Miller Mining, a calendar-year corporation, purchased the rights to a copper mine on July 1, 1996. Of the total purchase price, $2,800,000 was appropriately allocated to the copper. Estimated reserves were 800,000 tons of copper. Miller expects to extract and sell 10,000 tons of copper per month. Production began immediately. The selling price is $25 per ton. Miller uses percentage depletion (15%) for tax purposes. To aid production, Miller also purchased some new equipment on July 1, 1996. The equipment cost $76,000 and had an estimated useful life of 8 years. After all the copper is removed from the mine, however, the equipment will be of no use to Miller and will be sold for an estimated $4,000. If sales and production conform to expectations, what is Miller's depletion expense on this mine for financial accounting purposes for the calendar year 1996?
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Depletion expense is based on the units-of-production method. Based on the estimates, the depletion charge per ton is $3.50 ($2,800,000 / 800,000 tons). Since
10,000 tons are extracted per month and there are 6 months of operations for 1996, the depletion expense is $210,000 ($3.50 per ton X 10,000 tons X 6 months).