This folder contains correspondence relating to mines and minerals to be bought, sold, surveyed, worked, or tested, as well as other documents about mining-related and geological topics. Most of the items for 1919 pertain to visits by former Edison Portland Cement Co. president Walter S. Mallory to mining areas in California, New Mexico, and South Dakota in search of lithium-bearing ores such as lepidolite and spodumene. Included are letters discussing Edison's intention to open a lithium hydroxide plant to supply his alkaline storage battery needs and to meet growing industrial demand. Also included are items regarding the purchase of an option on property owned by David N. and Caroline Ingalls Swanzey (sister of author Laura Ingalls Wilder) and the results of trial mining operations at that site. In addition, there is correspondence with Waldemar T. Schaller and George Otis Smith of the U.S. Geological Survey, along with several letters (unrelated to mining) concerning experimenter Newman Henry Holland's work on acoustic range finding. At the end of the folder are an undated map showing the location of the Swanzey property and two undated items, possibly from 1919, pertaining to nickel and bearing notations by Edison.

Approximately 40 percent of the documents have been selected. The unselected material includes requests for maps and publications concerning South Dakota and California; additional correspondence between Mallory and Edison's assistant William H. Meadowcroft; additional reports and notes by Mallory and Charles B. Hanford on California mining areas; notes on ore processing by Ludwig F. Ott; a copy of Mallory's assignment of the Swanzey property option to Edison; copies of U.S. Geological Survey maps; and duplicates.