Letters – Hugh Pattinson to John Hodgson – 2 Oct 1833

				Blaydon Lead Works Oct 2nd 1833



      In reference to the matter on which you received my opinion on the 30th ult viz whether it will suit Mr Beaumont to sell 2000 tons of Ore besides the 1000 Tons now under treaty and if so what description of Ore should be offered and what price. I beg to lay before you the following observations.

      I am of the Opinion that it would suit Mr Beaumont very well to sell 2000 tons of Ore provided the purchaser will take the description of Ore which yields ordinary refined Lead. This sort of Ore is principally raised at Barny Craig and Swinhope Head Mines and is smelted at Allen Mill. It requires about 4 1/4 Bings of this Ore to produce one fodder of Lead which yield in refining 12 oz of Silver and its value per Bing will be as follows taking the price of Common Lead at £14-10s per Fodder and reckoning 4 oz of silver to cover the cost of refining and loss of lead in the operation which it will do provided the Refined Lead is considered worth ten shillings more than the Common.



Carriage of 4 1/4 Bings of Ore from the       £   s  d 

Mines to Allen Mill at 2s/6 per Bing.         0  10  7 1/2



Cost of smelting this description of Ore at

1st and 2nd fires including every charge at   0  13  7 1/2

Allen Mill per Fodder of Lead

			

Carriage of One Fodder of Lead from the

Mill to Blaydon                               0  15  3 1/2

   Expense per Fodder of Lead               £ 1  18 11



Value of one Fodder of Common Lead

Including its proportion of Slag            £14  10  0



Value of 8 Oz of Silver being the excess

Beyond that required to Pay the cost of

Of extraction at 5s/3d per oz               £ 2   2  0

                                             16  12  0



  Expense as above deducted                 £ 1  18 11

                                            £14  13  1



This divided by 4 ¼ gives £3-9s-0d value of one Bing of this Ore at the mines to which add carriage 10s/6d per Bing makes its value at Blaydon £3-19s-6d per Bing or £9-18s9dper Ton. I am decidedly of the Opinion that this Ore should not be sold for less than the price stated.

	If the parties should prefer purchasing Mr Beaumont’s unrefinable Ore there will be no difficulty in supplying the quantity provided the whole of our refinable Lead for some time is made into Eleven Stone Pieces and sold as common to furnish us with our proportion of that description of Lead but in case of further Sales of common Lead Ore. Mr B[eaumon]ts regular Earnings will be a good deal interfered with and mine income received will be felt and loss sustained by the alteration just proposed I would say therefore very decidedly that the price should not be less than £9-10 per Ton Ore any Amount, Common Lead being taken at £14-10 per fodder.

      The abstraction of 3000 Tons of Ore from Mr Beaumont’s produce this year will have the effect of stopping the smelting operations for some time in the Spring at one or more of the of the Mills on which accounts it is desirable that the matter should be settled as soon as possible in order that I may have time to regulate the delivery of the Ore <decreasing> by – 

							H.L. Pattinson