Arizona silver belt., 1894-06-23
COPPER MENswG.

ho Nol'fpoi AANuoAJ VI but Oulbou States has for the past several years presented the anomaly of a steadily in- creasing production and falling prices, until at the present time copper is sell ing at . lower figure than ever before in the history of the industry, The de- cline has been more precipitate during the past year, due to the general de- pression of business, which while it has greatly curtailed consumption has had no effect in lessening production, until at tue present writing large stocks aye held by producers and in the hands of warehousemen, exports have fallen of considerably, and manufacturers are fairly we'll supplied for the summer months by the recent sales of 15,000, O00ibs Lake at cents. Since these sales were made private advices from New York record still lower figure for Lake copper, viz; S.s0. Arizona cop per is nominally cents, but thore is scarcely any demand for this class of copper
 Up to the present time producers have been enabled to meet the shrink age of values by improved processes of smelting and refining and economies  carried into almost every branch of the industry, but the limit in this direction has about been reached, and there are now very few mines in the United States which can operate at a profit and some that are running at loss, The present prices if continued for any length of time must result in the clos ing down of important mines and Q consequent curtailing of production. Companies can not continue to run at loss or exhaust their mines, for in time they will be worked cut and cost ly plants will then become practically valueless Some of the Michigan and Montana mines are best able to with stand the present depression The Calumet & Hecla is still the most valu- able copper mine in the world, compe- tent engineers estimating that she com pany can lay copper down in New York Q. 6 cents per pound, and that She vast ore bodies in the mine are sufficient to last for fifty years.
 It is doubtful if any of the copper mines in Arizona can now be operated without loss, except the Copper Queen, and possibly the United Verde, and the small margin of profit remaining to them makes continued production a matter of questionable expediency. Of course no one expects the present low price of copper to prevail longer than few months, and should the business of the country revive percep- tibly, the price of copper would re- spond to the quickened demand and consumption, and new life would be inssilled into the industry.
 It is not probable that the price of copper will ever again rule as high as in former years. As before suggested, the efforts of mine owners are concen- trated in the direction of more econo- mical and larger production and while the prevailing depression may give Q temporary check to expansion, yet copper will be among the first indus tries to feel the benefits of returning prosperity A moderately low price for copper (l0 to II cts has the ad- vantage of stimulating consumption, enlarging its field of usefulness, and enabling its substitution for less desir able metals in the manufactures.
 Globe, while temporarily handicap ped by the excessive cost of transpor- tation, is one of the greatest copper districts in the Southwest. Her ore deposits are rich and extensive and as yet scarcely infringed upon. The pro cess of smelting is the simplest and least expensive, and the copper when it comes from the furnace ja so pure as to require no refining and goes into the market as a good merchantable copper, All that is required to give life to cop per mining in Globe district is cheaper rates of freight on coke and copper which seem assured at DO distant date by the completion of the Gila Valley, Globe and Northern K. K.