Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1884-01-11
III 4 MOND
An Interesting business Statement
by the Chairman.

by the Chairman.
In addition to the remarks Of George
Hopkins, Chairman of the Richmond Con.
Mining Company, at their half-yearly
meeting, held in London on the 18th ult.,
published in the SENTINEL yesterday, we
boil down the following. Mr.. Hopkins
said:
You will have noticed from the returns
that the general furnace has been running
continuously throughout the six months
without ans ~stoppage. The same is to be
said also of the No. 4 furnace, which works
with the refinery, the returns from which
do not appear either in the amounts sent
over by cable or in this report. The re-
fnery, also, has been working continu-
ously, and without any stop or h~indrance.
The result of the half-year's work is q
Weld Of 7,726 ozs. of gold, 900, 063 ozs. of
silver, and 1,704 tons of lead. This yield
il from two furnaces, one smelling 300
tons weekly, and the other q little under
that amount, working with the refinery
and smelling up the Dresses from it mixed
with low grade Richmond ore and some
purchased ore. As regards the profits OF
the half year, q rough balance-sheet made
up to the end of the six months, and
LaKlQB l6dQ AZ lts pIc5CHg Spiy u pAiCO,
shows the profit is about $4,000. At the
last half-yearly meeting, on the question
Of dividend, l undertook to say thon that
the Directors would, if they could see their
way so to do, declare u dividend, and that,
should we do that, perhaps we should be
warranted, if it were necessary, in taking
some little amount from our reserve fund.
| am happy to be able to tell the share
holders that when the Board came to look
into the question they were able to pay the
last dividend of 5s. from the earnings of
the company without in any way trespsss-
ing upon the reserve fund.
DIVIDEND POSTPONED.
Nothing, perhaps, is more disagreeable
to the directors than to pass a dividend.
l use the word postpone" with regard to
dividend advisedly, because, although we
feel that we could not very we'll pay the
dividend there is no doubt we had earned
q dividend-not the usual IS. dividend
but one OF Is. Cd. for the three months.
but the fall which had taken place in lead
had prevented US from realizing oil that
lead, and in face of the very large lookup
which we had of something like 10000
tons, we thought, under all the circum-
stances, it was only prudent on our part
not to get a further advance upon our lead
NM ~ oaN "oAN oakA 49, A"A
took q more favorable turn.
HEAVY FREIGHT.
We have TO pay a very heavy amount for
railway carriage, ETC., on our lead when 1t
goes to New York, something like f9 per
ton, and if we paid that amount and got
the lead to New York and then have no
sale for it we are just that amount of
money out of pocket; and not only that,
but we have also to pay warehouse room for
it. Therefore re find it more advantage
GUS and profitable to keep our stock of
lead in hand at Eureka, where we pay
nothing for warehouse room, and nothing
for railway freight until we sell it.
CUSTOM ORES.
With reference to purchased ore it is
only right to say that in consequence of
the keen competition which has sprung up
there for purchased ore we find it very
difficult to buy any at a price which leaves
Us such a margin Of profit as makes it
worth our while to purchase it. Mr.. Pro-
bert has lately turned his attention to
dealing with the large mass of waste or
Stag with considerable success. You will
forgive me if j am a little ~reticent in this
matter, and l think l shall have to ask
you to be satisfied with my statement that
this Stag, we have every reason to expect,
will be found t. be of great service to US.
WATER.
Mr.. Probert has had one or two inter.
views with the new President Of the Eu-
reka Company, in order to see whether
any combined action could be come to
with them as regards clearing the water
from the lower levels, because, as you will
see from this report, our 1900 level, and,
in fact, everything below the 1850 level,
or rather 29 below il, is inaccessible on &C.
count of water. II we can make a fair
and equitable arrangement with the Eu-
reka Company, / think it would be wise
for the two companies to have some COM
bined action in laying the two mines dry
in the lower levels. l think that would
be only a fair and reasonable thing to do.
| have nothing to report to you to-day on
that question, except communications have
taken place, and the question has been
opened. Technically speaking, the Rich
mond mine down to 1919 feet has been a
dry mine.
STAG PILE.
Another very important matter which
you will be pleased to hear is that, in sd-
dition to having discovered a method of
dealing proftably with Stag, Mr.. Probert
has succeeded. l think, in dealing with
what is called the speiss. Now the speiss
is a waste product, which is run off from
the furnace at, | believe, a little lower
level in the furnace than the Stag. That
speiss contains q good deal Of arsenic and
iron, and | believe also a good deal OF
gold. 1t will be very satisfactory to you
to Know that, although we are only on the
threshold Of it yet, Mr.. Probert believes
he has hit upon a process by which this
speiss can be dealt with, and dealt with
satisfactorily, and from these two waste
materials, the Stag and the speiss, we have
every reason to believe that we shall get
satisfactory results. We are smelling what
ore we can get from the mine and what we
can purchase at a reasonable price, supple
mented by outside ores from the mines
which We have recently purchased and
from the Stag dump. We are steadily
working, smelling these materials and re-
fning them on the spot, and l can only
hope by doing that, and continuing our
explorations in the mine, If the market
does not 60 very much against us indeed,
we have every reason to hope that we shall