Abstract
REPORTS on the lead and zinc ores of Scotland, of Cornwall, Devon and Somerset, of the Lake District, and of the carboniferous rocks of North Wales have already appeared, and the three remaining volumes of the series, dealing with British lead and zinc ores in the remainder of the country, are promised shortly. It is of the utmost importance in the interests of economic geology that this work should be done now, before it is too late; but unfortunately it is becoming only too clear that the interest is a purely academic one, and that the industry of lead and zinc mining in Britain is in a moribund condition. It is obviously impossible that our relatively small deposits, some of which have probably been worked for 2000 years, can compete in the world's markets against the vast masses of mineral, the development of which is of quite recent date, which are to be found in the United States, Australasia, Burma, etc., and it must be regretfully admitted that it is impossible to bolster up an industry that has to contend with such crushing disadvantages, both natural and artificial. For reasons that are well known to all students of mineral deposits, our veins of lead ore were richer and more easily worked at the outcrops than they are to-day; we are far indeed from the days of Pliny, according to whom lead was found in Britain near the surface of the ground in such abundance that it was found necessary to limit strictly the output.
Memoirs of the Geological Survey. Special Reports on the Mineral Resources of Great Britain.
Vol. xxiii.: Lead and Zinc Ores in the Pre-Carboniferous Rocks of West Shropshire and North Wales. Part 1, West Shropshire. By B. Smith. Part 2, North Wales. By H. Dewey and B. Smith. Pp. iv + 95. (Southampton: Ordnance Survey Office; London: E. Stanford, Ltd., 1922.) 3s. net.
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L., H. Memoirs of the Geological Survey Special Reports on the Mineral Resources of Great Britain . Nature 109, 546 (1922). https://doi.org/10.1038/109546a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/109546a0