Mohave County miner., 1916-09-16
METAL MINES
 MAKE BIGYIELD IN PAST YEAR

The Saturday Evening Post ot Sep tember 2, has an interesting article en- titled "The Hallelujah Chorus of Metals" which ought to be of interest to all Cerbat mining operators, and from which we quote the following ex- cerpts:
 The value of the metals, iron not in cluded, produced in the United States this year will reach the tremendous total of s7OO,OOO,OOO.
 Until very recently zinc was an un- welcome by-product of the Far West lead, copper and silver mines. It was hard to separate from the other metals. The copper and lead smelter penalized ore containing zinc. The nearest smelters handling zinc eX- clusively were in Kansas. Freight was high and the prevailing St. Louis price, round 5 cents a pound, did not leave a margin of profit when freight, smelting, refining and selling charges were deducted.
 In the first half of 1914 the United States exported 89O tons of zinc. In the second half exports rose to the unheard of total of 64,OOO tons.
 In January 1915 the American pro ducer began to realize the enormity of selling zinc at cents when the other fellow just had to have it, and could not buy it anywhere else. So the zinc operators proceeded to make the allies shell out
 When California ceases to talk about the days of '49, when the Letter wheat corner is forgotten in Chicago, and Mexican bonds sell above par, then, and not before, will Joplin, Leadville, Wallace and the other zinc districts quit marking back to the wondrous zinc boom of 1915. 1t was unprecedented, unparalleled, in- credible, impossible - yet it hap pened. Zinc-the Cinderella among western metals, the commodity that had never in the history of American mining brought more than 71s cents, whose producers had always clamored for a stiff protective duty to keep them going-zinc in six months went through the ceiling, through the floor above, lifted off the roof and reached 27 cents a pound in June, thanks to the need of the ammunition manufac- turers at home and abroad.
 They worked the mines until the hoist cables shrieked; they sank new shafts, blasted new stopes, built new mills and new smelters, reopened old mines, searched the dumps and tail ings for zinc ore discarded in the days of peace and poverty.
 From 43,41S tons in 1914, the coun- try's record production, the zinc out put rose to 458, ,135 tons in 1915. And the value of the output scared from S36,OOO,OOO to $121 100000. Zinc producers contracted writer's cramp indorsing checks.
 A single New Jersey Zinc company paid out s11, 100000 in dividends the first five months in 1916.
 Every far western state shared in the windfall. California, for instance, in 1914 found zinc ores so unproft- able that only 100000 pounds of the metal were produced. In 1915 the Golden state produced 13,000,0O0 pounds of zinc.
 The Duluth stockholders of the Idaho zinc mine, which lost $99,000 in the year preceding the war, have re- eeived almost $4,OOO, ,OOO-twice their total invcestment-in dividends since the beginning of 1915, and the surplus has assumed such rotund proportions that they had to hire lawyers to re duce it's size by litigation
 The Butte and Superior was an olC and respected copper mine in 1908, 1T which year Montana produced exactly 82O tons of zinc. But the owners ot the Butte and Superior were uneasy The copper ore was beginning to show an increasing percentage of zinc, and zinc was an unproftable nuisance They were afraid that the copper orr might pinch out and the mine turl into zinc producer. Their worst fear were realized. This year the Butt and Superior is producing no copper a all. Its entire output is zinc, almOs 100000 tons of it, only 5000 tons les than the total amount of zinc smelt ed from all Missouri ores in 1914, ant Missouri leads the zinc producinl states. Montana is now in secon, place, thanks to the output of min which earned 46O per cent on its capi tai stock in 1915.
 Nobody believed Kitchener durinI +be first six months of the war. No