Basic HTML Version
Executive Speaks Out
Earlier this year,
J.
Allen Overton,
President of the American Mining
Congress, addressed the Common–
wealth Club, a public affairs forum
in San Francisco, with an enlight–
ening speech. He warned those
of us present that the United
States is "losing its mining,
minerals and minerals process–
ing base"-the very foundation
of modero society.
" T he stakes are high,"
declared Mr. Overton, "yet
most Americans are not
luned in to the problem." As
the United States shifts inlo
more of a service-oriented and
high-tech economy, the public at
large and especially the younger
generation no longer see the impar–
lance of maintaining a strong
nal ional mineral base.
" l t is not withoul reason," this
top executive continued, "that mio–
erais havc bcen called the bedrock
of civilization and, throughout his–
tory, the stepping-stones of human
destiny.
" Without minerals, we would
have no factories or offices ... no
schools or hospitals ... no high–
ways or railroads or planes to fly in
the sky ... no communications net–
works or encrgy systems ... no
means of equipping the military
that defends us or cultivati ng the
agricu lture that feeds us....
" It
can truly be said that
our
horn of plenty begins with a hole
in the ground."
Mr. Overton challenged charges
of environmental extremists who
have exerted intense pressure to
severely curtail mining operations
COBALT
and even minerals searching, espe–
cially on federally owned lands.
"What
cannot
truly be said ... is
that all our material bounty has
been bought at the expense of rap–
ing and ruining the land. Moreover,
we ought to remember that over
the entire history of this nation,
wilh all the material blessings that
mining has produced, only a frac–
tion of one pcrcent of the land's
su rface has ever been touched by a
miner's pick."
Americans, M r. Overton as–
serted, seem lo have forgotlen that
"it takes
stu.lf
to make
things."
The average person doesn't stop to
think that a process of severa! years
is involved from the point of miner–
als exploralion to on-site develop–
ment, to extraction, smelling and
manufacture of the primary prod–
ucts. Moreover, the basic compo–
nents of the minerals process- the
mines themselves, the smelters, the
TUNGSTEN
stamping plants- cannot be "turned
on and off like a spigot,'.' to use Mr.
Overton's words. " Once lost , it will
take years-i f ever-to recover i
t."
Oangerous Dependence on
lmports
Throughout the American mineral
industry presently is a severe dou–
ble crisis of unemployment a nd
Tungsten is
widely used in
iron al/oys, in
electronics
and to
improve
strength of
cutting and
drilling tools.
depressed prices. Partly as a conse–
quence, American industry has
become dangerously dependent
upon foreign sources of minerals at
"the far end of vulnerable shipping
lanes," as Mr. Overton put
it.
"We have been increasing our
reliance on Zambia, Za"ire, South
Africa and other nations that are
marked by social, political and eco–
nomic instability," he continued.
The Soviets, on the other hand,
"have spent billions of rubles to
develop their mineral mother lode
in Siberia, and recently completed
a new 2,000-mi le railroad lo con–
nect it with the heartland of its mil–
itary manufacturing complex."
He was referring to the new Bai–
kai-Amur Mainline railroad, or
BAM, a majar adjunct of the older
Trans-Siberian line.
How dangerously dependent is
. the United States now on foreign
sources? Let Mr. Overton conlinue:
"Just recently the Secretary of
the Army testified befare Congress
that the United Stales is more lhan
SO
percent
dependent
on forcign
sources for 23 of 40 critica! materi–
als essential to the U.S. national