Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-01-07
MINES AND MINING
A Memorable Year For the
Copper Industry
AND BETTER TIMES COMING
The Visible Supply of the Metal Re-
duced to an Absolutely
Normal Condition
AND BETTER TIMES COMING

The closing month of the year 1898 Wit
messed an uneXampled rise in the market
value of copper mining stocks, which
have always been the peculiar property
of Boston investors. Not to go into de-
tailed statistics there was during that
wear an increase of over 100 per cent. in
the market valuation of the copper pro-
ducing industry, and in round numbers
the total investment in the mines of
Lake Superior, Montana n Arizona at
the beginning of this year, 1899, is about
$3.50, OOO. 900 against 500, 600, 600 at the be-
ginning of 1898, says the Boston Financial
News.
Boston, with it's immense copper min
ing interests. extending back beyond the
days when Calumet was but a prospect
and selling at less than $25 a share Git is
now quoted at around $500, has devel-
oped many men of experience in all mat
tiers pertaining to the metal, but even
among these experts there have been put
a few who have foreseen or predicted the
present and prospective state of things
in the copper mining and manufacturing
industry.
The disastrous days of the French syn
dictate in 1883 When the attempt vas
made to corner the metal, rather h the
mines, dampened the ardor Of most Of
the sanguine ones, but there were one or
two with mistaken faith who steadily
maintained that the time would come
when copper would usurp the scepter of
the industrial world from the grasp OF
King Cotton, King Iron or King Corn.
Today these optimistic prophecies are
in the process of fulfillment, and what
is said by one of the close students of
the situation is interesting and instruct
i've. When asked as to the present con-
ditiOn and future of the metal market, he
said: I'm the first place, we are face to
face with a tremendous problem in the
adjustment of the balance between up
ply and demand. The visible supply of
the metal abroad has been reduced to an
absolutely normal AMOUNT, while in this
country copper is held altogether by the
producer at the mine, the middleman and
the consumer being bare of stocks. 1t is
for this reason that the Lake companies
are shipping by rail since the close Of
navigation, an action almost unprece-
denied in the history of Lake Superior
mining, and it is for this reason also that
the price of copper has advanced across
13 cents a pound. and I anticipate that
it will be at Is cents or better shortly
During the past five years copper has
been kept from selling at s cents a pound
only by the large and steady demand
from abroad, while within the last few
there has been an increasing home
consumption added to this and today the
from both sources is growing
greater and greater until it is a serious
question, how the production can keep
pace with the consumption. The increase
in the home demand is legitimate and
it is based on the general prosperity of
the country, which has led to an expan-
sion in the lines of trade in which thi
metal is a staple.
The application of electricity to the
affairs of life throughout the country has
made, and is making, enormous progress.
The activity in the shipping world where
governmental and private enterprise calls
for tremendous operations in building
and equipping vessels of every kind. ma
ture and description, and the increased
use of the metal in building,
ton, manufacture, ETC., etc, have one
and all made demands upon the product
i've capacity of the present American
copper mines and led to the current short
age in supply.