The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1915-03-18

INSTRUCTIVE DISCUSSION PHASES THE SHELTER
MARKET-wEsTERN PRoDu GERS HAVE ADVANTAGE OF
SHIPPING SHELTERS UNDER CONTRACT.

anu Mining JOuTlldl Contains all eul
torial discussion of the spelter situa
tion which throws much light on tn
causes which operated to initiate tn
price, the zinc smelling capacity o
the country and the difficulties tht
smelters have to contend with in dis
posing of their output, and also tht
difficulties of zinc miners in finding
purchasers for their ores in the alb.
sence of contract, particularly IL
the Joplin district Various features
of the situation are discussed, and the
subject matter of the editorial is OF
much interest to the people of this
district and throws so much light on
a matter of great and growing inn
portance, that The Miner feels justi-
fled in reprinting it in full
The Situation in Spelter
"Since our last review the price for
spelter advanced to figures previously
unrecorded. Spot spelter for sale ex-
lists anywhere in but trifling tonnages
and commands prices measured only
by the exigencies of the buyers. Spell
ter for prompt and nearby delivery is
almost as scarce and almost as dear
Spelter for the months of April and
May is more plentiful, but previous to
this week was obtaniahle only at mod
crate concessions. With spelter for
June and later deliveries it was a
different story. This meant that the
smelters had sold much of what they
expected to make up to the end of
May, but not SO much beyond that
date, although there was no doubt that
many sales running forward to August
had been made
What was the situation of the mar
ket is rendered clear by a little re-
Election. The handspring of the ad-
vance was the buying from abroad to
supply the deficiency resulting from
the isolation of the smelters in Ger
many and Belgium, and in the north
of France. American consumers woke
up, too late, and found that early sup
plies had been practically exhausted
by the foreign buying. Those con-
sumers who had entered into contracts
to deliver brass, galvanized goods, etc,
and had not previously provided for
the necessary spelter, were caught
short and were obliged to pay almost
any price demanded. They came in
to competition with the contractors
mo 1xrhn ioA
was more or less a matter of indiffer-
ence, and the ugly situation was made |
worse by the pudding sticks of reck- !
less spectators
Problem for the SmeIters.
Now as to the position of the |
smelters: Even before the beginning /
of January they found themselves re-
ceiving increased supplies of ore |
When the great advance in speter OBJ |
tanned real headway every zinc miner |
in North America exerted every effort |
to produce all he could, and supplies |
to the smelters increased rapidly The
smelter taking in ore sold spelter
against 1t as rapidly as he could, and
in the main his sales were made at the
lower levels of the rising market. AS
ore supplies increased beyond the i'm
mediate smelling capacity the smelt-
ers found themselves obliged to sell l.
further and further ahead, or else run
the risk of carrying large supply of
high priced ore in the face of the coll
lapse that was bound to come sooner
or later Therefore in order to pro-
tect himself the smelter was not only
willing to sell deliveries beyond the
customary two months and three
months contracts at large discounts,
but was anxious to do so Indeed, his
to do so
Joplin Protested.
"The misunderstanding of these
conditions led to some strange vagar-
ies In the Joplin district, for exam
pie, the mine operators have been
holding mass meetings to protest
against the action of the smelters in
refusing to pay what they, the min
Because some beated consumer is un-
derstood to have paid lie for a car
load of spelter out of warehouse in
New York, it has been reasoned that
the ST Louis price ought to be lie
minus 0.17c; and that the entire Jop-
lin production ought to sell per ton of
ore at about eight times the st. Louis
price for 100 pounds of spelter. A
good many of the fancy prices named
for spelter have been based on bids
which in reality have been for guam {
titles and deliveries that nobody could
supply, fact well known to the bid 9
der, who could for purposes of his q
own. bid almost any price with i'm
punity.
Basis of SmeIter Price. S
"The effect of all this upon the un-
l., P,,,.,,, ad ,,,bIto mas ,,oEa u tbirL g