The Eureka sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1902-current, 1907-11-30
Metal Prices and Smelling
What Has Happened to Lead. Silver and Copper Since Last
J~anuary-Prospects for Next Year-How Shelters
VIII Even Up for Past Bad Luck

f"h tue St L@e he~"" N"'"tu -
The expected happened yesterday when the American Smelling
q Refining Company cut down the settling basis for lead from 81 IS
to sl35 per 100 pounds. This is the first cut since September,
when it was lowered from 1926 to s475. Last January the settling
basis was Sc, so the drop during the year, up to date, has been sl65
per 100 pounds.
Silver is also at the low mark of the year. 1t opened the year
at better than Csc per ounce. On August 3 it touched 60 7-Sc
and everybody expected to see it so the other 1-sc, but it failed to
do so, as ia. a $ the local settling quotations we're concerned. 1t is
now back to 81 5-Sc, or a drop of IL 1-4c since the beginning of
August
And copper? Well, look at it. Early in January the settling
basis was "a 3-4c per pound in March it had reached 25 lac,
while now it is at II 3-4c, a fall of practically so per cent from the
high mark, with more than a month to go in which to make this
comparison look strong.
In the case of lead and copper the practice with the smeters
here has been to make the average price of the metal for the pre-
ceding the set price for each current week. From January to March
the smelling companies thus had a little the best of the producers,
but after that the reverse was the case. With the lead-setting
schedule the smeters got the small end of the stick for nearly the
whole year, as the price was highest when the year opened.
But the producer need not hug himself too fondly over the out
come he will get what the smelterman believes is coming to him
yet. He is already beginning to hear about it. The turn came, so
far as lead is concerned, the other day, when the trust decided to
abolish the fiat weekly rate method and decided to pay the producer
what the market justified at the time of receiving the ore. That
means that a man who ships to-day with lead quoted at s435 may
find when the settlement day comes that he is to get only $425, or
any other amount that the smelling company considers market con-
ditons justify
New Contract Features
There is also something doing in other lines that the producer
who has not already learned about will be introduced to by the end
of the year. 1t will be remembered that a year or more ago the
smelters undertook to make contracts in which it was proposed to
settle for silver at the current market price, with a provso that In
case the metal rose in price to better than 60c or Zoe, whichever it
was, the smelling company was to keep one-third of the gain as a
sort of bonus for the efforts that might be made to jump the price
up. 1t is now understood that all new contracts will contain a sim
liar clause to the one that was previously fought so strenuously that
the scheme of enforcing it was abandoned.
Now, there may not be any combination or community of in
terest' scheme behind this plan, but from the best information OBJ
tainable at the present time the producer is going to find that all
shelters will exact the insertion of some such proviso as that out
charge than formerly. If it does not appear in the form of raising
the minimum base, it will be found in the "penalizing' system en-
ployed in figuring new contracts
Another thing that is promised the producer is that he will not
find it so easy to get a contract at all, unless he is willing to tie up
for five to ten years. The producer who has a notion that a year is
long enough to mortgage his product ahead will find that, for some
reason or another, the smelling companies don't care whether they
get his business or not. He will simply be left to nurse his wrath
over the treatment he is getting until such time as he is willing to
eat of the humble pie laid before him and beg for a contract OF
some kind.
This is the outlook for 1908; it is the kind of proposition that
is staring the mine owner in the face right now. If the plan is
changed it will have to be done through a complete organization OF
mine owners and operators in all the mining States of the West