Show I HOULD COME TO UTAH Proposition to Erect a Big Copper Cop-per Plant TQ COST HALF A MILLION Salt Lake Business Men Take the Blatter in Hand An Important Conference Yesterday Tho Questions of Freight Rates Fuel and Ore Production Discussed Several Sev-eral Committees Appointed A meeting of prominent bankers and business men of this city was held at the Knutsford hotel yesterday afternoon to consider one of the most important business busi-ness propositions ever presented to the people of this city I The project is nothing less than the location of a copper reduction and refining refin-ing works that will cost half a million dollars and will give employment to from 200 to 300 hands But the greatest benefit which would accrue from securing this new concern would be in developing the copper industry of the territory The gentlemen who are back of this proposition are the same parties who erected the large copper reduction works at Durango Colo and are the principal owners of that plant The Durango works are reported to have cost 500000 the machinery for the reduction of copper ores being very expensive PROMOTERS OF THE PHOJECT Prominent among the promoters of a plant in this city is 0 P Posey a gentleman gen-tleman who has handled many of the largest mining deals in Colorado It was he who iormed the syndicate which purchased pur-chased the Enterprise and other large mines at Rico and other Colorado mines and the syndicate which he represents gives employment 1200 miners Another prominent gentleman among the visitors is SM Green of Milwaukee aman of wealth and who is manager of the Durango works Otto Stalman who for many years was the metallurgist of the Anaconda mines 3 the expert who is to examine the quality of the copper produced in this territory and whose report will have much bearing on the final result of the present negotiations There were also present W B Chad bourne the Leadville smelting man and i Messrs J F Mitchell and H Wheeler I of Durango Wendell Benson president of the Business Busi-ness mens association after an interview with the visitors arranged for tIle conference confer-ence of yesterday and invitations were sent out to a number of the leading bankers bank-ers and mining business men I YESTERDAYS CONFERENCE At 230 oclock there were seated in the handsomely appoinied waiting room of the Knutsford the following representative representa-tive citizens Wendell Benson president Business Mens asssociation W A Hubbard president chamber of commerce George M Scott A Hanauer T A Wicker sham Judge Colborn Matthew White Frank Knox Henry Lawrence D C Adams E G Woolley J H Bacon M H Walker W H Terry J C Cameron J M Ricketts Jacob Bamberger and C P Mason W E Hubbard president of the chamber cham-ber of commerce called the meeting to order and suggested the name of Wendell Wen-dell Benson as chairman Mr Benson on taking the chair explained ex-plained the purpose of the meeting which was to secure if possible the location of the copper smelting and refining works which the gentlemen present were about to erect in Colorado Utah or Montana lilt GREEN EXPLAINS Mr Green for the Copper syndicate explained that at present the copper product pro-duct of the west is sent to Bridgeport Conn and other eastern cities for refining refin-ing His compans had just completed a reduction works at Durango and had decided de-cided to erect a new plant that would not only reduce the ore to metal but that would refine it and work the product into copper plate and wire thus saving the expense of shipping tne copper east for preparing it for the market The plant would be very expensive requiring a large amount of costly machinery They could not afford to make any mistakes and had brought their metallurgist Mr Stalman along He assured the business busi-ness men present that they were not out on a pleasure trip nor to boom one town against another and that no amount of local aid would induce them to locate a works of this magnitude in e city where they could not make it pay He thought Salt Lake city was in a bad way as regards freights for he found that the railroads discriminated against it the rates on copper products being S10 per I ton less from Butte to New York than they are from this city He didnt know why this was unless Butte had more railways ways He said they wanted to look over the ground thoroughly before they would decide on a location Mr White What do you need water fuel ard copper Mr Green continuing Fuel we need water no more than we can drink At Dnranco we get coal for f 195 and slack for 85 cent per ton The coal i within half a mile of the works employ Mr White How many men will you Mr GreenWe employ 150 at the Durango Du-rango works and would give employment employ-ment to nearly twice as many here We would put the product of the refinery on the market in the shape of sheet copner plate and wire Mr Pierce at this juncture was called to the secretarys desk Chairman Benson observing tbat it was a very important meeting Judge Colborn dwelt on the diversified resources of our mining camps the abundance abun-dance of coal adjacent to the city and the fine prospects for natural gas He assured as-sured the visitors that the people of this city stood ready to extend all the necessary neces-sary aid by correcting the freight discriminations discrim-inations and extending bonuses and land for sites MR BACONS SUGGESTIONS James H Bacon th ught that the first thing to do was to appoint a committee to wait on the railways to get a reduction of rates that will enable a copper works to do business as favorably here as in any other city We could not expect men to locate a plant here as long a the rates are 10 against them Mr Conklin suggested that the matter mat-ter be referred to the transportation committee com-mittee It certainly was unjust that the rtes are 10 higher than at Butte and tlfe matter ought t be corrected Mr Lawrence did not think that it was i the question of freight rates alone that hau to be met We wHIt he said no I doubt have other roads inside of from twelve to eighteen months We have I more mineral than any other state or territory ter-ritory every mountain range being stored with it We have copper in great quantities but not yet much developed We will have a road to the west and south and can offer better inducements than Butte for we are more centrally located lo-cated We will soon have more railroads and better competition in freight rates In addition to the ores of this territorywe can draw copper ores from Nevada This will be a great location for the reduction of minerals after the Deep Creek road and a road to the eouth are built A COPPER PRODUCER Mr Woolley of Woolley Lund Judd one of the owners of the famous Dixie copper mine in southern Utah was called for to speak in regard to the production of copper ores He said The only exclusively ex-clusively copper mine now being worked in this territory is the one at St George There are others but they have not been developed to any extent There are many good prospects in Beaver county around Frisco The property at St George is 110 miles from the railroad and the fact that it is able to ship ore at all is evidence of its richness The ore is hauled eighteen miles to St George where they smelt twenty tons a day and the bullion or block copper is 92 I per cent fine They shipped eleven cars i of picked ore that averaged over 50 percent per-cent pure copper and the average of the ore taken out of the mine is 26 per cent This is the highest grade copper ore mined in this country The Anaconda mine is but 8 per cent Up to the first of the year they shipped 327211 pounds of ore that produced 146564 pounds of pure copper They shipped as matte 47577 pounds that made 28857 pounds of pure copper They have made 853258 pounds of bullion making 746582 pounds of pure copper This makes a total of 1228046 pounds yielding 922033 pounds of pure copper and 7809 ounces of silver Mr Woolley thought that by increasing increas-ing the number of men his mine alone could turn out 100 tons of copper per day that would give the proposed works twentyfive tons of pure copper There are already two propositions for building a railroad to St George One of these is from Gough station on the Atlantic At-lantic Pacific up on the west side ol the Colorado and into time coal and iron mines at Cedar As soon as this is built it would open up other copper mines in the southern south-ern part of the territory Mr Woolley exhibited a specimen of his ore and Mr Green conceded that it was the finest copper ore fie had ever seen a Mr Woolley continuing said that he thought that the cooper industry would he so greatly stimulated by the erection of a refining works here that it would be a short time until the mines turned out enough ore for three such plants In addition ad-dition to the copper prospects he had alto luded al-to there are a number of good mines in the Deep Creek country that run from 10 to 2 per cent and that are richer than the Anaconda Salt Lake city is getting so great that the railroads cannot much longer discriminate against her and he saw nothing in the way of locating such a plant here Heating power can be supplied cheaply the coal being only thirty miles away and less than sixty miles by an all down grade route It is possible to put coal into this city at not to exceed 2 per ton THE RATE QUESTION J M Ricketts thought it a good time to take the railroads into account I it was impossible to secure relief by amicable amic-able measures he favored bringing the matter up before the interstate railway commission We are victims of our own stupidity he said We should formulate an address reciting our grievances griev-ances He moved that a committee be appointed Mr Bacon stated that the gentlemen present expected to decide on a location within thirty days and that immediate I action was necessary Messrs Ricketts Hubbard Cameron Terrj Bacon and Adams were named as committee to see the railways Mr Knox said he was willing on his Dart to cuarantee that the railway rates will be made satisfactory D C Adams said he didnt think for a single moment but that the Union Pacific and Rio Grande Western would grant as good rates as Butte enjoys He thought there was no question about it He was going to Chicago in a few days and would stop off at Omaha and submit to the proper pro-per officials any address or petition which the committee desired to frame and that there might be no delay he would telegraph tele-graph hack the result A STRONG COMMITTEE On the suggestion of W E Hubbard the following committee was appointed to confer with the smelter people find out exactly what they wanted anti see that they got i W E Hubbard Wendell Benson M H Walker C P Mason Frank Knox George M Scott and Henry Lawrence Mr Lawrence directed attention to the advantage which this territory had to offer in the way of a permanent population popula-tion which would afford settleq labor which would give greater security to a great concern like the one that it was proposed to erect T A Wickersham held out the great natural gas wells and cheap fuel Mr Conklin drew attention to the fact that a railway would be built in the early spring to the coal fields J E Bamberger assured the smelter people that a road would be completed to Soalville by the 1st of December when coal could be had at cheap rates After a motion by Judge Colborn pledging all the citizens present to lend every assistance to the gentlemenin securing se-curing information and aidIng them in I their project the meeting adjourned |