Either Ore Corp is a mining company operating copper and nickel mines in northern Minnesota. It recently purchased a new piece of equipment costing $$1,500,000$ which will be used to load rail cars with ore. The machine is expected to have a useful life of $15$ years or $9,000,000$ tons of material loaded, and has a residual value of $$300,000.$ It loads $600,000$ tons of material in its first year.

What amount of depreciation expense will Either Ore Corp record in year $1$ if it uses the straight$-$line method?

Multiple Choice

$$80,000$

$$160,000$

$$20,000$

$$100,000$