The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-03-01
BUTTE MINES
WILL REOPEN
All Amalgamated Properties
and WaShoe Smelter Get
Busy Again Tomorrow.
J. D. RYAN ISSUES ORDER
LOCAL MINING OPERATORS DE-
CLARE TURN OF TIDE is HERE.



+ Butte. Mont, Feb. 29.-John d. =
= Ryan, managing director of the =
+ Amalgamated Copper company, =
= who returned home from the east =
= at noon today, announced that the =
mines of the company will resume
= Monday, when fires viii also be lit =
= in the great Washoe shelters at y
= Anaconda.
One minute after the announce
y ment was made, the mine whistles y
y on Anaconda hill began to blow, =
= which was the first announcement =
y the city had OF the decision to re- =
+ sumo. The order means the EN-
y ployment of a full force in the =
= various mines and at the Smelter.
= Roughly speaking, about 1900 +
y hands are affected. When going =
y full blast, the Amalgamated pay y
= roll runs from s1,O00,000 to $780, =
y 600 monthly. The Great Falls y
= smelters have been going full time, 4
y been closed entirely, while in Z
y Butte, of all the Amalgamated y
4 properties, only the Boston & Mon 4
y tana mines have been operated.
y The shutdown has never been =
+ complete. and was gradual, begin =
4 ming last October. Married men 4
y were provided for, but in all only +
y about 40 per cent of the normal +
y force could be employed. The =
= Amalgamated is reported to en- 4
y ploy about 10000 people in Mon +
= tana, in mines smelters, mills, coal =
= mines. logging camps. etc. =
Prominent local mining operators WHO
were seen shortly after the flash over
the wires at noon briefly announced
what is contained in the above message,
declared that Utah would have almost
as much right 10 rejoice as would the
people of Butte and Anaconda. 1t was
argued that resumption at Butte meant
the employment of every idle miner in
the west who cared to work and it fol-
lowed that tight money" would be an
expression seldom heard thirty days
from now.
Il have been watching the news on
the copper metal situation closely for
the past few weeks" declared an Op-
orator closely identified with some of
the big copper mining enterprises of
this state. and, while l was not pre-
pared to believe all that read concern
ing the depletion of SURPRISES and the
heavy sales of the metal, the announce
ment that the Butte mines are to re-
sumo full handed makes it plain that
copper is really becoming scarce. Grant
ing that such is the case, I do not be-
Heve that resumption at the old mines
of Butte is going to disturb the price of
the metal. 1t goes to show, rather, that
the proposition has been figured out
and that it has been found that the rate
of production for the last three or four
months has been far under what the re-
quirements are going TO be from now on
and that there will be a steadily in
creasing demand for the metal. 1t will
be the first of July before the Butte re-
sumption will begin to have an effect
in the metal market and the very fact
that these old mines are going to Ope-
rate again at capacity will do more than
anything to stimulate business in all
channels. 1 believe the turn of the tide
IS at hand and ] look TO see copper
commanding 14c before the end OF
March"