Ch. 1: Gold and Silver in 1913

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	GOLD AND SILVER. 853

	COMPARISON OF MINT REPORT AND MINES REPORT. Of the two plans outlined for ascertaining the gold and silver production of the United States it may be said that the one is a measure of the mining industry and the other a measure of the metallurgical industry; the one reports the production and recoverable content of mine output and the other the metal actually recovered in marketable form. The two' methods will not produce exactly corresponding results, nor should they be expected to do so. In addition to factors already noted as causing differences between the two sets of figures, it must be remembered that it is not always a simple matter for smelters to distribute their output according to the exact origin of the ore, and it is still more difficult for refiners to do so. It is therefore always possible that some ore of Canadian or Mexican origin is contributing to the output of metal thought by smelters to be of domestic origin. The calendar year covered by both investigations is the same, but the period of mine production naturally corresponds to a period earlier than the period of actual production of marketable metal by the interval of time necessary for transporting, sampling, and treating the ore and for refining the products. This interval is practically negligible in the case of placer and mill bullion, but may be several months in the case of crude smelting ores, and especially of ores concentrated before smelting. The figures for the mint report and the mines report for a period of years sufficiently long to compensate for overlap or lag should agree within allowable limits of error due to the complex nature of the ores and of the methods of treatment. The figures of the mines report may be expected, on the whole, to fall normally below those of the mint report for the reasons outlined. For the last nine years the final figures for mint and mine returns have been as follows: Production of gold and silver, 1905-1913, according to mint and to mine returns.



	These figures show an excess of gold, according to mint reports, for the nine years of $3,657,579, or a difference of a little over 0.4 per cent, but a deficit of silver production of 5,875,815 fine ounces, or a difference of a little more than 1.1 per cent. As figures for Alaska placers are not claimed to be as close as these, the differences

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