BEPORT ON THE PHOSPHATE FIELDS OF SOUTH CAROLINA. II 
Contrary to general opinion, however, the South Carolina fields are 
far from exhausted. Thousands of acres of good phosphate land 
still remain unmined, and though the overburden on much of this 
property is rather heavy, improvements in mining methods will some 
day render it all available for fertilizer purposes. 
An estimate of the actual quantity of phosphate still remaining in 
South Carolina is necessarily rough, for, though some of the lands have 
been thoroughly prospected, large areas have not been touched. 
Chazal, 1 in 1904, estimated the quantity of South Carolina phosphate 
still available at from 9,000,000 to 11,000,000 tons. Since that time 
less than 2,000,000 tons of rock have been marketed, which would 
leave between 7,000,000 and 9,000,000 tons. Chazal's estimate 
seems quite conservative, and the author is inclined to place the 
available tonnage somewhat higher. Suffice it to say, however, that 
these South Carolina fields can continue to produce rock at the 
present rate for many years to come. 
SUMMARY. 
The South Carolina phosphates were the first important deposits 
discovered in this country. They have been worked since 1868, 
and for many years produced most of our supply of phosphatic 
fertilizer. 
The phosphate region lies along the coast in a belt extending from 
the Wando River, in Charleston County, to the Broad River, in 
Beaufort County. The rock is of Tertiary age and is usually divided 
into two classes, namely, the land deposits and the river deposits. 
These classes, however, are practically identical, the latter being 
merely the former washed into the river beds. 
The rock is mined by first removing the overburden, either by 
hand or by steam shovels, and then digging out the phosphate 
stratum thus exposed. The rock is embedded in a matrix of sand and 
clay, which is removed by a washing process. During this washing 
much phosphate is discharged and lost in the detritus. The washed 
rock is afterwards dried by burning on ricks of wood. 
With the exhaustion of the more accessible deposits and the dis- 
covery of higher grade phosphates in Florida and Tennessee, the 
output from South Carolina has fallen off considerably. River min- 
ing has entirely ceased, and only two companies are mining the Land 
Rock. The total output in 1911 was 169,156 tons. 
The average cost of producing South Carolina phosphate for the 
market is about $3.46 per ton. This is so little below the present sell- 
ing price of rock that the rock can not be profitably shipped. Most 
of it is therefore used locally in the manufacture of acid phosphate. 
1 Sketch of the South Carolina Phosphate Industry, p. IS (1904). 
