The White Pine news. [volume] (Ely, Nev.) 1906-1910, 1907-12-23

which can produce at the least cost
is bound to stand highest in popular
favor and to engage the largest in
terest, Is admitted. There is not
prospect that in the future the camp
with high cost sheets will stand much
show As an investment proposition
it must take back seat, no matter
how high its copper values run, for
it is but question of time when these
values will decrease, while there is
nothing to warrant expectation that
the metal will make advance suffi-
cient to offset the loss. The low grade
camp with immense ore bodies,
abundant fluxing materials and easy
mining facilities, features enjoyed in
the highest degree in this camp by
Cumberland Ely and Nevada Consol-
idated, is the camp of the present and
the future so far as attractiveness to
the public is concerned. Along this
line and in connection with prospects
on the copper market, the Engineer
ing and Mining Journal, an authority
of the highest standing, has the fol-
lowing 10 say:
1t is expected by some, who are in
n good position to judge, that soon
after the end of the year a sharp rise
in the value of copper will take place,
the reason for this view being that at
about that time the output of the re-
fineries will begin to show the cur
tailment at the mines in October and
November Also by that time the
currency difficulty will doubtless have
been overcome. There is no question
that the accumulation of stocks was
greatly reduced by the heavy sales at
the end of October, although since
then the current production has in
creased them again to some extent.
Conditions will doubtless soon be ripe
for rise (perhaps they have already
been discounted), but if there be such
movement it will be dependent upon
revival of demand by American con-
sumers and will be controlled by the
stocks in second hands.
However, if further rise takes
place there is little reason to antici-
pate that it will be either high or of
long duration, for the reasons that
| % American industry has entered
upon a period of recession and reduc-
ed demand, as is now recognized, and
CD the day of large production of
cheap copper from Bingham, Ely and
elsewhere is close at hand. Indeed
| it would have been here already had
not certain companies underfinanced
their construction accounts and be-
come placed in vexatious position by
the financial panic, while others have
deemed it the cautious policy to go
slow temporarily. If recent events
in the metal and stock markets be
read between the lines, some infer
ences may he drawn respecting the
aims aud wishes of those interested
in the production of comparatively
costly copper which is about to be
replaced by much cheaper copper just
when the demand for copper has be-
come greatly restricted.
1t is time for producers to forget
the dbnormally high prices of the
last two years and make up their
minds to carry on their business in a
rational way. We mean that the pro-
ducers who were able to make profit
out of copper that cost &c to pro-
duce ought to thank their lucky stars
for this ability while it lasted but
ought not to draw such long faces be-
cause they can not always do so.
Even now the price for copper is fair
ly high, as witness the annual aver
ages for Lake for 10 years previous
70 foil