, 1889-08-08
CGUR D'ALENE LEAD.
A Rough Estimate of the Total Out
put of the Mines In That Region.

There is now in this city gentleman
who has for some time past been opcr-
ating In the Cuur d. Alenc region, and is
thoroughly conversant with the lead
question in relation to cost of transpor-
tation and treatment. Yesterday he
gave the following rough estimate of the
daily output of ore Gn tons) of the prin-
cipal mines of the district: Poormun
So Tiger 40, Morning 40, San Francisco
20, Gem 10, Custer 10, Granite 30, Sierra
Nevada %, Stemwinder 10, Emma and
Last Chance 90 California 10. The iig.
ures were iotted down hurriedly, and
the sum total is probably below the
actual output, because some of the
smaller and newer enterprises have been
omitted.
General Warren, who is one of the
principal owners in the Pourman was
shown these figures and said they were
certainly not too large. The sum total
as can be found by addition is 80 tons
per day for the district. II to this is
added fifty tons per day, the output of
the Bunker Hill and Sullivan mines
when operating, brings the figures up to
$50 tons The general says the shin.
mcnts from the Co,ur u Alenes are either
of crude ore averaging 80 per cent lead
to the ton or concentrates in which the
metal has been brought up to that pro-
portion. Allowing per cent for the
HtHtIul 'ilNllueiA"lll anu ltklllR IL ilt 1U
per cent, thesIally output is l65 tons of
metallic lead. For the work
ing year of 365 days this makes
90, 22o tons, which is about onr-thrd of
the entire annual output of the United
States. OF the mines mentioned, the
Morning, San francisco, Gem, Granite,
Sierra Nevada, Stem Winder, Emma
and Last Chance and California ship to
Helena, giving her total of lsO tons per
div Tho 'Iiulr -liI,s its -.
Great Falls, and the Poorman and Gus
ter their aggregate of sixty tons to Den.
YER
General Warren was asked why the
PoOrman did not ship to a Montana
smeltcr, His reply was that when the
contract was made last May the Denver
smeltcrs offered something like 800 per
ton better than either Great Falls or
Helena, and added that the railroad
charged them as much to Garrison
as did the other fellows to Helena. lie
was silent as to any offer made by the
Butte smcltcrs for his ore. lie acknowl.
edged further that he did not know
whether Helena or Great Falls offered as
much or even more than Denver for lead
ore. II. ID. Edgerton, of this city, says
that IL is impossible to say, by way of a
general statement, that one smolter
offers more or less than another for lead
ore What II smelling company will
pay for lead ore-a very comprehensive
term--depends almost entirely upon the
characteristics of the ore when taken i'm
connection with the stock on hand or the
ore from different localities and with
widely different characteristics, which
the smelter Is receiving, For instance.
a smelter with large stock ON hand of
silicious ores, or with contracts ahead
for large quantities, would pay more for
non-silicious ores which could be used
to reduce the percentage of silica in The
charge to the proper point. II on the
other hand, the ore coming In was all
non-silicious the price paid for silicious
ores would be increased. In
Denver, labor and fuel are
cheaper than in Montana and this
in the case of very high grade ores serves
! in some cases to enable the Denver peo-
pie to bid well up for Montana ores.
When the percentage of lead is very high
the amount of dead weight in the shape
of fbarren matter or gangue is correspond
ingly low and the cost of shipment is
partially paid by the saving in cost of
labor and fuel. Mr.. Edgerton says he
has no fears of the Denver smelling COM
panies getting hold of much of Monta-
mas lead ores, because the thing can not
Ms a general rule be made To nav