Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1897-04-03
The SILVER-LEAD SMELLING
A ttempts to Prevent Lead Ore Pro-
ducers from Getting Tariff PrOtec- =
tiOn for Their Industry.
REPUTATION OF WEAK ARGUMENTS
The Situation Clearly Defined by Mr.
A. B. Fitch, General Manager of the
Graphic Mining 81 Smelling Com
pany Operating at Kelly,
Socorro County.

The Colorado Springs Gazette, in re
cent editorial, adduces an argument tt
prove that an advance in the duty OF
fuxing ores would mean an advance il
smelling charges, and consequent harm
to the interest of mining men, and smelt
ers in general. Concerning this matte
the article referred to above says;
"1he country has never vet been able tt
produce enough fiuxing ore for its owl
consum ption, and has therefore, always
been an importer, principally from Mex
lco. 1t was necessary to import even II
Lsadville's palmiest days when the car
Donate camp WAS producing a world OF
ore. Now, what with the falling off in
the production of lead ores, due prin-
cipally to the decline in the price of sill
yer, and the great increase in the produc-
tion of dry gold ores. the importation is
necessarily heavier than ever.
If the smelling charges are raised, which
it seems most probable will be done if
the duty on lluxing ores is advanced, it
will decrease the profits of the miner and
worse than that, decrease the production
of ore.
Every time smelling rates are advanced
it means a decrease in production. That
is why it is not always good policy for
tho smelters to raise their rates, and it is
why we should be up and doing in regard
to this matter"
1t is easy enough to show that the as
sertion concerning the advance in smelter
charges as result of increased duty in
tiuxing ores, is entirely unfounded, as are
also most of the other points made in
this article.
Mr.. A. B. Fitch, general manager of the
Graphic Mining & Smelling company,
operating large plant at Kelley, Socor.
70 county, furnishes terse and ex'
haustive reply to the erroneous state
ments made in this editorial in the fol.
lowing interview. Mr.. Fitch says:
"In their effort to prevent the lead ore
producers from getting suitable tariff
protection for their industry, the great
smelters are using arguments that have
no suitable foundation IN fact.
zone of the most common of these ia
the statement that the smeters will be
obliged to advance the price for smelling
dry ores if the cost of lead ores is ad-
vanced, thus seeking to array the dry ore
producers against the lead ore producers
by making them believe that any advance
of the price of lead in ores will be taken
directly out of their pockets.
This ls 80 effective bugaboo that it is
worth while to examine critically how
much foundation it has in fact.
"In silver-lead smelling we will assum g
that one ton of 80 per cent lead ore will
be an ample lead charge to smelt an
average ton of "dry" gold or silver ore.
That means that 600 pounds of metallic
lead has been employed.
"In smelling, there will be loss of
from to 10 per cent of this lead, but
that loss has been amply discounted in
the purchase of the ore and need not be
considered here.
Assuming an advance of centa pound
in the price OF the lead, then the smelters
would make use of an additional SO in
the purchase of one ton of 30 per cent
lead ore on account of this advance.
Assuming that they would pay per
cent interest for this money and that the
time elapsing between the purchase of
the ore and the sale of the resulting pig
lead would be four months, and we have
16 cents as the actual increase in cost of
smelling ton of dry ore when the neces-
sary lead is increased in price l cent a
pound.
"When we remember that the average
treatment price for smelling dry ores
is from $S to $12 ton, this small in
crease of cost by reason of using higher
priced lead is insignificant and the buga-
boo is robbed of its terror.
"The dry ore miners have then no ade-
quate cause to antagonize their brethren,
the lead ore miners"