MINERAL WEALTH

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 21935, 1 February 1946, Page 3

MINERAL WEALTH

RUSSIA ON TOP

U.S.-BRITISH DECUNE

WAR DRAIN ON SUPPLIES •(10 a.m.) WASHINGTON, Jan. 31. ■Russia now has greater natural resources than Britain and America because of the war’s drain on the latter’s mineral wealth.

■This is the substance of an official report compiled with the aid of the Office of Strategic Services.

The report declared that Russia's mineral position resulted, first, from the' policy of importing minerals instead of consuming their own developed,, deposits; secondly, Russia’s vast ,untouched reserves of nearly all min'erals essential to industrial and military power; thirdly, the rapidly ebbing reserves of crucial minerals in Britain and .America who are faced with the need of transporting most of their resources from distant Empire points. Britain expects a scarcity of all essential minerals. One British expert declared: ‘'Over-optimism in our earlier .estimates of the deposits’ size, wasteful mining and utilisation or the combination of these caused the Empire drain . on reserves of sulphur irgn -.ores, bauxite, phosphate rock, mineral fuels, nitrates, and other minerals.

The Secretary of the Interior. Mr. H. C.• Ickes, announced last week . that American reserves of 20 odd essential minerals,, including vanadium, tungsten. manganese, tin. nickel, bauxite, petroleum and copper will be exhausted within 35 years.

Comparative figures of Russian resources are not avaiable, but the report has indicated that Russia needs to impprt only tin and silver.