Fergus County argus. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1886-1946, 1906-07-06
| AMONG THE MINERS
LATEST NEWS FROM THE TIMING CAMPS OF
FERGUS COUNTY AND ELSEWHERE = = =


Sixty-seven cent silver Is worth more
to Colorado and the west than 81 silver
was few years ago" was the declara-
ton of Simon Guggenheim, of the
American Smelling and Refining CON-
pany, a few days since. "The reason
is that treatment charges are less and
the ore can be handled much cheap
er and more rapidly than was posi-
BILE at that time.
"The splendid feature is not that
silver has touched 81 cents, for the
first time since it was demonetized by
the East Indians, but the stability of
the price. Only two years or more
ago it was down to 46 cents an ounce.
For long time now it has been how
ering around go cents and is now at
last 81 cents.
Il believe it is going to stay there
and it is very encouraging to the min
ers of the west. There are two causes
for the advance. One is the large de-
mand from the orient and the other is
the way that the American Smelling
and Refining company has been hand
ling it, and by that | mean the sale
of the metal to the east and elsewhere
If silver remains at about the pres
ent price for some time, and we all
hope it will, it means a good deal to
the west. A good many mines are be-
ing worked now that would be closed
down if the price was lower and 9TH
ers are reopening. The production OF
the white metal will begin to increase
shortly at this price,
For many years a portion of the
st. Lawrence mine at Butte, Mont,
has been on fire, but the burning ter
ritory has been walled in and pre-
vented from spreading. AS portions
burn out and cool of they are opened
and mined, large quantities of solid
copper being found, smelted from the
ores by the fire. Recently the Anacon-
da company has been mining in por-
ton of the burned ground and has
been taking out large slabs of the met
III. The fire has been feeding since
1889 on the sulphur in the ores, de-
flying all efforts to extinguish it.
The activity in mining operations
in western Montana this year Is more
pronounced than at any former period
in the history of this section. During
the early months of the year several
deals for the sale of large tracts of
placer ground were consumated,
among the largest being the sale of
the Tamietta interests in Dry Gulch
to Philadelphia capitalists for $685.
900, and the subsequent bonding of
other interests in the same locality
by R. de B. Smith, of Anaconda, for
the same parties in the sum Of 100000.
During the past month large area
Ravalli county, has been bonded to
Kansas City capitalists and incorpor-
ated under the name of the Supreme
Gold Mining company. 1t is understood
that dredge is now under construc-
ton for this company,but owing to
the lateness of the season it is not
likely that active operations will be
commenced before next spring.
The Lexington Mining company,
which few years ago passed into
the control of F. A. Heinze, has made
an annual report to the tax authorities
which has greatly surprised them. 1t
was the general understanding that
the Lexington was costing Mr.. Heinze
lot of money without producing any
thing, but the report shows that the
net earnings for the year ending June
/ amounted to $149,986.54, and the
gross proceeds were $505,O62.79. Ac-
cording to the report there were min
ed during the year 33,095 tons of ore
and the gross yield per ton was $15.-
~. AC Sool VI llluIuS was YO.OU pei
ton, transportation SO cents per ton
and reduction 1886 per ton. The
gross yield per ton is exceeded by on
ly one other mine in Butte, and that
is the North Butte, which reports
gross yields per ton at Spill. The
next highest is reported by the Boston
& Montana company at SIP. The Lex
ington ores yield zinc, silver and cop
per.
The profits from the 50 gold mining
companies on the Witwatersrand in
March were $2,861, O45. Only two COM
panies-the Lancaster and New Uni
fied-worked at loss. The larger
profit earners were the Robinson,
$24O,561; Robinson Deep $169,6O3
Robinson, Central, Deep, S145,901;
Ferreira Deep, $145,4OO; Ferreira,
$139,483; Sumner & Jack, $137,962:
Crown Reef, l10,544, and the Crown
Deep, $101, 76O.-Chicago Mining
World.
The gold mines On the Rand are
still increasing their tonnage, mainly
by the dropping of further stamps,