Butte semi-weekly miner., 1888-01-18
COPPER
lilo Ups and Downs in the Copper Market
Last Year-Review Of tho Field by j,
MAfhaws a Cn

Tho Ups and Downs in the Copper Marke
Last Year-Review of tho Field by J
F. Mathews & Co.
Copper has been the field OF the wildes
speculation that has occurred for twenty
live year and closes on what is considered b,
many it's climax. At the opening Of 1877
the Lake price at New York was IL cents
and remained there until the end OF ths
month when suddenly the Calumet and
Hec'a dumped 15, ,OOO, 900 lbs. of Lake at /
cents, price w hich was considered by ali
to be unnecessarily low, and made for the
purpose OF checking production, but it's eff.
1ect On the market was quite different from
the general anticipation. Other companies
began to underssll, partly to market their
produce and partly to make consumers
dissatisfied with long Calumet contracts.
Prices ran along on a dull market until
April, when the Calumet and Hecla Co. re-
peated their previous tactics a ad suddenly
placed about $4,000, 900 pounds of copper
over seven months to domestic manufac-
turers at 10 cents. There seemed to be no
reason for making this very low figure
other than the aggressive policy of killing
on less fortunate neighbors who could not
work SO cheap. Other companies were
forced out into the cold by this action, and
the Quincy Co. soon after exported about
QUO tons at close at 10 cents. the
Iamarack. Osceola and other mines sold
at . 30 ard at $50, and the general out
look was very blue until the early part of
July. when spectators began to purchase
both Tor domestic and English account. 80
that by early August the price had
touched IL cents and news came that a fire |
had broken out in the Calumet mine. A |
snarp. short spuret resulted, and within /
TWO weeks 1t was announced that the fire
was out and that the mine would not |
lose more than 5000 tons from its annual
product, so the price sageed off until the
beginning of November, when a powerful
FRENCH syndicate began what has proved
20 ne the most colossal specula ton since
Aof2. when Chill bars touched flO6, The
price OF Chilli bars ran up for the better part
o1 SIX weeks on an average of about
pound per day, starting at f4O and ending
with an advance OF 112 per cent. at fs5
Fhiie the price OF Lake at New York ad.
'anced With equal step from 1850 to IS
'ents: 10 accomplish this end the French
'yndlcate had purchased nearly 80. 600
'ons OF Chill bars, had made some seree.
nent with the three great Spanish produc.
ng companies and also purchased very j
!early 100000 lbs. of copper at New :
Iork. Fortune favors the brave, and in :
he middle Of the rise a second and far :
more serious fire. possibly rekindled from =
he previous one, broke out in the Calumet =
nd Hecla mine, and crippled their output 3
lily one-half, so that they viii =
carcely be able to produce more than .
all their usual output for over six months. =
wing to the serious damage done by Gre. y
, caving in aud by the rising OF the water. .
seems the irony OF fate that the compa. !,
which sought go eagerly to drown out q
9 ne'ghbors should now become helpless 2
trough the force OF the elements. The ex. IL
ort sales have been very heavy, reaching "
the total IL, ,OOO, 900 pounds OF fine con. N
" aad 55,OO0,OOO pounds of copper
atte, which must be calculated at go.
)O, 600 pounds fine at the lowest. and
"a which is probably nearly 10000 900
aking a total export OF 10000, 900 II
'unds. II the Calumet and Hecla should
cut OF 20, 900, 900 ponnds in their pro-
'ct from June last until next June. it will
.questionably assure reasonably high ne
ices for the article during 1883. r.,