Show I BONDED IRON MINES j B Will General Palmer Purchase or Not An item appeared in the HERALD that the a day or two ago stating iron mines near Iron and Cedar Cities had been bonded to the Denver Den-ver and Rio Grande The report is incorrect in fact though in sub sttnce it is almost true The mines mines are bonded to Col 0 J Hoi lister for an amount which is not stated As near as can be learned Col Hollister communicated with Gen Palmer President of the Denver Den-ver and Rio Grande Railroad Company Com-pany concerning the iron claims in southern Utah the result of which was a visit to that locality made some time ago by ColHollisterAf an examination into the numerous claims thereabouts many of which are conflicting he began the work of bonding and finally obtained bonds on all that were desired for a period of ninety days the time expiring ex-piring on the 1st of November Subsequently Sub-sequently General Palmer paid a visit here and went south informing inform-ing himself on the subject of the ores of southern Utah During the past week or so a representative of General Palmer or the Denver and Rio Grandein this case the names are generally viewed as synonymoushas been south overlooking I over-looking the mines and examining into the quality of the ore It is said the only person thoroughly posted on the merits of these ores is Professor Newbury of the College Col-lege ot Mines New York he having made thorough examinations Some of the ores he is reported as saying contained too much extraneous matter mat-ter to admit of their being worked to profitable advantage while other ores are susceptible of being reduced re-duced to metal from which Bessemer Besse-mer steel of the finest quality in the world can be made AS stated in a former article in the HERALD published in an interview with Hon John Sharp shortly after his return from an examination of the same locality the difficulty is the question of coking coal It is claimed that the coal at the back of Cedar City can be coked but the claim has yet to be demonstrated satisfactorily This coal according to the statement of a gentleman connected with the Horn Silver Mine has been coked and used with perfectly satisfactory results but the question arises Why if BO excellent ex-cellent is it not used now Unless coking coal in sufficient quantities and within reasonable access can be secured it will be some time yet before be-fore the iron mines of southern Utah will be developed to any considerable con-siderable extent The Sanpete Valley Railroad has been built almost if not solely on the belief that the Wales coal makes an excellent quality of coke Those directly interested claim to have demonstrated to their own satisfaction satisfac-tion that the coal will coke and this too when their apparatus was so inferior that the merits of the coal had not a fair show If this be true then the Wales coal could be used for the reduction of the ore if the Cedar coal will not answer It seems to be the opinion at present pres-ent however that the purchase will not be made and for these reasons The price asked for the many interests is said to be so far beyond a reasonable usure that the price will hardly be paid even should the investigations prove that Utah coal in the vicinity of the mines will coke the fact that the iron will answer what is required of it by such a company as the Denver and Rio Grande cannot be claimed to have been demonstrated beyond a doubt though it is conceded that some of the ore will make as good steel as any in the world General Palmer through his agent now in the south is testing the quality of the iron but at least a couple of car loads of the coal will have to be shipped away to some place where it can be coked and this vexed question be fully settled During the period re quired for this the time limited in the bond goes on and the chances are that even by the 1st of November Novem-ber if investigations begin at once no definite conclusion can be arrived ar-rived at It is possible however that the difficulties here set forth may not extend to so great a degree that they cannot be overcome speedily speed-ily and it is also possible that the difliculties may have been magnified with a view to securing a reduction in the price asked A couple of months will tell and no one will be surprised to learn that the Denver and Rio Grande has purchased the iron mines of Southern Utah and will erect iron works there Railroad Rail-road companies are queer things these days |