viii. REPORT OF THE No. 3 



settlement duties, it has been considered proper to call upon the locatees to 

 file evidence showing that they are in actual occupation and the nature of 

 the duties they have performed. 



Mining Industry. 



There was much activity in the raising of ores and minerals in Ontario 

 in 1908, and the total value of the output of mines and mineral works was 

 again the largest yet recorded. The aggregate production amounted to 

 125,616,795, as compared with |25,019,373 in 1907. Silver and nickel were 

 the principal items in the list of metals, the yield of the former being 

 19,401,021 ounces, — practically all from the mines of the Cobalt camp — and 

 of the latter, 10,175 tons, by far the larger proportion of which came from 

 the deposits of the Sudbury region. The low prices which prevailed through- 

 out the year depressed the value of the silver production, which was returned 

 at 19,116,008. It may be pointed out that Ontario now occupies a leading 

 place among the silver-producing countries of the world, having contributed 

 about one-ninth of the entire reported production in 1908. There was raised 

 and shipped from the mines of Cobalt last year 24,453 tons of ore (including 

 concentrates), which was considerably more than the total production up to 

 the end of 1907. The average contents of the shipments for 1908 was 793 

 ounces of silver per ton, compared with 806 ounces up to 31st December, 

 1907. The principal producing mines were largely the same as before, viz. : 

 Nipissing, La Rose, O'Brien, Kerr Lake, Coniagas, Temiskaming and Hud- 

 son Bav. Temiscamingue, Buffalo, Tretheway Drummond, McKinley-Dar- 

 ragh-Savage, Cobalt Silver Queen, City of Cobalt, Standard Cobalt, Eight 

 of Way, Silver Leaf. The Crown Reserve mine, situated in the bed of Kerr 

 Lake, began production in 1908, and was a heavy shipper of rich ore. A 

 considerable proportion of the ore produced at Cobalt, especially of the richer 

 grades, is now treated in the Province, in refineries situated at Copper Cliff, 

 Deloro, Thorold and Trout Lake. 



Development work was carried on in the silver districts of South Lor- 

 rain, James Township, Elk Lake and elsewhere in the Montreal River region, 

 but owing largely to the greater distance of these camps from transportation 

 facilities as compared with Cobalt, progress is at a slower rate. The latest 

 discoveries of silver were on the west shore of Lake Gowganda, where some 

 rich finds were made during the year, and where there will undoubtedly be 

 much development in 1909. Exploration has been pushed on into the 

 country adjoining Welcome, Burwash and Shining Tree Lakes. 



The production of nickel in 1908 was valued at |1, 866, 059, and of cop- 

 per 11,071,140, the bulk of these metals being contained in the mattes made 

 in the furnaces of the Canadian Copper Company and the Mond Nickel Com- 

 pany. The iron mines of Ontario yielded 216,177 tons of ore last year, worth 

 1574,839, and there was made at the blast furnaces 271,656 tons of pig iron, 

 valued at |4,390,839. 



The mining industry is dealt with more fully in the Eighteenth Report 

 of the Bureau of Mines. 



Collections. 



The total collections of the Department from all sources was |2,430,- 

 429.39. Of this amount |23,445.30 was derived from mining lands; $218,- 

 071.96 from royalties; $1,786,338.99 from woods and forests ; $125,078.06 

 from supplementary revenue; $71,721.39 from mining licenses, and $66,008.- 

 71 from recording fees. (See Appendix No. 4, page 7.) 



