The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-01-03
DIVIDENDS
FROM MINES

Ten mines in Arizona paid $34 ,000,-
900 in dividends during the past year
5 Adding Utah, Montana, Nevada and
Idaho dividends to those OF Arizona
we have total of over $100,0OO,O0o In
dividends paid out of the mines OF
these Ave western States in single
year.
These are some Of the impressive
facts brought out by the report OF the
Geological Survey to Secretary Lane
lust made. Never BEFORE said Mr..
Lane, has so large a draft been made
on the natural resources of our coun-
try as during this year, and never pc
fore have the metals been extracted
z from these ores with less waste, or
utilized to better advantage in ad-
!, vancing the general prosperity of the
: country. Even as written in the plain
figures Of 1916 production the wonder
full record of our mines sets forth
degree of national industrial indepen-
dence only hoped for a few years ago.
again copper stands out as the best
illustration of how American mines
can meet a world demand. The out
put of nearly billion pounds of the
red metal is double that of ten years
ago and it's value is twice that of the
copper produced in 1915. Add to this
the facts that in value copper now
contends with iron for first place
among the. metals and that together
the amount of these two metals pro-
duced last year had a value of more
than one billion dollars and we have
a measure of what this country can
contribute in useful metals
- NJ f,.nv, OF
ores increased last year $4,000 tons,
which makes new record for that
metal, the total value of spelter from
United States ore being $50 million
dollars Lead also shows a large in
crease, the rs million dollar output be-
ing a gain of more than SO per cent.
with all this activity in metal pro-
duction the coal mines have had to
meet a heavy demand, so that the BIZ
. luminous coal output has now passed
Athe half billion ton mark, an increase
Of ~ 1-2 per cent. over the previous
year. Coke production increased 80
per cent and it is gratifying to note
that by-product coke made the larg-
est gain, which means a correspond
ing gain in benzol and other valuable
by-products.
Again the oil wells have given
new record for petroleum yield, the
estimate of marketed production of
crude petroleum for 1916 being 292
million barrels, COR II million barrels
more than in 1915.
Another mineral product which
furnishes an index, of business condi-
tons is cement, the 1916 production
of which is estimated to be 5 million
barrels in excess of the output of the
previous year, while the shipments
were even greater, aggregating 95,500I-
900 barrels, with the outlook reported
as good for the new year.
1.-The reports received from the Sur
vey's western offices contain most sig
nificant mining records, Every west
ern state shows a. large increase in
yield of metals, Arizona leading with
q gain of 100 million dollars over last
year, while Utah and Montana to-
gether report another 100 million dol
lar gain. Alaska also had it's best
year, contributing a total value of
more than $50,000,000 this year, or
over SO per cent. in excess Of any pre-
vious year.
These advance statements not only
show that 1916 marks a new advance
for the mineral industry of the coun-
try, but this remarkable increase
promises to be approximately rs per
cent, over the 1915 production, so that
we may expect the final figures to
show a total of three billion dollars"