The Phosphates of America. 



43 



against this it will be of interest to study the selling prices which 

 prevailed for the material during 1890. 



TABLE SHOWING THE SELLING PRICES OF CANADIAN APATITE F. O. B. MON- 

 TREAL DURING 1890. 



For phosphate guaranteed to contain 85 percent., $25 00 per ton. 

 80 " 22 50 " 



" " " 75 " 18 00 " 



70 14 50 " 



65 11 35 



If we could assume that the two highest of the above qualities 

 formed the bulk of the material exported, it is evident that Cana- 

 dian phosphate-mining would have to be placed in the front rank 

 of profitable enterprises. Whether the bulk is thus composed, 

 however, is a very perplexing question in the face of the following 

 official figures showing the total quantities and values of ore yearly 

 exported since the opening of the mines in 1877 : 



TABLE SHOWING THE YEARLY EXPORTS AND VALUES OF CANADIAN PHOS- 

 PHATES. 



From the values thus recorded we gather that in the year 1885 

 about 29,000 tons were sold at the average of $17 per ton in Mon- 

 treal, whereas in 1890 the output fell to 22,000 tons and the price to 

 an average of $15 per ton at the same place. This would indicate 

 that the average quality of the entire yield was seventy to seventy- 

 five per cent, of tricalcic or bone phosphate, and in such a case 

 the net profit on the entire exploitation could not have been very 

 large. 



Nothing could possibly be more confirmatory of our views of 

 this mining field, therefore, than the official returns relating to it, 

 and we cannot refrain from again insisting, and with additional em- 

 phasis, upon the necessity for an immediate and radical change of 

 policy. 



