Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1878-07-12

Opening Remarks OF Chairman
Hopkins.

VRtHAAH E4GAaMHAs VI SnmlEEHNA1
Hopkins.
We have the full proceedings Of the OK
%traordinary meeting of the Richmond
Company. Some OF the more salient
points have already been given in these
columns. The following from the remarks
Of Chairman Hopkins will be found to pos
sess a local interest:
SPEECH OF Mr.. HOPKINS.
The Chairman said Gentlemen, I will
proceed to make a few remarks upon the
report and contents. As stated in the re-
port, you will remember that the accounts
now laid before you cover a period of ten
months only, although they are our yearly
accounts, and during those ten months
the works-that is to say, the smelling
works and the refinery--have been shut
down four months, when dead work only
was being carried on at the mine, so the
actual profitable working during that pc
riod has been only six months, and that is
even a short six months, for you will OBJ
serve that two furnaces only were started
| on September 5th, and the third in Novem-
Der. By reference to the capital account
1 YOU Will Htc VIC IuNc IcCttftu uufln2 TIC
ten months a small outstanding sum Of fl2,
which has remained a long time unpaid on
our capital, thus making our
CAPITAL f270, 900,
Fully paid up. We have expended on cap
ital account 1892 49,, the details Of which
you will find in the abstract under the
heading letter A.. As has been our custom
from the c-ommencemen of the company,
that amount has been taken out of reve-
nue., so that the capital has been kept down
always Just to the even f270, 900. At the
time these accounts we're prepared, which
is mp to February %, we appeared to owe,
and we did owe, f37, 800 on account of de-
bentures, but in March last we paid off
f12, 800 of that amount then falling due,
so that the debenture debt now stands at
f25, 900, and your capital at f270, 900. 1
shall have something to say a little later
On about the capital, but for the moment l
will pass on to the mining profit account.
If you will kindly follow me, and take the
debtor side of the account, you will see
that the cost OF mining and hauling to the
furnace, of making the explorations, etc.,
il, az per abstract b, cas-, 1886, and that
amount includes f13, TAG 10. Sd expended
in labor on dead work, and in making ex-
plorations, drifts, &C., the consequence OF
which is that the total expense Of mining
and hauling is this year S104 PER ton,
whilst our usual expense for those two
is S9a4 that is, So for mining proper, and
SIX for haulage-so that in consequence
Of the f13, 900 odd being expended on dead
work, these expenses have increased, as
compared with previous years, 81 per ton.
The smelling expenses amount to f72, 903
IS. 4d. Now, the total cost OF smelling
this year has been a fraction over $l4 per
ton. That is a great improvement over
former years. 1t used to be about $50 per
ton when we first started, and has been
gradually reduced down to the present
price. Tho great Improvement has been
in consequence of alterations made in the
furnaces, and in the selection of proper
and suitable fiuxes for mixing with the
ore. 1t has been found that the ores were
deficient in silica, and, as a result, in the
process of smelling, the silica containe 81 in
the lining Of the furnace was eaten out
very rapidly: the consequence was, as you
will remember, these furnaces had to be
shut down every two or three months to be
refined, which was q very expensive pro-
cess, and involved considerable loss of
time. We have also an improvement in
the consumption Of charcoal; whereas for
merry we used to consume 40 Bushels of
charcoal to every ton Of ore, We are now
only consuming 80 bushels.
Mr.. MISUNDERSTANDING bushels?
The Chairman am merely making q
comparison between 40 bushels consumed
formerly and 80 bushels consumed now,
which is a reduction of rs per cent. We
have been smelling some ores for the Jack
son Company, for which we have received
$40 per ton, and as our cost, including
everything, has been $1I, we have made
on the operation
PROFIT OF FIVE DOLLARS PER roS,
Amounting to Salts. The luxes amount
to f12,976. These I need not allude to;
they are outside ores purchased principally
to assist in the reduction of our own ores,
and coz tain more silica than ours. The
general expenses, 60, 92f, which you will
find under Abstract ID. includes, as you
will see, e., 500 voted by the board to the
managing director, Mr.. Probert, for his
services during the year. And while l am
OF this question / will just remind you
that as regards that amount, money in
Eureka has a very different value to what
it has in London. A sovereign there will
not go much further than Is. or So. here.
l believe the actual relative value is some
thing like this: 81 will go as far there as
about Is. Cd. will in this country. You
will no doubt readily understand this
when you see. as you nave already seen,
that even our time-keepcr out there gets
f600 a year, and our day foreman gets $500
a year, and u manager has always had
f2,000 q year; and, therefore, in voting a
sum Of money to our managing director
We thought we could not give him less
than f2,500, and, therefore, we voted lin
that sum
THESE PEN
Come to a total of f145, 745, as the ex-
pense Of making $3.50 tons of crude bull
lion. Then, following the accounts in the
order, we have the market expenses. under
abstract E, which consist Of the carriage
more commonly known there as freight
of the lead, and the expressage Of the
dore bars, amounting altogether to &c.
697. Then we have tho insurance on lead
shipped round from San Francisco to New
York, 1892, and we have commission and
brokerage to our bullion agent, and New
York brokers, f3.415; and here l would
mention, that this is the first time that
these items have appeared in u accounts,
for hitherto we have adopted the course
which l believe is very common in mining
companies-only to bring into the ac-
counts
THE NET SUM RECEIVED
From the bullion agent, ex his commits
sion and expensive find even in the st.
Johu del Rey this system is carried out
there, and to some extent it would seem
to be o right system, because this money
never actually comes into the possession
over to the bullion agent, and he does not
return the gross amount, and We pay him
a commission, and he hands us the net
amount he realizes on the bullion, and
some Of you, gentlemen. will understand
this mach better than l do, for l an told