The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1915-08-26
THE BUYING AND
SELLING OF ORES

The buying and selling of ores and
metallurgical products is the title of
technical paper just issued by the fed
eral bureau of mines. Charles III. Full
ten, the author says:
The buying and selling of ores and
metallurgical products is great and
highly important business in the Unit
g., States. and one that concerns not
only the miner and the metallurgist,
tut the industrial world in general In
this paper the attempt is made to out
line clearly its underlying principles,
the subject matter being based on per-
sonal experience and investigation. The
author has endeavored to present the
material impartially, and for that rea-
son many of the statements and figures
regarding metallurgical practice should
be taken as illustrative rather than as
applying exactly to average operating
conditions Moreover, the statements
as to metal prices and trade methods
arc to be considered as applying to nor
NAL business, not to special conditions
that have developed as result of the
war in Europe. As regards the style,
technical words and phrases have been
avoided as much as possible in order
by anyone who might be interested.
In estimating the value of an ore or
an intermediate metallurgieal product
(other than refined metal the basis
used is the price of the refined metal
at some principal center, such as New
York, at the same time the valuation
IS made. The average price for all cop
per for 1913 was 15.5 cents per pound,
and for electrolytic copper 1929 cents
per pound. The prices for other met
ais for the year 1914 were as follows:
Lead, 1892 cents per pound; spelter,
5.213 cents per pound; silver, 54.s11
cents per troy ounce. Gold has the
standard value, established by law, of
S2O.67 per troy ounce.
If the metal contents, in pounds for
the base metals and in troy ounces for
the precious metals, per avoirdupois
tor be multiplied by the prevailing
price of the refined metals, the sum of
the products will be the gross value of
the ore.
There is, however, wide difference
between the gross and the net value OF
q ton of ore. From the gross value
must be deducted, first, the total cost
Of mining the ore, and then the total
cost or charge for treatment, which
includes some or all of the following
items: Freight to treatment plant, mill
ing or smelling charge, charge to COM
pensate for losses of metal in treat
nent, charge for penalties imposed on
undesirable constituents in the ore.
charge for freight to refining center.
charge for refining the metal, charge to
cover the selling costs of the refined
metal Which of these charges are inn
posed and what the amount of each
charge is, depend on the ore, the meth
od of treatment and the number of
fl ms that handle the ore and metals
III the process from ore to refined
metal.
The types of companies that handle
ores and metallurgieal products may
he classified as follows:
/. Mining and smelling companies or
mining and milling companies, which
control all the operations from the min
ing of the ore to the production and
selling of the finished metal.
2. Mining companies, which mine and
sell ore on certain schedules to smelt-
ing and mining companies.
3.Custom smelters or mills which pur-
chase ores and also operate refneries
and produce refined metals or sell in
tcrmediate metallurgical products to
refneries.
Concerns of type 3 may control mines
that furnish part of their ore supply
4. Refining companies, which pur-
chase metallurgical products, such as
matte, and crude metals, and some ores,
and produce refined metals
5. Selling agencies, which place the
refined metals on the market.
1t is apparent that an ore or the pro
duets derived from it may 90 through
many hands before the finished metal
reaches the market, and that metallur-
gieal business may be complex. In this
report the essentials of the commercial
side of metallurgical work are discuss
ed in some detail.