182  CONTRIBUTIONS    TO    ECONOMIC    GEOLOGY,  1906,  PART    I. 
timbering  will  generally  be  rather  low,  for  the  roof  stands  well.  In 
the  Emauhee  mine  stnlls  are  used  only  at  distant  intervals.  Even 
if  poor  ground  should  be  encountered  the  local  charges  for  timber  are 
so  low  that  the  cost  would  be  relatively  slight.  The  steel  and  powder 
charges  become  high  as  soon  as  the  hard  quartzitic  ores  are  encoun- 
tered. In  the  slaty  ore  these  charges  decrease  to  practically  nothing. 
The  cost  of  labor  is  low,  as  is  usual  throughout  the  South.  This  low 
actual  cost  as  somewhat  fictitious,  for  the  labor  is  inefficient  and 
requires  much  supervision. 
The  heaviest  charges  are  those  incident  to  the  handling  of  the  ore 
and  slate  underground.  Owing  to  the  fact  that  the  ore  is  intimately 
interlaminated  witli  slate,  a  large  amount  of  dirt  must  be  mined 
with  it.  This  is  costly  to  handle  and  reduces  the  tenor  of  the  ore. 
It  would  probably  be  desirable  to  hand  pick  or  wash  the  ore,  but 
either  of  these  operations  would  add  oik4  more  item  to  the  cost  of 
mining.  The  faulted  character  of  many  of  the  veins  necessitates 
much  prospecting  and  makes  the  mining  less  systematic  than  in 
more  regular  deposits.  Thus  considerable  extra  dead  work  is  per- 
formed and  extra  tramming  and  handling  charges  have  to  be  met. 
Wry  few  data  are  available  as  to  the  wetness  of  the  mines.  It  is  pre- 
sumable, however,  that  the  pumping  charges  would  be  moderate,  for 
the  quartzitic  beds  seem  to  be  quite  impervious. 
Concerning  the  value  of  the  ore  mined  the  three  tables  of  chemical 
analyses  should  answer  the  question  effectively.  It  should  be  borne 
in  mind,  however,  thai  the  analyses  in  Table  III  are  of  much  greater 
value  than  those  shown  in  either  of  the  other  two  tables.  The 
analyses  in  Table  III.  as  before  noted,  were  not  made  from  selected 
samples,  but  from  samples  taken  across  the  entire  width  of  the 
vein,  including  any  slate  partings  that  would  necessarily  have  to  be 
mined  and  could  not  readily  be  hand  picked.  The  character  of  the 
ore  in  other  essential  particulars  is  also  well  shown  by  these  tables. 
The  phosphorus  content  is  too  high  for  Bessemer  iron,  but  as  much 
of  the  southern  iron  at  the  presenl  time  is  open-hearth  iron,  this  is 
not  much  of  a  drawback.  There  is  also  a  variable  but  rather  high 
amount  of  sulphur,  which  would  make  the  resulting  steel  brittle. 
There  are  two  ways  of  economically  reducing  this  ore:  (1)  Smelting 
independently  and  (2)  smelting  in  combination  with  other  ores.  In 
smelting  several  factors  need  to  be  considered,  especially  flux  and 
fuel.  The  flux  can  be  easily  obtained  from  the  limestones  and  dolo- 
mitic  limestones  on  either  flank  of  the  ridge.  The  relative  values  of 
pure  limestone  and  dolomitic  limestone  as  flux  are  still  undeter- 
mined. Authorities,  however,  seem  united  in  believing  that  if  there 
is  a  small  percentage  of  alumina  in  the  ore  some  dolomite  is  at  least 
no  drawback.  The  flux  question  is  therefore  easily  settled,  for  any- 
where along  the  range  limestone  can  be  obtained  within  a  distance  of 
at  most  half  a  mile  from  the  iron  ore. 
