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Londelso lesnum tubeLN TRODUCTION et daire goition
Sub Page 26 of 662 visos godt Page 26 of 6627 1 The Right Honourable H. T. N. GAITSKELL, C.B.E., M.P. ero e pre pod ad
Minister of Fuel and Power
SIR,
1. WE WERE APPOINTED, on 2nd August, 1946, with the following terms of reference:-
To enquire into the resources of minerals in the United Kingdom, excepting coal, oil, bedded ironstone, and substances of widespread occurrence; to consider possibilities and means of their co-ordinated, orderly, and economic development in the national interest, and to make recommendations in regard thereto."
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2. The minerals* which we have interpreted as falling within our terms of reference belong to two main classes, namely, the metalliferous minerals and the non-metalliferous minerals. Included in the former class are the non-ferrous ores-tin, tungsten, lead, zinc and the iron ore haematite. Among the non-metalliferous minerals are barytes, china clay, fluorspar, gypsum and the others named below. We are not concerned with coal, the bedded iron ore deposits of the Midlands and Yorkshire, the oil shale of the Lothians, nor with brick-earth,
brick-earth, gravel, and others which are
limestone described in our terms of reference as substances of widespread occurrence. These are mostly worked on, or immediately below, the surface, and the operations are more in the nature of quarrying than of underground mining.
to refer collectively in this Report to the
X
J!
It will be convenient to be a come under our terms of reference.
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minerals for mineral deposits which We shall, therefore' designate them as “ Mineral Development Committee minerals" or, more shortly, as MDC minerals. Generally speaking, it is im- practicable to devise, a subdivision of the mineral industries other than coal which is wholly satisfactory, and it is as well to bear in mind that the line of demarcation chosen for the purposes of our terms of reference, although convenient in many ways, is unnatural and arbitrary on technical grounds.
Ambo bae bas? investigated and which are
„JERA. Dom? hai
*ད
3. The chief MDC minerals which we have at present being worked in Great Britain are:
VIOJDEISMI
Metalliferouson
Ores of:
WTin. Matney ng my chau:
Tungsten på borso assd
cicle anbudt bos
dode Lead.
bu Zinc (exploration only), we yurt
Haematite iron ore. quo ci
Non-metalliferous?
modT R
Witherite tail aldi o elomnia odh
Barytes.
Barium brines.com
Fluorspar
or od dvod
China clayt
det op novovod
www Ball clays!ss od ulovled yods pod
Gypsum. Ent
to kurtubing se sol ocarin Anhydrite.
marks aureus ani on it vb www of 570Saltsubou de i gain des mural Lowu bow ? piha, Jeonda zanarusPotash (exploration only).E p teresimi as bodie ab ad or dodom Fullers' earth.amela vuaibm seh sy wod abim od Blonde modoqurd be nandtoor snil A 6% in wees enig
Talc.// Serpentine.. Glass sand.
4. In addition to the above, however, there are occurrences of many other MDC minerals of lesser importance in Great Britain; some of these are still being worked in a small way or intermittently, and others no longer worked (e.g., copper ores) were important in the past. Special Throughout this Report we use the terme mineral" in a non-scientific sense: that is, including all mineral substances extracted from the earth, whether or not they come within the scientific definition@gea nerf166We use the term “mining" ip the technical Ense: that is, including underground, opencast, or other methods used to extract minerals from the earth, 1
65268
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mention might be made of the occurrence of the strontium mineral celestite, at Yate, nehra Bristol, which, though relatively smalle is stof 6ucing for the home and export markets. The following is the list:
Tako
Metalliferous
Ores of:-
Copper.
Antimony.
Nickel.
Cobalt.
*
Non-metalliferous
*Calcité (calc-spar).
*Celestite, TX AS AW TH *China stone.
*Diatomite.
Graphite.
Topmansion he drives
Manganese.
Uranium and Radium.
*Gold.
Iron pyrites:
*Mineral black.
*Ochre and Umber.
Mica.
Magnesite.
medi
Felspar.
vicle:
*Arsenic.
Beryl...
Magnetite iron ore.
*Serpentine and chromite, will be
At present being produced; BUT
151-m-
Few of these MDC minerals of lesser importance have been examined in detail since we felt that any information obtained would be unlikely to affect our main conclusions; neither is it expected that new developments in future of any of these minerals would be of great importance from the national point of view.
5. We have not dealt with occurrences of uranium minerals in this country since these come within the general responsibility of the Minister of Supply as provided for in the Atomic Energy Act, 1946.
6. For convenience we also list below the chief of the remaining minerals now being worked in Great Britain, the bulk of which are mineral substances of widespread occurrence; with bedded ironstone, coal and oil, they are excluded from our terms of reference
![
140
Sand and Gravel.
Building stones.
Brick, tile and crude pottery
clays. Slate.
Limestone and chalk. Dolomite.
Roadstones.
·
MA
Refractory sands, clays and
rocks...
7. There was some doubt in our minds as to whether one or two of the minerals in this list should have been covered by our enquiry; in par- ticular, the refractory raw, materials and roofing slate. On the whole, however, we felt that their general nature and mode of occurrence indicated that they should be excluded. It was also thought that although dolomite, a mineral of widespread occurrence, has also been used in the last few years in connection with a new process for the production of magnesia from seawater, it was undesirable for us to consider it on this account alone. We have not dealt with many occurrences in Great Britain of sand used for ordinary glass-making, since this is probably to be classified as a mineral of widespread occurrence. We felt an exception should be made, however, of an unusual occurrence of high-grade glass sand at Loch Aline, Scotland (para. 295).
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8. In direct value of production and manpower employed the MDC minerals are of less importance than the "substances of widespread occurrence which in turn are considerably less so than coal. Roughly speaking, the respective percentages are 3 per cent., 11 per cent. and 86 per cent. Further details are priven in the Fable II (page 9). The present position regarding production and resources of MDC minerals is summarised in Table I, page 3.
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19. On the question of resources still available the MDC minerals are mainly in quite a different category from the substances of widespread occurrence" They are of restricted distribution and in most cases the resources lie underground and thus the estimation of their extent is usually a matter of considerable difficulty. It is the possible exhaustion of resources, which in some cases may happen within a generation, and the need for new discoveries that must be the controlling factors in future policy.
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TABLE I
MDC MINERALS-UNITED KINGDOM
Statistical Summary (based on year 1947)
(All figures approximate: minerals of lesser importance omitted)
܂
Production as
Resources
Mineral
Production (tons)
percentage of
domestic
consumption
Value of production (£—at mine)
(see
windex d below)
Tin concentrates (65% metal) Wolfram concentrates (65%
tungstic oxide, WO3.)..... Lead concentrates (80% metal) Zinc concentrates (45% metal) Iron ore (Haematite)
1,337
2.5
331,700
C
.66
4.000
21 10:05
27,000 216,000
C
none
nil
nil
nil
none
er
460,000
4.58
-700,000 70
BO
(metal content).
Barytes ...
80,000
70
400,000
B
(ground
mineral)
Witherite
Barium brines
15,000 M 3,500
100+
50,000,
B
100
Mais na, hy
Men.a.
(as blanc fixe)
Fluorspar
44,000
100
193,000
B
China clay
503,000
100+
1,600,000
A
(exports:
250,000 tons)
Gypsum
820,000
....1006
780,000
MA
Anhydrite
920,000
100
700,000
A
Fullers' earth
40,000
100+
n.a.
A
(exportable surplus of
processed
earth)
Ball clays
285,000
100+
500,000
A
(exports:
110,000 tons)
Salt
3,100,000
100+ (exports: 150,000 tons)
3,000,000
A
A =
w 6 mb to SHOU
KINDEX
Probably over fifty years' supply based on 1947 output (para. 40).
Between ten and twenty years' supply based on 1947 output (para. 39). C = Less than ten years' supply based on 1947 output (para. 39). n.a. = Not available.
The classification of resources shown in the above table has been generalised and should be read in conjunction with such qualifications as are given in the sections dealing with estimates of mineral reserves appearing in Chapters III and IV, Thalgia parasf 10613 below.
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