The Idaho Springs siftings-news., 1908-01-11
REMARKABLE PROSPERITY is
FOLLOWED BY RELAXATION
AND DEPRESSION.
OUTPUT IS INCREASED
GENERAL REVIEW OF METAL
PRODUCTION IN THE UNITED
STATES.

months OF surprising depression,
writes c, C. Schnatterback of the Min
ing Word, New York.
The value of the mineral and metal
product5 OF the United States for 1907
amounted TO The large total of 2,l0o,-
100000, establishing new high record.
Compared with the total of $l,o14,S55,-
7O5 for 1898. the year OF unprecedented
activity III high finance" and indus
trial combinations, the value of the
mineral and metal products for 1907
shows an increase OF $l,0S5, ,Gi4,29o, or
l07 per cent
| A comparison with a quarter of
century ago is even more remarkable,
Tor it illustrates that the growth in
production has been no less than $40
per cent.
To-day the value of the mineral pro
ducts of the United States is nearly
iour times greater than that of Great
/ Britain.
! Only six times in the last twenty
five years Tin 1888, 1854, 1891, 1898,
1896, and 1900 has the mining indus
try OF America recorded a falling OF
in the value of its output 1t is equally
surprislns that after each year of de-
preston there has come unusual ac-
creased production, and in recent
years the recovery has more than
made mp for any decrease.
4 Nearly one-half ($S5, ia4,15D of the
total iyIdends of Sl75,5l-,1l1 collected
by investors in the mining and metal
lurgica! industry during 1907 came
from Ii gold, silver, copper, lead and
quicksilyer mines and works.
i The dividends paid by these prop
critics in 1907 were fully sl2.0000o0
more than the previous year, due prin-
cipally TO the higher market prices of
the commercial metals in the second
nalf of 1906 and the titst half of 1907.
Since their incorporation these ia
metal mines and works have paid their
shareholders the enormous total OF
$542, ,26GSQS, which is equivalent to
about ll5 per cent on the issued capi-
talizatiJn of SAL ,10l ,992.
In addition to these dividends there
have been declared by six securities
holding corporations $14,50G,0 ,091 for
1907, making their total 11,2lS,6Go for
nine or ten years on an outstanding
capitalization of $2i2, 10000. Among
these securities holding corporations
are the Amalgamated Copper Com
pany, which is largely interested in
Montana mines; the Copper Range
| Consolidated Company, i'll the Lake
! Superior copper region, and the Am
/ erican Smelters Securities Company,
which is closely associated with the
"smelter trust"
/ In 1906 and 1907, years of high
| prices and large consumption, con
siderable part of the profits reported
by mines and works was earned as Il
result or the economic treatment of so
called waste material. The model
metal mine today is not, as is popu-
la"!y supposed, the one which is work
ing an ore deposit that averages from
500 to 5000 in gold or silver per ton,
nor fifteen to twenty-five per cent
600 to 500 pounds of copper per ton.
but the low grade proposition fairly
capitalized. which must work on ad-
vanced economic principles employ
ing from 100 to 1000 stamps, a huge
concentrator or smelte3 and must
win profits from ore which yields an
average of $2.15 to $35 in gold per ton,
or only one to two and one.half per
| cent GO to so pounds, OF copper.
There are a number Of these low
grade properties that have, by reason
of heir technical and shrewd man.
agement, more than repaid their cap.
radiation.
Again, the gold output OF the United
States has made a new high record at
about 500, 100000 for 1907. Had there
not occurred labor troubles, notably in
Nevada, South Dakota and Alaska, the
increase for 1907 would have been
more than 10000, 900 as compared with
1906. IL this country continues to null
tply its production of gold at the ratio
1t has in the last seven years, that is,
from $6,000.0 .0o0 to S., 900 per an
mum, It will not be long before the
Transvaal will have to forfeit first
place. At present the United States
contributes nearly one-quarter Of the
worlds supply Of gold annually
Ten years ago, in 1897, this country
reported gold output of s59.21O, 795.
showing an increase in 1907 of about
seventy-nine per cent. In short, this
country's production of gold in 1907
was more than the total for the world
in the ten years from 1891 to 1880.
Since its discovery up to the end OF
1907 the United States has yielded in
gold the surprising total of 2.9SO,G35,-
3l1 In weight this amount is equiv
aJent to 144,2O1 ,O31 ounces troy, or,
say, COOS tons Of fine gold. The de-
mand for gold. by the way, is in ex-
cess OF the supply.
The Camp Bird in Colorado. classi-
fed as one of the great gold mines
of the world. and largely controlled
by British capital, in SIX months re-
Gently has treated ore of an average
value Of $34.99 per ton at cost of
$l1.l9. In 1907 the Camp Bird mine
paid dividends at the rate of about
nineteen per cent on It's outstanding
capitalization of $4.100.00o, and has de-
clared to date $3,S21.204, showing a
return OF more than ninety-three per
cent
A branch Of gold mining which is
receiving more attention and which is
yielding larger profits is dredging
placer ground, especially in California