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Mining Operations

Two brothers, Peter and John Duffy, discovered the main seam of albertite in 1849 when a mill dam burst and the water sluiced away the surface. They tried to develop a market but could find no one in New Brunswick who could use the material,and soon after sold the mining leases to a consortium led by Messrs. Allison and Spurr of Saint John, NB for 5000 pounds.

The consortium worked the mine at a loss for some years, then entered into a contract with the Downey Oil Company of Boston in 1856 for "coal" to be refined into oil. For some years the Albert Mines Co. sold the "coal" to gas companies for $10 per ton until, in the words of their engineer, John Byers, "the company became aquainted with its value, the price went up to $21.(sic) per ton and finally settled at $18 per ton on board at Hillsborough."

At one time, albertite could be "mined, hoisted and delivered via tramway, on the wharf at Hillsborough, at a net cost not exeeding $2.50 per ton." However, by 1880, the netcost of delivery was up to about $10 per ton. By then, the veins were becoming narrower and a lot more exploratory work and passage widening had to be done.

That year, the company president stated that "as the depth of the mine increased, the quantity of the coal per foot has decreased. In the Exploring Shaft...the Tunnel has been driven North West about 200 feet further, making the total length about 361 feet, but no Coal has been yet found. We have now driven a Tunnel South East about 100 feet, and are still driving in that direction, so far, however, have not found any Coal."

In 1882, Mr. John Byers wrote a brief summation of the mine's operation in a letter to Mr. John Robertson, stating that since 1850 a total of 300,000 tons of "coal" had been mined. Over the same time period, the company paid total dividends of $400 per share, on 2,984 company shares purchased at $40 each. Mr. Robertson had been hired to examine the prospects of further development and it was his report which caused the eventual closure of the Company that year.

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