Recent Studies Of Domestic Chromite Deposits

In 1827, chromite was discovered near Baltimore by Isaac. Tyson, Jr., who initiated the mining of chrome ore and later (1845) the manufacture of chromium compounds in this country. From 1828 to about 1560 the United States, supplanting Russia, supplied chromite for most of the world. Chrome deposits were found also in California, and the Tyson Company shipped ore to Philadelphia by way of Cape Horn. In 1848, J. Lawrence Smith, an American in the employ of the Porte, discovered large bodies of chromite in Asia Minor. They were developed in 1865 and became the chief source of the world's supply for a number of gears. The discovery of the large high-grade bodies in New Caledonia., and later in Rhodesia, with other foreign sources, gives at present an abundant supply for all demands. For a number of years before the great war. the United States produced only a few hundred tons of chromite annually, for local use, but during the war the demand for domestic ore resulted in a production of more than 82,000 long tons of crude ore in 1918, and it was demonstrated that the United States has reserve deposits equal to a war demand of several years' duration. Now that the war is over, the country is con-serving its domestic supplies by employing higher-grade but cheaper ore from foreign countries.