The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-01-01

to various causes-of which the attempt
to maintain an absurd level of price
10 years ago and the general shrinkage
of the value of all commodities with
reference to gold are taken as the main
cause.-the price of copper has been so
low as to render unremuneratiVe many
of the mines which previously could
produce at a profit. 1t may safely be
said that any mines which have con-
triVed to pay their own way during this
period of extremely low values, even if
they have done SO only on a moderate
scale, may now expect to have a pro-
longed time of prosperity to make up
for their previous low dividends, unless,
as the case with Cape copper, the out
look at the mine is the reverse of en-
couraging Even those which have
been carried on at more or less loss,
rather than shut down, and thus throw
the whole machinery Of their enterprise
out of gear. may look forward to par
ticipate in the coming boom.
1t is difficult to see what other metal
can take the place of copper in the
many departments of industry to which
it is now applied; and it is also i'm
probabl that the cost of production
will be reduced within a reasonable pc
Rod to such an extent as to cause any
glut of the supply. At the moment, and
before any great extension of its use
has begun, there seems no doubt what
ever that the supply is less than the
demand, and that the deficiency has
been made UP during the present year
by direct deduction from the store of
copper which is usually held in hand to
meet future demands. The slackening
of the supply from any one or two
great sources at the present moment
might. indeed, drive the price of the
metal up to as high level as it reached
in 1S8S-G7S a ton, AT present the price
a
than it was not very long ago. The
question arises: How is a panic level of
price to be met? And the, answer of
course, is: Only by developing new
mines and bringing their productions
speedily on the market. But copper
mines, however promising they may be-,
| cannot be opened up and brought into
bearing with rapidity. Only mines
which are already developed, and have
their appliances at once at hand, can
Immediately take advantage of the
promising aspect of affairs in their in
dustry. To open up and develop a good
copper mine takes many months, often
many years.
| This should be borne in mind by in
vestors when their support is asked for
| the copper ventures which doubtless
| VIII soon be offered to their attention.
Mines already in working order, with
| considerable amounts of ore in sight,
and with machinery that they can at
! once put to work in full. have an IN
| questionable advantage, therefore, over
| virgin properties, however valuable
| they may seem to be. Copper, indeed.
| can scarcely be considered, as the cop
| per industry is now conducted, a min
| ing venture in the ordinary sense of
| the word. Copper mines are worked
! on the same scale and with the same
| attention to the conditions of the mar
| ket as any other manufacturing indus
| try. and they should be judged by in
| vestors on much the same basis. Where
| there is a large supply of ore, even of a
| low grade, with considerable assets in
/ the shane of furnaces or other appli-
| ances of recent date. it is scarcely pos
/ sible that, with good management,
| other than good results should accrue.
There are new copper companies COM
! ing, and with the present plethora of
/ money there is no doubt that any good.
/ sound enterprise introduced under good
/ auspices will meet with a favorable re-
| ception from investors, who are tired
! of leaving their deposits uselessly in
| the banks.
| The argument that North America