Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-01-23
Mines And Mining
Constantly Improving Condition
of Copper Market.
WHAT THE FIGURES SHOW
Rich Strike on Gold Creek--Activity
in Mining Reported From
All Sections.
WHAT THE FIGURES SHOW

The price of copper is rising at the rate
of about half a cent a week and the out
look for it selling at II cents before spring
is exceedingly favorable. The leading
copper producers believe hat the demand
for the metal nj be met or checked
until copper reaches II cents. In June of
1880 and until Nov. of the same year the
mines of this country sold millions of
pounds of copper on the basis of il cents.
The American copper market has been
sustained since 1898 by the increasing
foreign consumption; and for a long time
it has been seen that there We're not sup
plies enough in sight to furnish copper
for the world at a reasonable figure
should the American demand come back
to normal proportions based upon the
American consumption preceding the
panic of 1898.
1t has been figured all along, however,
that this foreign demand would fall off
by reason of bad crops, high money rates
and poor business abroad. but instead of
a decrease the exports have actually in
creased and December exports were above
the average for the year 1898. The month
~ hS VI NopECI ploouCtloH III cN-
ports which we published recently are
highly interesting in this connection.
In the past five years American produce
ton has increased from $50, coo tons to
234, 900 tons, while foreign production has
decreased from $1,000 tons in 1894 to So, 900
tons last year. In the meantime exports
of American opp have risen from I 1000
tons in 1894 and Ga, 900 tons in 1895 to las, 900
tons in 1898. There was thus left for
American consumption SO, 900 tons in 1894
and LOG, 900 tons in 1895, while in 1898 there
was left but SO, 1000 tons.
These figures are quite startling, but
they do not tell the whole story. The
world has for many years been living off
a large accumulated visible supply, which
has now become exhausted. In the spring
of 1889 the famous French syndicate went
to pieces, leaving ITO, 600 tons of copper in
the hands of the bankers syndicate. Lake
copper fell to below 10c, and the bankers
called for a conference with the leading
American producers. The Calumet and
Hecla people cOolly informed the bankers
that if they wished to market their copper
the price would be about 5 cents pei
pound, n the Calumet and Hecla would
be found willing to meet the market at
that figure, with the Anaconda also in
competition for the market.
The result was an agreement unlike
anything ever before made in European
circles, in which there was no restriction
as to the price of copper, but the Calumet
and Hecla and the Anaconda agreed not
to increase their output in consideration
OF he bankers agreeing to market only a
limited amount per annum for their ac-
~cUmulated supply.
That visible supply Of copper has come
down from 10, 900 tons in the hands of the
bankers syndicate to a total worlds WIS.,
ible today Of &c, 900 tons, and the world
through a dull industrial period the past
ten years, has been absorbing 10000 tons
OF copper per annum more than the world
has been producing.
Now there is a revival not only Of the
American demand but there is likewise a
great revival in the European electrical
field, so that upon both sides of the At
lantlc there is increased consumption, the
smallest visible supply ever known, and
no immediate prospect of relief as the
new fields now being opened cannot
for from one to three years become fac
tors in production.