Mineral Resources of the British Empire

Abstract

DURING the War of 1914–18 a Royal Commission formed the conclusion that an Empire Development Board was desirable, and there the project has been allowed to rest. An editorial article in Sands, Clays and Minerals (autumn issue, 1939) urges that no time should be lost in an intensive survey of the mineral resources of the Empire. The War, so far from causing a postponement of such a survey, should hasten it, and the survey must be carried out from a national point of view regardless of the possible financial profit that may accrue from the mining of any mineral. We cannot afford to wait while commercial interests debate the potential profit in a new venture: access to new supplies of a mineral ore may be vital to victory. The writer makes it clear that he is not thinking in terms of politicians and their methods of control. In that direction he foresees no hope of initiative. If anything is to be done, technologists will have to get together and do it for themselves.