Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-01-26

larger part of the money q been paid
into the companies treasures, and will
never come out except it is first planted
in the ground and the exhibit warrants
the later erection of surface machinery,
stamp mills. traumways, etc.
Arizona is bounding TO the front as q
coppe producer, and while the. Globe
district and the Old Dominion is still a
disappointment because thesulphide ores
are not yet discovered; and while the
United Verde lis satisfied with it's pres
ent output of 5000, 900 pounds per an
mum, armies Of prOsOectOrs are digging
In Arizona the year round, and the whole
mineral range to the southeast of the
Unated Verde is opening up mineral ter
ritory Of which little is heard here in
the east.
The Utah copper camp is a settled
fact. The Utah Consolidated is a dem
onstrated success. 1t may be some years
before it returns dividends of conse-
quence. but it is certain to be a constant
producer of copper, and at an ipcreas-
ing ratio for many years. III w
The United States Mining Co. is another
product Of the stimulus to copper pro-
duction. Its mines were largely aban-
dOned Lead mines, Of no great value, with
lead at 2 cents per pound; but with lead
at 4 cents per pound and copper above
10 cents, and the Utah to the west having
: per cent copper ore, on what the United
States Mining Co. people claim is the
~AAS oSoAO6ASaA NClAs IN Will 7EOQPCN,
appearing in similar percentage in the
United States mining claims just as 1t did
at first In the Utah, no one can predict
what may or may not be the future of
this Utah camp. g. e4
The other great copper camp is, of
course. the Butte camp. Litigation has
here restricted the output from some of
the richer ere bodies. The Parrot smell
ter is closed and the Butte & Boston smell
ter cannot find ore enough in its own ter
ritnrV C,,to{lo <ho 3,o 80 ~,-,. 1sAs--
ton, to operate it's smelter continuously
at full capacity. without assistance from
tine Boston & Montana. When this liti-
cation is settled, the output of the Butte
camp should be increased, for a few years
at least. None of the mines here, except,
possibly. the Boston & Montana, are so
opened as to adequately prove their value
at depth.
The Canadian and Alaskan copper pro-
duction will probably, in the next three
to i've years. make some giant strides.
At Rossland, in British Columbia, MI. F..
A. Heinze, Of Butte, Mont, erected and
started a copper smelter, in the early
part of 1896. Previous to that year Ross
land did not produce half a million
pounds of copper per annum. Now Ross
land is producing IL, 900, 900 pounds of cop
per per annum. The Canadian Pacific
railroad a spent SO, 900, 600 in building
railroads in British Columbia, opening up
what is known as the boundary country,
and there are three copper smelters in
course of erection in this territory, Of
which the British Columbia Co., partly
owned in Boston, has one. In three
years this section should be producing 3d.
oOo.OOO pounds of copper per annum, for
1t is essentially a copper country.
1t is not necessary to dwell upon the
possibilities Of copper production from
the opening up Of Alaska-and the testi-
monies of its copper wealth are very
strong-the Philippines, Japan and China
but the opper belt seems to circle around
the world that way. 7
Enough is shown to make clear that
the next business depression-should
there ever be ano~ther-should, in all pro-
liability find the copper districts Of this
country endeavoring to hold some meas
market an enlarged copper output at de-
Ginning figures for the metal. i~
Fortunately cOpper Is not the metal at
the base of the industrial structure, nor
yet at he top. The gold and silver pro-
! duction Of the world has probably never
paid a dividend upon the energy which
has been put into it n the capital and
labor which have, in the aggregate, dis
covered and brougt for the previous met
ais have never earned wages. Iron and
steel. which stand as the base Of metal
production, have their years of bOolns
and their years of paralysis, when
throughout the world the diggers of iron
ore find no profit, but seek to keep fur
naces from decay.
Between the two stand the copper
miners of the void. and in the aggregate
they have been better paid, both as re-
spects capital and labor, than the miners
Of either. the baser or the more precious
metals.
For good wages to labor and good divi-
dends to capital, copper, of all metals.
holds the palm, mi it is only a question
of price as to the annual absorption of all
the copper that the world can annually
produce in this new or electrical age.
In all human probab ility, copper will
never be produced and sold at either
cents or 5 cents per pound, unless it can
ha nrodllced and sold at a nraht.