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Show WILL 8MKLTIXG WORKS PAY! This is a question on winch tbere seems to be some diversity of opinioD in this region, and as "an ounce of fact is worth a ton of theory" ire propose pro-pose to submit a few ounces of the former for consideration. Starting with the Eureka Consolidated Company, Compa-ny, of Eureka, Lander county, Nevada, Nev-ada, we learn by the Sentinel of that place that in the month of October last the three furnaces of the company produced tons of bullion, assay ing in gold and silver a few cents over $300 per ton; while the lead was worth $120 per ton in coin, in New York. By a gentleman of reliability we learn that in fourteen days of December the same furnaces smelted 420 tons of ore which yielded 140 tons of bullion. The expense for the mining and smelt-iug smelt-iug of this ore, during the fourteen days, was J 19,370, and there was a net profit of $53,170 accruing to the company in the two weeks, showing that a higher grade of ores had been worked. Yet the ores are held to be of no richer grade than can he found in a dozen mines in Utah. Labor in Nevada is four dollars. a day in coin; here it can be obtained for two dollars and two and a half in currency. During the weekending the Sth inst., (520,000 lbs, or 310 tons of ore, were shipped from this city over the Utah Central railroad. At the ratio of slag and ore shown in the Eureka smelting works, about a hundred and three tons of this would have been crude bullion, bul-lion, leaving something like two hundred hun-dred and seven tons of refuse, comparatively compar-atively valueless: and the freight on this, paid for carrying it from Salt Lake City, would be, if sent to San Francisco over $3,900; and if sent, to New York over $5,500. That is, that amount of money was paid away for hauling from the Territory refuse rock; and this in a week when but a comparatively compar-atively small quantity of ore was shipped. ship-ped. Supposing ten car loads a say were being sent off, and this average is not an eztravagant one under fair-working; fair-working; the money .paid out for worthless freight, if sent west, would be 7,60L, and if seat east, $10,S0U ! er week; or in the year, respectively, S3V5.200 and $516,600. This money, be it remembered, does not include the amount paid for freighting the metal in the ore: and should be placed as a counterpoise against the expenses of smelting, the amount saved over the actual expense of smelting and a little extra for freight en bullion, being the proat that would accrue ta those who would do the smelting here, including the interest on invested capital. It should also be remembered that where there is one mine which can n,.w ship ore, there are dozens which can not. They do not assay sufficiently high to pay for the freight on the refuse re-fuse rock, and they are, by the shipping ship-ping process, comparatively worthless , while they are just the kind of mines to pay regularly and permanently for work and on invested in-vested capital. As it was with the ba-t ores yet discovered here before the railroad offered quick transportation transporta-tion and more moderate freights, so it is tfith much that has been discovered, unless smelted contignoui to the mines; with nothing but the bullion to be transported. Plenty of low grade ore would not pay for working and the freight, if attempted to be shipped as taken from the mine; and must be smelted or remain unremunerative. Yet, in many of them, the lead alone will more than pay for working, smelting smelt-ing and the freight on the crude bullion, bul-lion, while the entire yield of the precious pre-cious metals is a clear gain. Smelting works pay, and pay well, where they are being run in Nevada, la San Francisco wet and in Newark cat the reduction, separating and refining re-fining works are largely remunerative. Chicago and Omaha, seeing the money that is in the business, are making a bold push in the same direction; and they arc satisfied, by the closest calculations, calcu-lations, that they can make such works pay, after the rude ore has been carried car-ried by rail over a thousand aud fifteen hundred miles to them. What reasons 'an be advanced why they should not pay Imp;? And what reasons can be lavauce'l that will counterbalance the fact that they do already pay here '! inu' ii lor the present. |