CONCLUSIONS RESPECTING THE TIN INDUSTRY. 57 
Difficulty is experienced, however, in obtaining skilled miners, and inexperienced hands 
of course make mining much more expensive. 
Cost of extraction and smelting. — The cost of extraction of the cassiterite from the sur- 
rounding rock, as now practiced at the Jones mine, is probably high. It is to be expected 
that longer experience will result in a considerable reduction of this cost. 
At the present time there are no tin reduction works in operation in this country. A 
plant erected at Bayonne, N. J., a few years ago was never put into active operation. All 
the tin produced has accordingly been shipped to England. The cost of smelting per ton 
of concentrates is $24.75, or about $37 per ton of metal. This agrees closely with the 
statement that in 1895 the cost and profit of smelting all the tin ore produced in Great 
Britain was about $35 per ton of metal, or If cents per pound. « The freedom of the Caro- 
lina concentrates from such objectionable impurities as sulphur, arsenic, and tungsten 
ought to reduce somewhat the charges for smelting. 
Transportation and miscellaneous costs. — The cost of transportation from the mines to 
New York is approximately $5 per ton of concentrates, or about 0.38 cent per pound of 
metal. The freight charges from New York to Haile, Cornwall, England, amount to $2 
per ton of concentrates, or about 0.15 cent per pound of metal. To these figures must be 
added a small amount per pound to cover handling of the ore, sampling and assaying, 
commissions, etc. 
CONCLUSIONS. 
The foregoing considerations indicate that the future of the tin industry in the Carolinas 
is not yet assured. It is believed, however, that in the case of some of the deposits conserva- 
tive, careful, and systematic mining will be attended with profit. There are a number of 
prospects of sufficient promise to warrant further development by cautious methods. 
The profits made at the Ross mine, which were probably large compared with the expendi- 
ture, are not to be taken as a criterion, for a large part of the product of that mine required 
only washing, and most of the remainder has been derived from soft ground which required 
no blasting nor crushing. 
SUMMARY. 
Tin occurs along a narrow belt extending northeastward from the center of Cherokee 
County, S. C, across Cleveland and Gaston counties to the center of Lincoln County, N. C. 
This belt represents the distribution of pegmatite dikes and in its position is dependent 
on the general geologic structure of the region. The pegmatite is closely related genetically 
to the granite and granitic gneiss which occur along this belt and which are sometimes cut 
by the dikes of pegmatite Most of the pegmatite bodies are very irregular in extent. Tin 
is present as the mineral cassiterite, which occurs only as an original or primary constituent 
of the pegmatite. This mineral is not evenly distributed through the dikes, but is generally 
segregated or concentrated along certain lines. The ore bodies or shoots thus formed gen- 
erally pitch at a considerable angle and are of small cross section, but extend indefinitely 
along the pitch. They are probably irregular in extent, somewhat after the fashion of 
the dikes in which they occur. The percentage of cassiterite in the ore shoots may be 
high in places, but the average value will probably be under 5 per cent. This ore may be 
reduced to a concentrate of good quality. The cost of production of the metallic tin ought 
not to be excessive, but will certainly increase with depth. Placer deposits are unimpor- 
tant. The necessity of shipping the concentrates to England for reduction is a serious 
handicap and may prohibit operations which would otherwise be successful . The production 
of the Carolina tin belt will probably always be very small as compared with the amount 
of tin consumed in the United States. 
While the outlook, from the commercial standpoint, is somewhat questionable, it is 
believed that profit may be realized from a number of the deposits by careful methods of 
working. 
a Louis, II., Min. Ind., vol. 5, 18%, p. 573. 
