MINING IN SOUTH AMERICA. 



S87 



After the extraction and reduction of the ores, the 

 processes of smelting and amalgamation, which in 

 Cornwall are unknown, (the Cornish ores being 

 always smelted in Wales,) would be required. 



8. In Cornwall, in case it should be deemed ne- 

 cessary to abandon the mine, the men can be dis- 

 charged ; the engines can be removed ; the mate- 

 rials can be sold by auction, and the loss is only 

 what has actually been spent on the mine. In 

 South America, in case the mine should be de- 

 serted, to the sum sunk in the mine is to be 

 added, the expense of the men getting to the spot 

 and returning, which in many cases would be very 

 great; the construction of houses for officers and 

 men, as also the establishments for smelting and 

 amalgamation; the cost of engines and stores, 

 •which it would often be cheaper to abandon than 

 to remove. 



9. In Cornwall, the resources of a great mercan- 

 tile country are so extensive, that public competi- 

 tion suppresses every sort of unjust combination,, 

 but among small communities of men this would be 

 impossible ; and without the slightest intention to 

 blame any individual, I must declare, that from 



