High-Grading

An Ontario mining-commission report last week revealed a staggering yearly theft, highlighted a persistent racket that has become almost a tradition. Said the commission: a million dollars worth of gold is stolen every year from Ontario's mines by high-graders.

High-graders are miners who sneak rich bits of ore out of mines in their hair, ears, mouths, between their toes, between slices of bread in their dinner pails, or who raid staked claims which are not yet producing. They peddle their loot to "receivers" for about $10 an ounce. The receivers melt the stolen ore into "buttons" worth $4,000 to $5,000 each. Then "carriers" tote the buttons, usually hidden in multiple-pocket corsets, into the U.S. Most of the gold reaches New York City, where refiners pay $30 an ounce for it, sell it in turn to the U.S. Treasury.

A good many high-graders are captured. In 1942, 13 men and a woman were convicted of high-grading and peddling $1,220,000 in stolen gold.

Almost all producing mines require miners to strip as they leave their jobs, undergo inspections. In some cases, suspicious-looking miners are Xrayed. Nevertheless gold still disappears. The commission had nothing better to propose than the appointment of a three-man commission to "discourage persons from engaging in this business."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.