,242,836; December,
7,496,500. The total purchases under the Pittman Act to December 31,
1922, were 150,750,912 fine ounces. The purchases in 1923 were as
follows, in fine ounces: January, 4,622,000; February, 6,768,762;
March, 16,215,394; April, 4,570,516; May, 16,160,698, June, 1,496, 753.
The total purchases to June 30, 1923, have been 200,585,035 fine ounces.
Resumption
of mining at base-metal mines increased the quantity of domestic
silver, and in June, 1923, according to the Treasury Department, the
total purchases reached the quantity of silver necessary under the
Pittman Act to replace the silver dollars remelted.
The
domestic supply of new gold comes chiefly from dry and siliceous gold
ores, treated mainly in gold mills by amalgamation and cyanida-tion or
both and partly by smelting, and from placer gravels worked largely by
dredges. As shown on page 620, these ores and placer gravels supplied
more than 91 per cent of the yield of gold in 1922. Considerable gold
is usually 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
1922 the copper ores of the United States produced 5.71 per cent of the
total gold, against only 2.25 per cent in 1921. The natural tendency
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.
The
principal domestic supply of new silver came from dry and siliceous
silver and silver-gold ores, copper ores, lead ores, and lead-zinc ores
in the proportion of 46.78, 16.95, 27.38, and 4.96 per cent,
respectively, in 1922, against 52.05, 10.32, 32.19, and 4.28 per cent,
respectively, in 1921. The greater part of the dry and siliceous silver
ores is milled and cyanided at or near the mines, but a small quantity
of richer ore is shipped to copper and lead smelters.
WORLD'S PRODUCTION OF GOLD.
The
estimated value of the gold produced in the world from 1860 to 1922,
inclusive, was $14,324,716,600. In 1922 the estimated production of
gold in the world decreased $10,802,600, after a decrease of about
$6,740,500 in 1921, of $28,769,000 in 1920, of $15,136,000 in 1919, and
of $38,500,000 in 1918. The production in the United States decreased
$1,218,200 and Africa $21,585,700. The large decrease in the Rand mines
in South Africa was due to labor troubles in the first three months of
1922. There were fair increases in Canada, Mexico, and some South
American countries.
The
prevailing tendency during recent years toward a declining world output
of new gold caused by the high cost of labor and supplies, which made
the operation of many gold mines unprofitable, has been modified to
some extent by greater political and financial stability in some
countries, which will tend to increased operations or the reopening of
old properties. This will temporarily result in relatively small
increases over the abnormally low output of gold
Flickr
Stumbleupon
Scribd
