Arizona republican., 1907-11-29

pound, and it got all it needed at that price.
 For the twenty years preceding 1906 the world thought 1t could afford to | pay for its whole supply only an aver age of 13 Is cents pound (averaged for the whole period) and it took all | that could then be produced at that ! price.
 | For the year 1906 it felt able to pay an average price (for the whole years supply) of 19. l-4 cents pound-but fl couldn't buy all it required even that high average price and SO For the first six months of 1907 it was willing to pay an average price of 24 1-5 cents a pound.
 {, Just at the present time the world 1 is in doubt whether it can afford to pay li cents and the price hovers close around that point, with more of fered than the world feels able to buy at that price.
 ! Next year it may not feel able to pay more than it did in 1S94-9 1-2 cents pound.
 The record of the output for 1894 when copper averaged 9 1-2 cents a pound is not at hand. But for 1895 when it averaged 10 S-4 cents a pound , the output for the whole world was | 35l 900 long tons.
 ! In 1906 when the price averaged 19 1-4 cents the output for the whole world was 712.000 long tons. which proves that doubling the market price { of the metal doubles the output.
 The scientific statement of the case in this: the output of copper is limit ed by the cost Of production and the higher the market price of the metal, | by exactly so much may cost of pro- ! duction be raised. thus bringing into | production a larger number of mines, which again must stop producing when the price of the metal falls be- loY their cost of producing. IL is a mystery to the general pub i lie how great copper mines can pro- ' duce and continue to pay good divi- { dends with copper at cents when all the world has been bowling at the top of it's voice that the business is ruined , and they will be compelled to close down when the price falls to F or If cents.
 l Among copper miners there Is no mystery about it. IL is "a trick of the ! trade" and this Is the explanation of it-a great copper mine is one that produces from 30 to loo million pounds of finished metal a year. There are only 13 (possibly l5 for 19O) of these first-class copper mines in the world. | Such a mine must maintain a tho roughly and minutely organized army ! of wOrkmen ranging from 2.00o to l5.- i coo and must employ an operative cap ! (none less) to twenty-five millions. A (nOne less) totwenty-five millions. A i big mine is a property that deterio- ! rates very rapidly when closed down. ' IL fills with water and it's pumps are
 submerged, its stopes and drifts swell and cave, its timbers decay and be- ! come unsafe, it's machinery rusts and becomes unreliable. Then the organ
 ized army of workmen familiar with character and the peculiar tricks Of the mine-for all big mines nave charac- teristic tricks of their own-has been dispersed and it takes from months | into years to assemble and organize an efficient corps again. Although q
 shut down. for any length of time. of
 a big mine is an expensive calamity
 to the owners-sometimes an irrepara-
 b!e calamity.
 To avert it. all the well managed large mines mine their leaner ores
 while the price of copper is high and
 reserve their richer ores. When the
 pinch comes the rich ores can be
 mined, development work suspended
 the working force greatly reduced (ex- penses may be halved) and yet a large aN.Fs1 .NUU.w a....
 greatly reduced cost by mining the
 rich reserves.
 Yes, that's the way iarge copper
 mines save themselves from being
 ruined by the wide and rapid fluctua-
 tions in the price of copper. That's
 the way they protect the large capital
 inve 5ted.
 Little mines, feeble in financial
 management and cash assets. cant
 do that. They are compelled to gut
 the mine of its rich ore while the price
 of copper is high and close down when
 the price falls, and thus the number oi
 producing mines Is rapidly decreased
 as copper falls.
 The total number of copper mines ir
 the world producing fifty tons of fin
 fshed copper and upward yearly was
 probably very close to $50 July 1
 1907. Fully half of that number has
 already been compelled to close by tho fall in copper. They cannot produce
 the metal for the price it now fetches | This. however. does not greatly re-
 duce the total output because thos,
 are all small producers. If copper
 should fall to 9 cents again, only be- tween forty and fifty mines in tn, world could continue producing ever by drawing on their rich reserves. Mos of them. however would be producing | at no profit. or even at a small loss and all of them would produce as lit tie as possible and still hold togethe
 the main body of their skilled work
 men to avert the greater calamity oi a shutd down.
 Arizona produces its total output O copper at lower cost than any othel state in the world Is able to produc, an equal supply. The production o the territory for 1906 was 263.O00, ,NCi | pounds. That total was produced al an average cost, I estimate, of l.. cents. The greater part Of 1.-the out | put of the three greatest mines-wa. | produced at not over cents but som,