But in the face of contingencies the Blue
Gravel Company moved 1,000,000 cubic yards of gravel in four years, or at
the rate of 250,000 cubic yards per annum, and the cost of washing each
cubic yard stands thus:
Cents.
Cost of water, at 15 cents per miner's inch 5.77
Cost of labor, gunpowder, sluices, and
superintendence 16.10
-----
21.87
Or 213/4 cents of a dollar per cubic yard.
Thus the gravel should contain gold to the value of 22 cents of a dollar
per cubic yard to cover cost, and the value of the gravel referred to
ranged from 20 to 45 cents per cubic yard; and the cost of work done in
shafts and tunnels, in the said Blue Gravel Company's Mining claim,
reached 100,000 dollars. But with the cost of the necessary canals paid
for by the Excelsior Water Company apart, the total cost amounted to about
1,000,000 dollars, and we must note that the latter company sold water to
other mining companies.
The gross yield in gold of the Blue Gravel Company in four years was
837,399 dollars, and in the year 1866 the returns from the Blue Gravel
Company paid all the costs of the developments; but in 1867 assessments
were paid by the owners to meet the deficiency arising from the cost of
sinking two new shafts, and driving fresh tunnels on the lowest levels,
which evidently contain on the bed rock the richest concentrations.
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