Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-09-04
Fine Chance for Capital.

chance for capital to make "untoid mil
lions" than there is right here in Los
The Selby works in the Car
quinez Straits, near Contra Costa, have
long been paying immense dividends to
their owrer. These works are the most
extensive on the Pacific Coast, and han
die the rich ores of a stretch of
territory reaching as far east as Salt
Lake, and as far south as New Mexico.
A very large percentage Of the cost OF
realizing from these ores is
the money paid for transportation /;
and it is safe to say that
very great proportion OF the ores in this
section OF the Pacific Coast are not sent
to the reduction works because the cost
of transportation to San Francisco would
be SO great as to leave no returns to the
mine-owners.
But if reduction works were established
and in successful operation in this
county, not only the ores that would not
pay for transportation to San Francisco,
but those that are now sent would be re-
duced here. There is here the basis OF
an immense business and OF tremen-
dous profit. The mining districts that
would be tributary to reduction works in
this county are many and extensive. In
our own county alone we could furnish
an immense amount of ores. The mines
in the San Gabriel cai1on mountains are
many and promising, and paying ores
abound in various other localities.
The Holcomb and Bear Valley districts
would be large customers of the sug-
gested reduction works; and San Ber-
nardino county is rich in districts that
are only awaiting works that can success.
fully treat their ores. Ord, New York
Providence, Marlborough, and hundreds
of other districts thst have rested
dormant for years would become centres
of activity if their ores could be profita,
bly, worked. OF course all the ores that
are now sent to the Selby works for re-
duction from Calico and the other rich
districts in the belt, would come tc
Los Angeles if we had reduction works
in successful operation here. The five
hundred miles of lessened transportation
would not only be in our favor with re-
gard to all the ores now transported from
Southwestern Nevada and the San
Bernardino ranges to the Selby works
but we would intercept the vast ore traf.
fic now carried on from Arizona, New
Mexico and portions of Sinaloa. Indeed
successful reduction works in operation
in Los Angeles county would control the
ore trade of all the territory south and
east Of us from line drawn through
Utah westerly to the Pacific ocean. That
ore traffic would be ours by right Of near
ness to it and the consequent saving in
transportation.
Reduction works on a scale to do the
business that would naturally come to
them here, are not built up in day, nor
are they placed in successful operation
without the aid of ample capital. But
there is no surer or more profitable
enterprise open to energy and capital.
When the Selby works were first
started its projectors labored under
great and manifold difficulties which
would not be met by the
founders of similar enterprise
at the present time. The processes of
separation and reduction were then in
their infant stage the application of the
right fluxes to particular ores was but
very partially understood; and the incl
dental economies of saving by perfect
separation all the different metals to be
found in our ores were not known. Then
the metallurgist addressed himself al
most solely to the extraction of the pre-.
cious metals. Beyond these there was
little saved. Now there is nothing lost.
Hence those who would now enter
into the establishment of reduction
works could do so without any of the
risks that attended the pioneers in the
business.
When we inform our readers that the
owners of mines in the Inyo district send
their ores to Newark, New Jersey, for
treatment, it will be seer that there
must be great margin Of profit in the
works that reduce them when they can
make satisfactory returns to their owners
over and above the cost of transport
alton.