Arizona republican., 1900-12-31
GOOD YEAR FOR COPPER
Foreign and Domestic Demand
 Makes Mining Profitable.
Earnings of American Companies for the Year Are Estimated at Forty Millions of Dollars-The Question of Future Supply.

l New York, Dec. 3O-The year 1900 has , been one of the most prosperous ever enjoyed by the copper mining industry.
 Trade has been cn an enormous scale
 month after month and since the sound
 money victory in November orders have been pouring in from consumers | in great volume. The avenues of dis : tribution nave become so expanded and so numerous that it is now possible for
 the American producer 10 select his market C1 either side Of the Atlantic with th- absolute certainty of finding plenty of customers. Both foreign and domestic buyers are in competition for | the article minad here on account of it's | superior quality, anu the transatlantic demand is extremely advantageous to the American copper producer.
 Market conditions for copper at pres ent are decidedly in the sellers favor, and in fact this lhas been true for the past two years. Since December, 1898. fthe copper mining companies have had Q period of uninterrupted success. Dur ing the greater part of this time lake copper has sold above 16 cents pound and for months together al over IS cents. U2'ar l-he stimulus of an urgent demand for cash copper the market rose to 19 and 19h but thcsa values held for few weeks only in April and May of last year. Recent sales have been
 made at 17 cents a pound and th price represents the current market for
 lake ingot. For the pat fivr months Ithe pendulum of prices has swung be-
 tWten 161a and r cents, and on this basis during the last half of 1900 the estimated sales by the domestic tra ia to home and foreign buyers art put at from 150,000,CG0 to 200, ,O00, coo pounds.
 Copper mining fer the established di- v,deni ray,ng Ccmpalie5 is a great sue cess, and th- pass two years are with out Dracedent. The mining of CoDrcr is no longer corductlI on the nlrrov margin Cf pr-.itS p.-c;a!ent few yeas
 ago when d great mine like the Calu- me- and Ha~la orly puid $3j q sha~- an utlally in quarterly dividends of s. against S1CG q share fer the year 1899,
 dnl $70 shdln fer 1900 Ninss arc now sending their copper to market at large profits, ard the improvement is largely CGc ID tl.o increas-t demand for cAIi- Der arising from the rapid introduction of electrical enterprises in both tho pGw ar'f old WCriGs Net earnings by the copper comra nies oe this coun try for the year 1900 are estimated a. c,9sa [ 0 $40, 600. 600. while the copper div:- dendS during the past twelve months aSgrcgate over S20.0GA GOO
 The production Of the United States for the year 1900 will be about 6D3 ,O0O.- UC9 pounds of fine copper, as compared with 5S7,341, 40 pounds in 1899. showing the small increase of 5.62 per cert
 This country .s now producing twice as much copper as it di3 in 1891. ami four times as much a. it did in 1887. Copper mining was begun in this coun- try in a very primitive way in the eighteenth century. It was not until 1S4S that he United States were able to show copper output of a little over 100000 pounds. In 1S45 Lake Superior sent it's first shipment '-f Cooper to market, and it consisted of twelve tons. During that year the entire United States copper production was only 224,000 pounds. Five years later it rose to 1,456,000 pounds: in 1855 to G.72OQ0O pounds Just before the civil war in 1860 it amounted to 16.t2S 900 pounds. 9 quantity less than two weeks output a's tn" present time. In 1870 2S 224 GOO pounds of domestic copper We're pro duced, and in 1880 the annual produc- ton reached 60. 4S0, coo pounds Up t1 1880 Michigan furnished about g Der cent of the total domestic production. but shortly afterward Arizona and Montana came into prominence as cen tsrs of copper production In snven years the copper mines Of Monrara were so rapidly developed that the state returned a copper output in 1Ss7 Of fS,699,6l1 pounds or considerably more than the eu-ir" United States production in 1880 and 1881
 Tn 1890 the total copper productf0n of this country amounted to 265. .155 1?2 pounds. and every year since has wit messed a large increase until the pres ent year, when thn increase is barely one-third of the normal quantity. At the beginning of the present. century the worlds production of copper was only about 1S.OOO,O0O pounds a year and by tine middle of the century it had increased to about 4. .O0O 900 pounds ar- nually. In 1880 it was estimated at 344,SGS,1G pounds; in 1890 it rose to 6O3.
 5I9,200 poun6s. and for the year 1900 it is expected to reach nearly HOO. .OOO. .OOO of which the United States will fur nish more than One-half. This country will produce in 1900 an output equal to about the aggregate production of the world ten years ago.
 The growth of copper production throughout thu world has, however. reached stage where it has not ad- Nanced so rapidly as a few years ago. Notwithstanding the stimulus of high market values and consequent large profits. There are several new copper properties in the course of developm mt and these may be expected to enter the list of copper producers in 1901 and 1902. but they ar net of sufficient ca pacitiy to create a great addition to the existing copper supplies
 Consumption of copper is now on an