coal trade bulletin - Clpdigital.org

COAL MINING IN BRITISH COLUMBIA.
According to the annual report of Mr. W. Fleet
Robertson, provincial mineralogist for British Columbia
for 1912, 2,628,804 tons of coal (not including
the coal used for making coke), valued at 9,-
200,814 dols., were raised, as compared with 2,193,-
662 tons, value at 7,675,717 dols., in 1911, and
264,333 tons of coke, valued at 1,585,998 dols., as
against 66,005 tons, valued at 66,005 dols. Both
returns, however, are below those for 1910, tin
consequence of labor troubles in the East Kootenay
coal field, in 1911, and at the Canadian Collieries,
on Vancouver Island, in 1912. No less than 75 per
cent, of the total output is mined by three companies—the
Crow's Nest Pass Coal Co. (950,706
tons), the Canadian Collieries, and the Western
Fuel Co. The combined output of the Island Collieries
was 1,558,240 tons, whilst 200,257 tons were
produced in the Nicola and Princeton valleys of the
coast district, and 1,261,212 tons in the East Kootenay
district. Of the gross raisings, 1,263,427
tons were sold for consumption in Canada, 851,981
tons were sold for consumption in the United
States, and 1 OS.157 tons were exported to other
countries; 396,905 tons were used for making coke,
240,304 tons were used under colliery boilers, ami
175,744 tons were lost in washing and sorting. It
is interesting to note that the consumption of coal
in the coastal region declined in 1912 by 246,289
tons, due partly to the introduction of Califoruian
oil-fuel.
During the year Mr. Robertson made a trip to
the much talked of Groundhog coal field, near the
headwaters of the Skeena, Stikine, and Nass rivers.
In a report on the trip, he says the coal bearing
formation, as far as it is at piesent indicated
by prospecting, covers an area of about 75 miles
in a northwest and southwest direction, with a
width of about 40 miles. Only in the southern
end of the field has any serious attempt been made
to prove by development the extent and nature of
the seams. Mr. Robertson estimates the total
area at about 2.000 square miles. The seams varyin
thickness from 3 to 8 feet, with some possibly
thicker, and those exposed are much broken and
dirty. The value of the field, from a commercial
view-point, may only lie determined by boring in
the flatter-lying and more undisturbed localities.
The volume also contains a report by Mr. C. F.
J. Galloway, on the Peace river coal field, which
lies east of the Rocky Mountains and west of
120th meridian. The cretaceous measures here
have been known for many years to contain coals
of good quality, and the projected development of
railways invests them with importance. Analyses
of samples made by the government analyst show
that the coals are most high-carbon bituminous
coals of high grade, of an altogether exceptional
THE COAL TRADE BULLETIN. 57
quality for W r estern America. The following analyses
are selected:
Thick- Vol. Split
ness of Hygro. combus. Fixed Sul- vol.
scam, water, matter, carbon. Ash. pliur. ratio.
Ft. in.
2 11 2.2 15.0 80.6 1.0 Nil S.S4
1 4 2.9 15.0 79.4 2.1 Nil 8.15
2 S 1.0 15.9 77.4 5.1 Nil S.93
1 S 1.3 1S.0 77.4 2.7 Nil S.1S
o lo 1.0 H.5 70.0 13.0 Nil 9.43
The regularity of the measures and their freedom
from disturbance is remarkable, and the lowash
content in most of the samples, taken as they
were fiom outcrops, shows the exceptionally clean
nature of the seams. Only three of the samples
showed any coking quality—and these only fair.
Within the next few years there will be a number
of points on the Peace river in direct railway communication
with the outside. The principal market
will undoubtedly be on the Prairies, but the
high quality of the coal will enable it to compete
far afield for railway consumption—to say nothing
of the steam navigation on the Peace, Athabasca,
and other great rivers and lakes of the Mackenzie
basin.
In the coal mines of the province, in 1912 there
were 22 accidents, which caused 28 deaths; this
gives a fatal accident rate of 3.93 per 1.000 employed,
as against 2.32 in 1911, but it is less than
the decennial average, 4.87. Falls accounts for
21.43 per cent, of the accidents, mine cars and haulage
for 32.14, and explosions of gas for 25.00; and
Mr. Thomas Graham, the chief inspector, considers
that 75 per cent, of the accidents under these
heads were avoidable. An explosion of gas at
the Diamond Vale collieries on March 7, 1912,
caused seven deaths. This was a mixed-light pit.
Much progress in mine-rescue work has been
made during 1912, and tbe number of oxygen apparatus
in the Province at tbe end of the year was
SS, or one for every S1 persons employed. They
comprise the following: 49 2-hour Draeger apparatus;
30 U-hour ditto: six 2-hour Fleuss (Proto)
and three 1-hour Fleuss (Salvator) apparatus. The
government is erecting a station at Nanaimo.
Mr. James Anderson, vice president and general
manager of the Pacific Coast Coal Co., died recently
at his home in Portland, Ore., aged 58
years. He was one of the acknowledged authorities
on coal mining in the Pacific Northwest.
More than 200,000 cars of eoal were shipped
over the South Fork branch of the Pennsylvania
railroad during the year 1913, and the extension
of the branch to Cairnbrook, Pa., is expected to
increase this by one-half during the present year.