MINES REPORT.
METHOD OF COLLECTING STATISTICS.
The
first table in this report presents the final official figures of the
production of gold and silver in the United States in 1912 as agreed
upon by the Bureau of the Mint and the United States Geological
Survey. With the relatively unimportant exceptions of domestic gold and
silver contained in ores, mattes, etc., exported for reduction during
the year, these figures record the actual production of gold and
silver bullion from domestic ores in marketable form as metals, either
refined or unrefined.
Owing
to the difficulty of tracing this total gold and silver production
back to its origin by States, counties, and mining districts, however,
the Geological Survey attacks the problem of distribution by systematic
investigation of the mine production of ores containing gold and silver
during the calendar year, and of the output of the placer mines. In
this way the state of the mining industry is studied in detail, and
classification of output by methods of production and by kinds of ore,
as well as by minmg districts, is obtained. The resulting figures form
the basis of the mmes report.
As
already stated, the Bureau of the Mint takes into account, as the basis
for figures of production, statistics of gold and silver in unrefined
bullion deposited in the United States mints and assay offices, in fine
bars of both metals produced by private refineries, and in ores,
mattes, etc., exported for treatment.
