The Phosphates of America. 87 



have to deal with two very distinct species of sulphides those con- 

 taining little or no copper and those bearing it in proportions varying 

 from one and a half to five per cent. Ores of the second category will, 

 as it is hardly necessary to sa^, always be preferred as a source of 

 sulphur when other things are equal, and will, from that very fact, 

 serve the general purpose of keeping the price of brimstone within 

 reasonable limits. They are now almost exclusively used by the 

 larger European chemical makers, who, being compelled from lack 

 of domestic material to import their pyrites, have adopted the 

 copper-bearing ores of Spain and Portugal, and by a very slight 

 addition to their working plant, recover from the cinders the 

 copper, silver and gold, and apply the proceeds of the ready and 

 profitable sale of these metals to the reduction of first cost. 



There are, fortunately, a few cases where our own intelligent 

 manufacturers have kept pace with the times and obtained notably 

 brilliant results by using pyrites and adopting modern processes, 

 but these only serve to bring into more prominent notice the lack 

 of enterprise and energetic initiative so clearly apparent generally 

 throughout the country. 



As regards the purely iron ores, dependent for their value en- 

 tirely upon their sulphur contents, the greatest, if not the only, 

 bar to their more extensive application by our manufacturers, is 

 probably the distance by which the centres of consumption are 

 separated from the mines. The actual cost of raising and render- 

 ing them suitable for the market would appear never to exceed 

 an average of $1.50 per ton, whereas the average cost of transport 

 to all industrial centres is more than double that amount. 



If, after making all deductions for every possible source of 

 loss, their actual sulphur contents be estimated at forty per cent., 

 and if their cinders be treated as a valueless factor, it follows 

 from this that while in the vicinity of the mine the maximum 

 cost of pyrites-sulphur would be only $5.75 per ton, the price of 

 railway and other transportation is so great that under normal 

 market conditions it no longer offers great advantage over im- 

 ported brimstone upon reaching the consumers' kilns. 



The question of freight being, therefore, such a momentous one, 

 it is worth while to consider whether the railroad charge upon a 

 finished fertilizer would be less onerous than that applied to the 

 raw product, and if so, whether the erection of acid works on or 

 near the pyrites mines would not be the surest means of turning an 

 important source of sulphur to profitable account. 



