Output of Nation's Gold-Silver
Mines Slumps Due to War Curbs
Production of silver in the United States totaled 5,895,000 ounces
in September compared with 6,005,000 ounces in August and 8,071,
000 ounces in September, 1943, according to the U. S. Bureau of
Mines. Of the September total, 3,604,000 ounces were of foreign
origin and 2,291,000
ber a year ago 5,285,000 ounces were of foreign origin and 2,786,000
ounces came from domestic sources. In Septem
ounces domestic.
For the first nine months of 1944
silver production aggregated 58,
633,000,ounces with 29,601,000 ounces
from foreign sources and 29,032,000
ounces domestic. In the like period
of 1943 the total production was
73,136,000 ounces, of which 39,829,
000 ounces were foreign and 33,
307,000 ounces domestic.
Gold production in the United
States is headed for another low
record with the probability that
1944 output will aggregate around
1,000,000 ounces. This would be the
lowest production since before the
California gold rush. The previous
low was in 1943 when the output
totaled 1,365,223 ounces. The top
was in 1940 with an output in ex
cess of 6,000,000 ounces.
The mining of gold was stopped
at the start of the war except where
mined in conjunction with a stra
tegic metal. Although there recently
has been some easing of the restric
tions. they have not helped produc
tion materially.
According to the American Bu
reau of Metal Statistics, U. S. gold
production for the first nine months
amounted to 755,998 ounces against
1,168,470 in the like 1943 period.
Canada's
is estimât
950,000 ounces, which would com
pare with 3,652,376 ounces in 1943.
South African gold production this
vear, it is thought, will run close to
12,350,000 ounces as compared with
12.799,518 ounces in 1943.
s gold output in 1944, it
ed, will reach around 2,
Texaco Men
On Leave To
Get Bonds
SUNBURST.—A Christmas gift
of a $100 war savings bond will be
purchased during the sixth war
loan drive for each of the more
than 5,000 employes of the Texas
company on military leave of ab
sence. according to word received
here by W. G. Copeland, refinery
superintendent, from the company's
president, Harry' T. Klein. Approxi
mately 54 Texaco employes from
this district who are on military
leave will receive bonds this Christ
mas
More" than 5,000 Texaco men and
women are now serving with the
armed forces. A number have been
promoted from the ranks to become
officers. Many have been decorated
for bravery. One has received the
congressional medal of honor.
Last year each Texaco employe
on milita
bond at
ry leave received a $50 war
Christmas.
TWO TRIES
"I hear you had a date with
Siamese twms last night. Have a
good time?"
"Well, yes and no."
THE AGE OF SPEED
Down in South America they
have discovered a sheep that can
run 60 miles an hour.
It lakes that kind of lamb to keep
up with Mary nowadays.
Shows Every Montana Wildcat
Now Revised to October II
This is the best buy we have ever seen in a map—James C.
Bransford's painstaking
results found in EVER'
wells.! ! ! We have sold more than 30 since we first advertised them
a few weeks ago—and every buyer is more than pleased with them.
Gives at a glance. Information that would otherwise require weeks
of research. In addition to wildcats, shows boundaries and coun
seats, and includes two comprehensive cross sections. Covers 36 by
inches, with all information clearly legible. Eveiy item checked with
files of the Montana Oil Conservation Board. May be seen at our
office. Invaluable to those who want a quick comprehensive method
of acquainting themselves with Montana's oil development to date.
Per copy, $5—-and worth much more.
effort—showing the location, the depth and
Y ONE of Montana's more than 900 wildcat
MONTANA OIL JOURNAL
SUPPLY DEPARTMENT
518 First Avenue Sooth
Great Falls, Montana
MOTORISTS
WARNED OF
GAS RULING
Motorists who use gasoline il
legally to travel to winter resorts
face the loss of their mileage ra
tions, the Office of Price Admin
istration warns.
Administrator Chester Bowles
said that OPA is now preparing an
enfrocement program to prevent
illegal use of rations in winter vaca
tion travel. Motorists who misuse
their rations, he said, will be called
before hearing commissioners who
have the power to revoke not only
the supplemental "B" or "C" ra
tions, but basic "A" rations as well.
In a communication today to
local War Price and Rationing
boards throughout the nation, OPA
reviewed the mileage regulations
governing vacation travel to re
sorts and pointed out that boards
must deny gasoline for this pur
pose.
Bowles recalled that many thou
sands of drivers were stranded with
their cars in Florida and other win
ter resort areas last spring because
ration boards could not issue mile
age rations to them for the return
trip north. In addition, he said,
local boards in many states revoked
rations of hundreds of motorists
who used gasoline illegally to reach
resort areas.
"Last winter," Bowies said, "thou
sands of irresponsible people anx
ious to obtain special advantage for
themselves went to their local
boards and pleaded that they were
changing their occupation and mov
ing their residence permanently to
southern resort cities. Hundreds
even presented 'documentary proof'
in the form of letters and tele
grams, many of which turned out
to be phony evidence. These people
assured that after their winter va
cations were over they could go to
the southern ration boards, claim
that they were again moving their
permanent residence because of a
change in occupation, and obtain
rations for the trip back north.
"Our OPA ration boards in Flor
ida and other southern states very
rightly refused to issue gasoline for
the return trip, and as a result
many thousands of drivers were
stranded. And many of these people,
when they did return home, were
called before their local boards for
hearings on charges that they had
used their rations illegally to go
south.
"I am sure that again we can
count on the vast majority of motor
ists to abide by the regulations
so that everyone may have his fair
share of the available civilian gaso
line supplies. But to the few who
seek to obtain unfair advantage, I
want to say that this winter we are
strengthening
procedure stil
our ration revocation
1 further."
State Talc Mine Rated as One
Supplying Vital Wartime Need
Rated as one of the world's most important mines, from a war
need standpoint, is a block talc property now being operated 25
miles south of Ennis in Madison county, by-L. F. Teutsch, 47, for
mer tool salesman.
First shipment of the talc, some
found in blocks weighing 100
pounds or more, was made In 1942
to a laboratory in Tennessee, with
tests demonstrating that the Mon
tana talc was superior to any
from Germany or Italy, pre
viously the only sources of supply.
There was an instant demand for
the full output of the mine, since
the talc was found superior to any
other in insulating the interior of
tubes used in radar and other war
devices.
Initial shipments were made by
express, in thousand-pound lots. So
great was the need for the talc that
bureau of mines engineers were as
signed the task of doing exploratory
work in an effort to uncover a
greater supply.
Their quest was successful and
during the past three months the
mine has produced and shipped 90
tons, filling two freight cars.
Talc from the Montana mine is
said to be more desirable than any
other in the world because it is
very low in iron and calcium, un
like most of that previously im
ported from Germany and Italy,
and hence does not crack when
heated, making it ideal for the lin
ing of radar and radio tubes.
Even after the war ends, demand
for talc from this mine is expected
to continue, with expansion of the
use of electronic tubes in normal
industry.
ADDITIONAL RED
TAPE ELIMINATED
Petroleum operators are no long
er required to report surplus stocks
of any critical materials except
tubular goods.
It will be
necessary to report sur
plus stocks of tubular goods when
the surplus, at an individual loca
tion or stockpile, is in excess of 1,000
feet of casing, tubing, or pipe from
two to eight inches in internal diam
eter, or in excess of 500 feet of
tubular goods over eight
diameter. Surpluses of refinery and
of distribution and marketing mate
rials need not be reported. Before
the amendment, petroleum oper
ators were required to report sur
plus material of all kinds.
inches in
Texaco Lands Casing
In Test Near Conrad
The Texas company has landed
pipe at 1990 in its No. 1 Hovde,
wildcat two miles northeast of Con
rad, and is scheduled to drill in
within the next few days. Location
is C NW NE SW 8-28-2W.
Ingersoll-Rand
MINING EQUIPMENT
Compressors US to 90 Horsepower sizes)
Hand Shanking Devices
Centrifugal Pump«
Drifter Drills
Pneumatic Grinders
lackbits
lackmills
Hoists
Sinker Drills
Stopehammer Drills ^
Jackhammer Mountings
Jackbit Grinders
Jackrods and Drill Steel
Rock Drill Mountings
Hand Blacksmith Tools—lor Bits and Shanks
Oil Furnaces — lor Forging and Tempwing
INGERSOLL-RAND ACCESSORIES OF ALL KINDS
MONTANA HARDWARE CO.
BUTTE — GREAT FALLS
Oil Trade Noies
Two amendments providing for
the restoration to gasoline dealers
and distributors of legitimate in
ventory losses are announced by the
Office of Price Administration.
The first amends the existing
procedures for replenishment of
gasoline losses by accident or nor
mal handling, or accidental losses
of coupons, to allow dealers a sec
ond chance to take advantage of
this procedure if they did not know
of the rules in time to apply within
the period allowed.
The second provides a method by
which dealers who have received
counterfeit or other invalid coupons,
in spite of taking all reasonable pre
cautions to prevent this, may be
"balled out" within limitations for
debits entered against their inven
tories as a result of passing on these
invalid coupons to their suppliers.
Between them, the two amend
ments are expected to straighten
out the bulk of the inventory prob
lems that rationing has brought
gasoline dealers.
Gasoline dealers and distributors
will get a second chance to take ad
rules for recov
tage of existing
of accidental losses of inventory
if they did not know of the rules
in time to apply within the period
specified, the Office of Price Admin
istration has announced.
This second chance is provided
by an amendment to the gasoline
rationing regulations authorizing
OPA district directors to waive the
three-months limitation set for this
type of application and to accept
applications for shortages that oc
cured more than three months ago,
if an applicant can show either that
he did not know of the replenish
ment provisions or that he did not
know of the three-months limita
tion.
van
cry
N
M-SC0PE and MT-SC0PE
Por locating of or« bodies,
▼elm, pockets and faults.
PREIS LITERA TUBE upon request.
Also contracted geophysical surrey a.
Latest pamphlet on geophysical pros
pecting, illustrated for mining engi
neer* and prospectors, postpaid for
50 cents.
Ton cannot afford to be
without this information
Fisher Research Laboratory
Palo Alto, California