The Mineral Resources of Greenland. 19 
to the United States Value per ton to Denmark 
AIO MEET 1 973 tons = 4 394 tons 
INSEAD so 00 we 5 024 — — 8 904 — 
20 398 tons 43 399 tons 
Of the 9 945 tons produced in 1912 8 041 tons went to Copenhagen, 
the rest to Philadelphia. Of the former tonnage, there were exported 
to France 900; to Germany 1 600, to Austria 900, and to England 850 
tons. Two hundred tons were sent from Philadelphia to Canada. In 
1920 Denmark exported to France 1 100 tons; to Germany 1 800 tons, 
to Austria 100 tons and to Great Britain 1 250 tons. Cryolite enters 
the United States duty free. 
The price of cryolite has been most variable. Small pieces brought 
$25 one hundred years ago, but after GIESECKE collections reached 
Europe, the price broke. As mentioned above, the nominal value of 
the cryolite at the mine prior to the war was some $ 13.40 per metric 
ton. From the royalty obtained from 1857—75 by the Danish govern- 
ment, the average price at the mine during that period appears to have 
been about $18 per ton. The average price of cryolite imported into 
the United States from 1880 to 1889 was $13.70 per long ton: from 
1890—99 $ 12.80; from 1900—09, $ 11.90 and from 1910 to 1913, $ 22.30. 
The average price in 1913 and 1914 was $ 20.50 per ton, in 1915 $ 21.00, 
in 1916, $ 42.83, in 1917, $ 49.85 and in 1918, $ 50.00. The above quo- 
tations, however, are the sums paid by the Pennsylvania Salt Manu- 
facturmg Company, the sole American importer, for the material on 
board its ships at Ivigtut. To it must be added royalty (approximately 
$ 3.25), ocean freight (about $9), freight in America, and milling and 
marketing costs. Ground and packed in barrels the price has in the 
past varied prior to the war from $ 80 to $ 140 per ton, it being in 1910 
from $ 130 to $140 per ton. It is doubtless now considerably higher, 
The cryolite shipped to Copenhagen is of better grade than that reaching 
the United States, and the refined product is said in Copenhagen to 
have been worth before the war $100 per ton. 
The mine is situated in a small basin inset in the steep sides of 
Arsuk fiord (Fig. 7). Before the present harbor was made, cryolite 
outcropped at the water’s edge along a shallow crescentic bay. It is 
said that at high tide the outcrop was almost under water and TAYLER’s 
map indicates that originally at high water only the rim of cryolite 
on the northeast and east sides was above water. From the water’s 
edge the slope inland for about 400 m (quarter of a mile) is gradual, 
at which point mountains rise sharply 600 m (2 000 feet). The fiord 
is deep and boats are anchored by ring bolts set in the granite of the shore. 
GIESECKE describes the outcrop as roundly angular, like that of 
rock salt, partially dissolved, and states that weathered fragments upon 
being struck with a hammer fell to powder. The outcrops which I saw 
2% 
