PRICE FOR RAW MATERIALS

Press, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 26639, 26 January 1952, Page 5

PRICE FOR RAW MATERIALS

CANADA PRODUCING FOR DEFENCE 1,300,000,000 DOLLAR PROJECT (From a Reuter Correspondent.) OTTAWA. .Canada is already fighting the next war with bulldozers, drills, dynamite and other heavy earth-moving equipment. The race to develop the production of strategic raw materials is unparalleled in the meteoric rise of Canadian industry. It is the least publicised but by far the most important aspect of the nation’s defence programme. One army brigade is in Korea fighting with the United Nations forces. Another is on its way to Hanover, Germany, to help in the defence ot Western Europe. Behind, these relatively modest commitments, Canada is working hard, looking three or four years ahead to the time when its storehouse of mineral wealth may mean life or death to the Western world. Deadline for completion of the huge development campaign is 1953. The total cost of present raw material expansion projects 'is estimated at 1,300,900,000 dollars. New hydro-elec-tric power development will increase this total to 2,500,000,000 dollars and there are certain to be additions — large ones—as opportunities are presented through further exploration. The purpose of the development campaign is to increase by all possible means Canada’s self-sufficiency in the materials vital in war and, where possible, to provide a surplus to be made available to allies. Here are some of the developments. Aluminium smelting, 233,000,000 dollars: other non-ferrous smelting, refining and processing, 150,000.000 dollars; iron ore mining, 226,000,000 doUars; primary iron and steel, 88,000,000 dollars; exploration and development of petroleum' and natural gas, 300,000,000 dollars; transmission and refining of oil and gas, 213,000,000 dollars; chemical expenditure of 1,200,000,000 dollars. Defence Production Board officials claim the results will be enormous when these ambitious efforts begin to bear fruit xThey will probably affect the war potential of the Western world in a decisive manner.

Production in 1950 During 1950 Canadian petroleum production, operating at capacity, amounted to 80,000 barrels daily. The estimated capacity m 1955 is officially set at 250,000 barrels. The aluminium industry turned out 395,000 short tons in 1950. By 1955 the output will be 600.000. The 3,617,000 tons of iron ore mined in this country in 1950 should be increased to’ 19,000,000 by 1955. .The increased capacity will be enough to permit Canadians to produce 4,400,000 tons of steel ingot in Elace of the 3,300,000 now possible, loreover, much of the iron ore wifi be exported, most likely to the United States mills in the Great Lakes area. Not all strategically important materials are as well known as aluminium and steel, but here are the targets for lesser-known but highly important products. Tungsten up from one ton in 1950 to 2000 tons in 1955; copper, from 262,000 tons to 300,000; lead, from 170,000 to 205,000 tons; zinc, from 311,000 to 406,000 tons; nickel, from 123,000 to 155,000 tons; cobalt, from 313 to 600 tons; magnesium, from 1800 tons to 5000; ilmenite, from 100,000 to 550,000 tons; elemental sulphur, from none to 81,000 tons by 1955. Huge Highway Project In addition, the Government has embarked on a 300,000,000 dollars’ transCanada highway project as a defence and industrial supplement to the two existing railway systems. Further, legislation has already been introduced to permit the Canadian Government to proceed with the 000,000,009 dollars’ St. Lawrence waterway, that will not only provide an additional 2,000,000 horse-power to drive expanding industry but provide an ocean waterway right to the edge of the prairies for the economical movement of vast Western Canada food, oil, and mineral cargoes overseas. . By Canadian standards—-the country has a population fat less than that of New York and London combined—it is an immense programme. Finances have been provided, voted, or are otherwise available. The only hitch can be too limited manpower, for, as Defence Production Board officials point out, there is no easy way of building dams across huge rivers or hauling metals to tha surface when they are embedded in rock a mile below the surface of the ground.