Page 23. Sketch of bulkhead on 473-foot level of Good Hope mine__ FLUORSPAR: ITS MINING, MILLING, AND UTILIZATION By RAYMOND B. LADOO INTRODUCTION In recent years the fluorspar industry has become of great importance because of the largely increased production of steel by the basic open-hearth process. Fluorspar is employed as a flux in this process, which takes 80 to 85 per cent of the total domestic production of fluorspar and most of the imports. Use of the basic openhearth process seems to be increasing much more rapidly than that of the other processes. Production of steel by the Bessemer process reached its highest point in 1906 when the annual production was 12,275,830 tons; in the same year the total open-hearth production (of which about 90 per cent was basic) was 10,980,413 tons. In 1923 the annual production of basic open-hearth steel reached its maximum of 34,665,021 tons (nearly 97 per cent of the total open hearth), but that of Bessemer had dropped to 8,484,088 tons. This rapid increase in the production of steel, largely caused by the World War, tremendously increased the demand for fluorspar. This demand in turn led to a great advance in prices (at times the increase was as much as 600 per cent for prompt delivery), to exceedingly active mining, and to vigorous search for new deposits. Meantime the demand for fluorspar for most other purposes had steadily increased, and in 1921 the domestic fluorspar industry entered the postwar period of depression with depleted reserves, permanently increased costs, more difficult mining conditions, and greater fear of competition from low-priced imported fluorspar. During the last few years demand has continued to increase but domestic producers have found conditions difficult because high expenses have held over from the war period and sales prices continue low. No information is available to show that imports can adequately take care of the domestic demand. The known Canadian deposits are small or are high in objectionable impurities, and costs are said to be high. In England fluorspar has been obtained in the past largely as a by-product from other mining operations, or from the reworking of old tailings dumps. Prices have been very low, but the quality of the product has been generally inferior to that of 1 domestic fluorspar. It seems probable that British and continental demand will require an increasing proportion of the British output. The fluorspar industry differs from many others in that the largest producers have the highest costs of production. The smaller producers, who in general have lower costs, are at present entirely unable to supply the total domestic demand. Thus in order to bring out, both now and in future, an output that will adequately supply domestic needs, prices must eventually stand at a level which will render profitable the present operation of the larger mines and also allow a surplus sufficient to provide for necessary prospecting and development of the deeper levels of the larger mines and the working of smaller and less accessible deposits. Low-priced fluorspar, both imported and domestic, may for a time seem of advantage to consumers, but eventually it will be detrimental to them. In the deeper mines less accessible ore will be left, which can never be recovered, or recovered only at very high cost, if the mines are abandoned. At the smaller mines, where cheap production has followed unsystematic removal of surface material, workings have been allowed to cave. Some of these mines have been worked a second time, of course at greatly increased costs, and the workings have again caved. Inevitably much ore has been permanently lost by these methods, and a third mining, if possible at all, must be at a still higher cost and by systematic work on a large scale. Higher prices are necessary to justify the investment of the capital needed to mine these deposits efficiently and to provide the fluorspar that the industries of this country will need. In the basic open-hearth process the proportion of fluorspar needed is small, averaging only 7 to 8 pounds per ton of steel. Fluorspar at $20 per ton means on an average only 7 to 8 cents per ton of steel, and an increase of $5 per ton of fluorspar means an increase of only 14 to 2 cents per ton of steel. The cost of fluorspar is an almost negligible item in the cost of the finished steel. HISTORY The first commercial production of fluorspar in the United States seems to have been in 1837 from a topaz vein near Trumbull, Conn. It sold at $60 per ton and was used with magnetic iron pyrite in the smelting of copper ores. Fluorspar had been known in the Illinois-Kentucky field for many years before shipments began. Mining for lead and zinc was begun in 1835 near the site of the old Columbia mines in Crittenden County, Ky., by a company headed by President Andrew Jackson. In 1842 lead mining started at Rosiclare, Ill. Fluorspar undoubtedly was obtained as a byproduct from much of this early mining, but it seems to have had little or no market value, for the first shipments recorded were in 1871 from the Royal mines in western Kentucky. The mineral was ground at the mines in the first fluorspar-grinding mill in this country, and was used by glass works in Baltimore. The regular collection of statistics on the production of fluorspar in the United States began about 1883 when an output of 4,000 short tons, valued at $20,000, was recorded. Production slowly increased to 12,400 tons valued at $84,000 in 1893, dropped back to 4,000 tons valued at $24,000 in 1895, and jumped to 15,900 tons valued at $96,650 in 1899. Since then production increased steadily except for a few minor setbacks, until it reached a maximum of 263,817, tons valued at $5,465,481, in 1918. From 1898 to 1904 the annual production in Kentucky exceeded that in Illinois, but in 1905 the rank of the two States was reversed and remained so until 1921, when Kentucky again led; Illinois retained first rank in 1922 and 1923, but Kentucky led in 1924. Shipments of fluorspar in Colorado began in the early seventies, when a small tonnage was used in the Central City district as a flux in smelting gold and silver ores. Shipments from the Jamestown district began about 1873 or 1874, and from Wagon Wheel Gap in 1913. First reported shipments from other States are as follows: Arizona, 1902; Nevada, 1919; New Hampshire, 1911; New Mexico, 1909; Tennessee, 1902; Utah, 1918; Washington, 1918. Although a small production-48 tons-was reported from Texas in 1924, none was shipped and none produced in 1925. In England fluorspar was mined at Weardale as early as 1847 for use as a blast-furnace flux. The earliest recorded use of fluorspar was in metallurgy; Agricola in 1529 noted its use as a flux. It is stated that in early methods of smelting, fluorspar was considered an indispensable fluxing material. With the improvements in metallurgical methods and equipment in the early part of the ninteeenth century, the relatively scarce and expensive fluorspar was largely supplanted by limestone except for the smelting of highly refractory ores. In the United States, although the earliest use seems to have been for smelting, the most important early uses, in point of tonnage consumed, seem to have been in the manufacture of glass, particularly opalescent glass, enamels, and hydrofluoric acid. This situation. seems to have continued until about 1898, when the value of fluorspar as a flux and cleansing agent in the basic open-hearth process for steel began to be realized. In a few years this new use consumed more fluorspar than the older uses, until in recent years 80 to 85 per cent of the domestic production has been used by the steel industry. During the World War an unprecedented demand for fluorspar caused the opening of many small, inaccessible deposits, particularly in the West; but even at the very high prices then prevailing most of the ventures were unprofitable and many soon ended. Thus the industry, with one or two exceptions, settled back to its former dependence on the Illinois-Kentucky field. PRODUCTION, CONSUMPTION, AND RESERVES WORLD PRODUCTION No accurate statistics are available for compiling an estimate of the world production of fluorspar. For example, Mexico is known to produce fluorspar for use as a flux in the smelting of gold, silver, lead, copper, and other ores in that country, but no records of such production are kept. Japan, China, Korea, and Manchuria produce fluorspar, probably in small quantities, for use in Japan and China, but no statistics are available. The following table, however, from "Mineral Resources of the United States" covers nearly all of the world production. Fluorspar produced in principal countries, 1913, 1915, and 1917-1925, in metric tons This table shows that the United States is by far the largest producer, making more than 75 per cent of the total recorded production in 1918. England was second with about 17 per cent and Germany third with about 22 per cent. In 1922, for which complete statistics are now available, the United States was producing about 63 per cent, England about 16 per cent, and Germany 13 per cent. CONSUMPTION Although the United States is by far the largest producer, it is a still larger consumer, for in 1925 the imports were 48,700 tons and the exports 1,055 tons. The total indicated consumption in recent years in the United States is shown by the following table: |