Mining

Title

Mining

Creator

Mitke, Chas. A.

Language

English

Source

The American Chamber of Commerce Journal Volume XXV (Issue No.10) October 1949

Year

1949

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Fulltext

October, 1949 ______ AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 445 Vegetable oil products ............ Transit cargo ....... General merchandise .... 50 282 1,222 202 141 3,166 Mining By Chas. A. Mitke Consulting Mining Engineer August Production:— Acoje Mining Co..................... Atok-Big Wedge ..................... Benguet-Balatoc ..................... Consolidated Mines ............... Mindanao Mother Lode.......... Misamis Chrome ..................... Surigao Consolidated ............. Lepanto Consolidated ............ 8,624 191,250.00 1,424,700 lbc. cu ) 2,068 oz. gold ) Tons Value 5,500 165,000.0# 12,534 361,839.00 49,936 711,900.e0 15,000 303,000.00 9,900 304,636.76 527,250.00 EVERYONE, from the highest government official down to the smallest businessman, is exercised over the all-absorbing topic of how to balance exports and imports in order to conserve the dollar reserves of the country. The main solution offered, so far, is to curtail imports, but as everyone knows, such a procedure can be carried to the vanishing point; that is, if exports continue to decrease and imporis are curtailed correspondingly, eventually a condition could be reached where there would be a 100 <}'<> embargo on imports and the people would suf fer immeasurable hardships. For nearly 30 years now, a large proportion of the population of .this country has come to look upon bread made of im ported white flour as a necessary part of its daily diet. If the importation of flour were prohibited, as would be the case if eventually we arrived at a 100 7© embargo on imports, we would then be on the way to attain what the Japanese recommended as the ideal co-prosperity state for the Filipino people; namely, “abolition of all motor transportation with the con sequent abandonment of good roads; a universal diet of fish, rice, and camotes; clothes made of home-spun materials; and the majority of the population engaged in the production of raw materials for its more ad vanced and industrialized neighbor—Japan”. A drastic curtailment of imports is not the solu tion or cure-all for our present conditions; rather, if the same interest, enthusiasm, publicity, and energy were devoted to the increase of our exports that is being shown in the curtailment of imports, we might eventually hope to achieve the dream of some of our more enlightened citizens—that is, that the Philip pines shQuld become the distributing point for all Asia and the center of all commerce, such as it was in the old days, when goods from every part of the Orient were collected in the Philippines for shipment to Me xico and Spain on galleons built of lumber from Min doro. Here we have the land on which can be grown sufficient rice to eliminate the necessity of purchases from abroad, filling all needs of our people and eliminating the sending of dollars abroad for this product. As in Japan and Formosa, the use of fer tilizers here would greatly increase the present yield, and arrangements to permit local capitalists to plant large-scale by machine-methods would greatly reduce the cost of production. We have forests of beautiful hardwood, such as mahogany, which is needed by other nations. We have hemp, coconuts, and sugar in quantity, and last but not least, before the war, we had a promising mining industry with a Pl00,000,000 production, which, with a little government help, can again be revived and possibly expanded. During the last 6 months, information has been continually coming in of rich mineral discoveries along the east coast of Luzon, in the Visayan Islands, in Mindanao, and elsewhere throughout the Philippines. All that these new finds need is a little venture capital to test them out in depth so that investors will be en couraged to carry on the work begun by the pros pectors. From one newly discovered deposit alone, a smal shipment of 150 tons of ore has been made run ning 400 ounces of silver and 62 71 lead with a gross value of P948 per ton. A second shipment will follow shortly. Several other equally interesting dis coveries not quite so rich, have also been made. The business community is naturally in favor of any plan which will furnish the initial impetus to convert these mines of tomorrow into additional new operating mines of today; thus, resuscitating —TS^Blue Ribbon— Distributors: F. E. ZUELLIG, INC. 55 Rosario St., Manila Tel. 2-95-43 Hear MUSIC ANA-DZMBfnc/ays 7:00~7:30 P.M. 446 AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL October, 1949 the mining industry. They are fearful, however, that if the venture capital necessary for this purpose is supplied by some government agency (as has been suggested), this may lead to the government’s de manding a participation in the new ventures and ul timately, control of them. This, of course, would put the Government into the business, which is not to be desired and might also lead to insistence on govern ment participation in other lines of endeavor. The large integrated mining companies, here as elsewhere, have become conservative. They tend to concentrate their efforts upon the extension of known mineral deposits, or upon the purchase of mining operations already developed and producing. They have lost their pioneering spirit. They are no longer willing to take the initiative in searching for, or de veloping promising prospects, which, if given the op portunity, may prove to be equally as profitable as the known operating mines. Therefore, the miner has only two sources of aid,—one is the collective assist ance of the men on the street, through the purchase of low-priced shares, and the other is government aid. With the aftermath of a disastrous and crippling in vasion and occupation, the man on the street has no money at the moment for speculative investments; therefore, the Government is the last resort. Were the Government to give assurances that if it furnished the necessary venture capital to develop new and meritorious mining prospects, it would do so merely with the thought of resuscitating a crippled industry, and not with the idea of obtaining an enter ing wedge for eventual government control of the mining industry, the business community would be solidly behind the plan. Lumber By Luis J. Reyes Philippine Representative. Penrod, Jurden & Clark Company THE devaluation of the pound sterling is being looked upon by lumbermen with apprehension. They realize that African mahogany that comes from Equatorial Africa (Ivory Coast, Baboon, and Cameroon), as are also the various species of seraya (Borneo lauans), from British North Borneo, are controlled by Britain. Thus the lumbermen believe African mahogany will have a stronger competitive position in the United States markets, whereas Borneo Seraya, while courser-textured, softer, and less lustrious than our lauans and tanguile, will compete with the Philippine products in Japan and other countries of the Far East. During the month of August our timber exports amounted to 3,730,387 bd. ft., consisting of 986,408 bd. ft. of sawn lumber and 2,743,979 bd. ft. round veneer logs. The lumber went mostly to the United States, while the logs went mostly to Korea, where a total of 2,287,708 bd. ft. was purchased by SCAP.* At the dinner given in honor of Mr. H. C. Pope, General Manager of the Insular Lumber Company, the members of the Philippine Lumber Producers Association heard a very interesting report on the market conditions in the United States. During • These figures represent the timber inspected and approved for ex port by the Bureau of Forestry. The actual shipment figures are general ly . lower. ENGINEERING EQUIPMENT & SUPPLY COMPANY, Inc. MACHINERY • MECHANICAL SUPPLIES • ENGINEERS • CONTRACTORS AIR CONDITIONING For Offices, Theatres, Hospitals, Stores, Restaurants, Hotels, Clubs and Homes ★ ★ ★ Suppliers of MACHINERY, EQUIPMENT aud INDUSTRIAL SUPPLIES For Sugar Centrals, Mines, Sawmills, Power Plants, Machine Shops and All Industrial Plants ★ ★ ★ ENGINEERING — DESIGN — APPLICATION — ESTIMATES INSTALLATION — MAINTENANCE — SERVICE — REPAIRS Gen. & Sales Office 174 M. de Comillas Manila Tel. 3-26-20 ★ ★ ★ Operating: MACHINE SHOPS • STEEL PLATE SHOPS STRUCTURAL STEEL SHOPS • WELDING SHOPS • BLACKSMITH SHOPS • SHEET METAL SHOPS • MARINE RAILWAY Engineering Shops No. 1 Calle L. Segura & Pasig River Mandaluyong, Rizal Tel. 6-65-68

pages

445-446

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