The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-07-17
THE IMMENSE PROFITS OF SILVER
MINING.

THE IMMENSE PROFITS OF SILVER
MINING.
In no industry has capital and science
conspired so much to reduce the cost of
production as in the mining of gold silver
and other metals. This is particularly true
of silver. 1t is not found in alluviai de-
posts. bat is obtained by expensive mining
and processes of smelling which render
the large investment of capital necessary
1t was lack of capital and of the recent
knowledge of applied chemistry which has
discovered processes for the treatment of
silver ores. which limited the worlds out
put of silver prior to 1870. In recent years
the cost of production has been reduced
In a greater proportion than in any other
industry. In address in the Mining Elk
change building, in Denver. the latter part
of 1894 or early in 1895. w. F. Kendrick, a
| successful business man. said:
The mines which could be worked only
at heavy loss twenty years ago can be
worked at profit to-day. My first ex-
perience in handling gold and silver ores
was in 1874, as assayer and later as ore
buyer. In those days smelling charges
were $50 per ton and 20 per cent. discount
for loss. Nothing but higher-grade ores
were high. the mines at Alma, t'airplay and
Breckenridge paying from SIS to So per ton
freight where to-day it is a nominal
charge. AT Alma. on ore carrying 800 per
ton, 20 per cent. for loss at first de-
Quoted, $35 smelling charges. $40 for freight
and - for crushing sga fn and samping, making
| hundred-dolar ore from Alma can be fig
ured as follows: Smelling charges. IS;
| freight. s.; discount for loss, S5-making SIS.
| the miner receiving So.
| ted x,;fl
the mining interests of Colorado. testified
before the coinage committee of the House
as follows:
When / went to Montana, in 1856. it cost
US. to transport our ore from Dillon to
| Omaha, $24 per ton. That transportation
now costs SO. 1t cost us ST ton to
| treat ores then. while 1t costs us So or so
RADIO. in 1873. learned that which
Sayed less than $50 a ton could not be treat
ed without loss. By concentration, ores
can now be profitably handled that yield
low as 50 per ton. BY using scientific
| processes of treatment, low-grade ores.
running two or three ounces OF silver and
or 4 or ) per cent. in lead will yield a
| good profit.
Schoenhof, in a chapter of his Money
| and Prices" devoted to silver production,
quotes from official reports as follows:
The value of the silver ore treated in
California varied from $50 to 500 ton, a
great proportion yielding in the mill over
| 500 per ton. AS considerable proportion
was produced at cost of. only $3.50 a ton.
| ii is not probable that the mean cost of
| extraction exceeded that at the Bonanza
king-say. s25 per ton 80 The Bo-
nanZa King mine obtained S119 of silver in
value at a cost of $3.50. At the average
price CT 81 an ounce for the silver bullion
| represented by STE. the bullion in a stand
ard silver dollar costs about 10 cents.
The Broken Hill mines, in New
| South Wales. have produced silver at cost
| of 90 cents ounce, not counting the value
| of the lead. If the lead were counted the
| silver would not cost the company over 10
cents an ounce.
| Pages of the statements of experts could
| be added of the same tenor as the fore
| going, all showing the large profits of
| working average silver mines at present
prices and the enormous profits which
would come to those wealthy corporations
| now engaged in silver mining in the event
| they shall be able to persuade the country
| that free and unlimited coinage of silver
| would be for the general advantage. The
| men who run these mines are the back
bone of the free-silver coinage sentiment.
But for them, their money and their ex-
| pensve lobby and corps of agents. there
| would be no free-silver agitation.
| 1t is easy to understand why those who
have invested millions of capital, large
! part of which is British or foreign. are
| dead in earnest to have Congress adopt
free silver coinage. 1t would mean to them
that silver bullion which would cost them
| at the outside so cents an ounce, at the
| minis shall be stamped for them at the
rate of sl.29 ounce. Such a law as they
| either s1.29 worth of silver dollars or legal
| tender certificates for every ounce of bull
| lion they or others holding It could get to
| the minis.
| No one has yet given rational explana.
| ton of the process by which the mass OF
| people outside the silver-producing States
! could be benefited by having silver costing
| the bonanza mine owners 50 cents an ounce
raised to sl.ee an ounce. There is no pro-
vision in any coinage bill by which even
| the government will receive any advantage
!. or that any part of these dollars shall be
| distributed among the people. These dol
| lars and certificates will pay debts and
| taxes at their face value; but the only way
| that farmers and other producers can get
| them is in exchange for their products.
| AS only 5000 men were employed In silver
mining in 1880. any growth of silver pro-
! duction would not make great demand
| for farm factory products. How. then.
would these dollars get into circulation?
| BY taking the place of the best dollars In
| the world; by driving out OF circulation
| gold and making all paper money in exist
ence redeemabIe in dollars having less pur-
chase power. Such dollars cannot give
| start to business ard industry until the
| factories, the railroads and merchants who