Bisbee daily review., 1907-06-16
NOTHING DOING IN HE METAL
 MARKET
Walker Says, However, That Consumers Will Have to Buy Soon-Large Producers Are Very Confident.

Copper is quiet and unchanged. The
 largest producers and selling agencies
 have not reduced their prices, but are still asking 25A cents for elecrrolytic and 251a cents for lake copper. There are persistent reports that new con tracts are being negotiated at g t. 24 cents per pound for July, Angus and September deliveries. These re ports, however, cannot be confirmed | There is good reason for the belle
 that limited amounts of copper could | be purchased at lower prices than those quoted above. It seems that
 one. or two of the smaller producers failed to take advantage of the big
 market which obtained in February and March and sell their output as far ahead as the end of June, as pFacti
 cally all of the larger producers did | They are now the onl yneryous factors | in the situation. One of them an
 nounces that he would sell copper at
 A cents; but he says that if he saw consumers coming into the market he would raise his price to 25 cents. The unruffled composure of the larg- lest producing interests has for its bas-
 
 no reason to expect or warrant a re- duction in metal prices. Practically
 speaking, there are no surplus stocks of copper in existence. There has been
 no increase in production during the | first half of this year and as yet there | is at most only a very slight falling | off in consumption.
 | The current hesitation on the part
 of consumers is clearly due to dis turbed confidence rather than to
 declining volume of business. Con
 sumers must come into the marke
 soon for their July supplies and i stands to reason that with the prevail ling state of business sentiment they will buy as much copper at 25 cents as they would at 23 cents or 20 cents. Some authorities declare that the con lsumption of copper is actually contin- Iuing to increase, and they express con Ifidence that when the buying for July, August and September account gets well under way it will be found that , there is not enough copper to go around.
 1l If the normal growth of consumption !, is maintained, it will easily take care : of all the increased production that is : likely to come during the next two or
 three years, and in such an event it  at about their present level.
 Every little while we hear the opin-
 ion expressed that Alaska will soon be in position to supply the world with all the copper needs. So far as men , who know the copper mining business ' are concerned there is no occasion to discuss this propositions; but for the benefit of those who do not know that it is a tremendous undertaking to de- | velop and equip a copper mine and prepare it for a large annual produc- , tion. I take this occasion to make
 brief explanation. At present Alaska is almost inacceS sible, viewed from a business stand point. It may have harbors, but the, are not equipped to handle large yes sels and the heavy ore shipments : which would be necessary to big cop per producing business. It lacks rail
 roads. and also, what is most vital of : all, supply of labor.
 Here in the United States, where we have all the advantages of favor
 able climatic conditions, and where
 labor is plentiful, it is tremendous
 undertaking to develop copper mine
 when it as far as 40 miles away from a railroad. What then can be said of
 the copper deposits which exist in , Alaska hundreds and thousands of
 miles away from transportation, in
 country scantily populated with In- : dians and Esquimaux, where there is
 not So much as country road devel- oped, where very little timber exist and where the country is covered wit
 snow seveu to nine months of tn Iyear?
 The coppers have continued to d
 cline in sympathy with the extrem
 weakness of the railroad share market
 and prices made this week were fin many cases the lowest since copper ! sold around IT to 19 cents per pound.
 In November. 1905. when copper was quoted around IT cents, AmaIgamated was selling at S4, Copper Range at "A, Osceola at III, and Utah Copper at 26. : At the same time, however, Calumet and Arizona was 107; Anaconda, 30: North Butte, 57; Mohawk, 59; Old
 Dominion, 30, and Utah AZ. In the
 middle of February, 1906, when cop per was quoted around 1Sh cents,
 Amalgamated was 11S; Anaconda, 73; Utah. 63; North Butte, S7, Copper Range, 82, and Calumet and Hecla, I72O. At the time referred to no one was even predicting that the price of lthe metal would go above 20 cents and practically all of the companies named were paying much smaller diV1dends than they are at present
 There Is less prospect now that the lprice of copper will go down to 20
 Icents than there was in February, : 1906, that the price would go up to 20 cents. All of the copper mining companies are in very much better position now than they were then. viewed either from a physical or f. : naneial standpoint. Their cash re- serves are now so large that scent ] a pound decline in the price of co , per would hardly give them any legi . mate excuse for reducing dividend and some of them could easily e
 tinue their present disbursements cn 15-cent copper market.
 Viewed from every possible stan~ : point, copper stocks are cheap. They will still be cheap if the price of cop [ per is cut to 20 cents. If there is no