The Phosphates of America. 41 



Total production of rock, 105,000 tons. 



Seven per cent, of this quantity = 7,350 tons phosphate of all 

 grades, from seventy to eighty-five per cent. 



$63,450 -^ 7,350 tons = $8.60 per ton. 



These figures are suggested, we repeat, as those of the average 

 mining cost, and it is hardly necessary to add that while some of 

 the mines now working may be doing better, others are certainly 

 not doing so well as this. In any event we must add to the 

 figures the salaries of various officers and the interest on the 

 capital invested in the purchase of the mine. If these itemft 

 be grouped together under one head, we shall probably be within 

 the mark if we charge them at the very moderate sum of $1.40 

 per ton on the amount of ore produced. This would therefore 

 place the average net cost per ton, at the mines, at $10 for the 

 qualities named. Again, it must be remembered that we are 

 estimating the averages over the entire year. It would be obviously 

 unfair to object to them that, when the mines are in "bonanza," 

 the phosphate does not cost more than one-half the estimated 

 amount, just as it would be unreasonable to claim, during a long 

 period of " dead " work, that it costs twice or three times as much. 

 When studying this question of cost, we must bear in mind that, 

 owing to the mixed-up nature of the vein matter, nearly all the 

 output has hitherto been put through the expensive process of hand- 

 cobbing, as show in our illustration, in order to arrive at an average 

 standard quality of from seventy-five to eighty-five per cent, of 

 phosphate of lime. The impossibility of obtaining fairly remu- 

 nerative prices in Europe, which is the market for the entire Cana- 

 dian output, for lower grades, has necessitated this cobbing and 

 induced a state of affairs probably unprecedented in the history of 

 any mining operations. We refer to the fact that the whole of the 

 apatite mining companies have been shipping no more than about 

 one-third of their total production ; the balance has been lost in 

 the cobbing, and has been consigned to the dumps with the re- 

 fuse, where it now remains as useless material ! 



That few, if any, of the enterprises have paid any dividends on 

 their capital is not a matter for surprise under such circumstances- 

 as these, nor is any argument necessary to show how immeasurably 

 their position wculd be ameliorated if a market were created for 

 lower grade ores. The cost of transportation now renders these 

 unfit for the market of Europe, but they are just the very class of 



