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Minerals

Suniland Magazine

1925

Nature has endowed Florida with a wide range of mineral resources, which are contributing materially to the upbuilding of the State. Within her borders are produced 80% of phosphate rock of the United States, millions of tons of limestone, 90% of the domestic supply of Fuller's Earth, the finest kaolins in the new world, and a wide range of other minerals, including ilmenite, zircon, diatomaceous earth, and peat.

Florida is not generally regarded as a mining state, and yet the value of her mineral wealth this year will amount to nearly $15,000,000, and this notwithstanding the fact that the state's mineral resources have hardly been explored. There is a tremendous present need in Florida for a detailed survey of the mineral and natural resources of the state as a whole, and a thorough topographic map. It will take 20 years under the terms of the Temple Bill to map the entire United States, and as the Federal Government is working first with the states which are cooperating financially in the work, it may be many yearbefore the hidden resources of Florida are revealed. At present no topographic surveys are being undertaken in Florida because of lack of funds. The last Legislature provided $5,000 for soil survey work, but this sum, even though supplemented by a similar sum from the Federal Government, will be sufficient to map only one or two small counties. The Geological Survey of Florida is a scientific agency for the state's development that should receive the utmost support and cooperation.

Source:
Excerpt from: Agassiz, Garnault. "Florida in Tomorrow's Sun."
Suniland, Nov. 1925, Vol.3, No.2., Pgs. 37-45; 88-94; 113-133

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