Sep 30, 2021 - Sale 2580

Sale 2580 - Lot 71

Price Realized: $ 875
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 500 - $ 750
(CANADA.) Account journal from a profitable mining and smelting operation in British Columbia. 61 manuscript pages. Folio, 15 1/4 x 9 3/4 inches, original full gilt calf, minor wear; minimal wear to contents. Butte, MT, 1895-98
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Additional Details

This is the corporate account journal of a Montana-based company which exploited resources in the southeastern part of British Columbia. As detailed in the opening pages of this journal, they acquired the Centre Star Mineral Claim in the West Kootenai Mining District, and incorporated as the Center Star Mining & Smelting Company. The mine was apparently near Rossland, BC; the mines in this area produced a mix of gold, silver, and copper.

This is not a petty ledger listing every ten cent-payment to a camp cook. The sums are large, balancing at $5,787,351.10 on the final page. Payments for plant construction are listed on the early pages, with individual suppliers named: "Hamilton Powder Co., powder & fuse," "Ellacott & Waite, assaying," and many more. Ingersoll Rock Drill is paid for an itemized list of machinery on page 15, ranging from $2,100 for a "16 + 18 Class A compressor" to $6.75 for a steam whistle. Walter Lightfoot is frequently paid by the ton for hauling ore to the railroad depot. The first dividends were declared in September 1898, with $1,800,200 paid out to 12 shareholders (page 59), and then final dividends of $125,108 two weeks later, prior to the "final closing" of accounts.