Mining. [f. COST sb.2 + BOOK.] A book containing an abstract of all costs and expenses incurred in working a mine, and of all returns from sales, etc., with a balance of profit or loss.
By the Stannaries Act, the Cost-book must be made up and laid before the Shareholders at least once in every 16 weeks, and the term ‘cost-book’ is defined to include all the subsidiary books kept in the mine. Hence Cost-book Company, a kind of partnership formed to work a Cost-book Mine on the Cost-book System, according to which any partner is at liberty to withdraw after such periodical settlement of accounts, without further liability.
1849. Act 12 & 13 Vict., c. 108 § 1. Any Partnership … formed for the working of Mines on the Principle commonly called the Cost Book Principle.
1866. Crump, Banking, ii. 41. A cost-book mining company.
1889. E. Matheson, Aid Bk., 305. Some mines are worked under … the ‘cost book’ system, by which the adventurers … meet from time to time to examine the accounts of expenditure and receipts, and then decide either to stop further outlay or to proceed.
1891. Evid. Royal Comm., Rich 4152. A man can limit his liability in a cost-book mine much more than he can in a limited liability company, because we make up our accounts every four months, and a shareholder is perfectly at liberty to retire then.
