The silver state news. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1907-1909, 1907-09-07
THE APEX RULE is NOT
FOLLOWED IN SOUTH AFRICA
Owner of Claim is Entitled to all Ore
Within Perpendicular Lines of
Claim


Claim
A quartz mine claim in the Trans
vaal is $50 feet long on the line of
strike of the ledge and 400 feet wide.
The government claim license, to be
paid continuously, is 81 per claim per
month. In addition to this the gov
eminent takes 10 per cent of the net
profit on the gold produced. The Boer
government used to take S per cent of
the net profit.
1t does not pay to organize and
equip a mine having much less thar
100 claims under the mining condi-
tions in the T%ransvaal. The lodges
can only be followed within the per
pendicular lines of the claim bound
many lawsuits. Overlapping claims
are not recorded. The talent of min
ing engineers from all parts of the
world has been brought to bear on
working the johannesburg mines and
no expense has been spared to obtain
good organization and up-to-date
equipment.
Very complete statistics are kept on
all the mines on a basis of costs per
ton mined and milled, and rigid com
parsons are madee between those
mines working under similar condi
tions so that each manager or super
intendent is held accountable to his
directors for any excess in his costs
per ton over that if his n%eighbors.
The costs are subdivided as follows:
Mining, hosting, pumping, transport,
sorting, crushing. milling, cyaniding,
electric power, lighting, maintenaele
electric power, lighting, maintenance,
development and Office expenses. The
combined costs per ton of ore mined
range from below So to S. at the pres
ent writing. Ten years ago the total
costs per ton averaged So more than
they are now, and a still further re-
duction may be looked for if the peo-
pie 5000 miles away who read about
the natives in books allow the white
people, living in Africa, who under
stand natives and other local condi-
tions, to manage their own affairs.
At the present time one-third of
the unskilled labor is Chinese, and
one-third negroes imported from Por-
tuguese territory, one-third negroes
accumulated from British colonies ex-
tending over a distance of 100 miles.
All this unskilled labor has to be
fairly dealt with and properly con
trolled in order to properly carry on
a large industrial enterprise such as
is being conducted at Johannesburg.
The natives as a rule prefer to stay on
their land or work in stores or in
houses to working in the mines.
1t is estimated that under the pres
ent conditions 50 per cent of the
working costs are paid out for labor
and that nearly three-ifths of this is
for white labor. About IL per cent of
the working costs are for explosives
and s per cent for coal The remain
ing 20 per cent goes for stores and
maintenance. The average gold out
put for Transvaal mines for 1906 was
SO, 900 900 per month, and the aver
age value of the ore treated was $3.50
per ton. Some of the richest mines.
such as the Robinson, produce ore up
to SIS per ton. Underground mining
costs run from 50 to $3.50 per ton, de-
pending upon the thickness of the
ledge, angle of dip, depth of working.
water, etc. Milling the ore costs from
so to rs cents per ton. Cyanide and
shines treatment costs from 0 to rs
cents per ton. Stopping ore is con-
tracted for at from SO to SIC per
fathom. Drifts and crosscuts SKI
feet, in quartzite, are driven by con-
tractors at the rate of 81 or So per
lineal foot. Out of this they have to
pay the company IS cents per day for
the natives they employ, 30 cents per
pound for the gelatine, SO 25 per box
for candles, 10 cents per coil for fuse.
rs cents per box for caps and 3 cents
per point for each drill s~harpened. 1t
probably takes about three to five
pounds of dynamite for each ton of
ore blasted in driving and crosscut-
ting. Ten to Is pounds per foot is
used for shaft sinking, and for the to-
tai tons of ore mined one and one-half
to two pounds, the larger portion OF
the rock being quartzite. Each ton
of the ore mined takes about 300
pounds of eoal.-Mines and Metals