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Show OUR COPPER MINES. We liiivtj tit-vcriil times hpokcu ol the improved couditiuo of l)m &it:T a-lenLi, a-lenLi, Ijnth in our own anl foreign Ujark-:L-i, With ilie View of calling ill0 attuntiun of our Uiiuer to ilie great and gruwiuij iiuporlanne of our copper iuint;H. T Iil- general tenor of all our advice, witli reference to tlie recent extraordinary ex-traordinary aJvanoe in ilie price of copper, tn that, although the advance in hu-hl-.n and great, it will ho permanent, perma-nent, declining perhaps from the present pre-sent (UOtationH, hut still remaining at a suflici:ntly high figure to make copper cop-per mining profitahte in this Terri-tory. Terri-tory. The New York Tribune, of the Mill, bays), wit li reference to copper mining, a.s lullow: I 'pon the L'alutiiel uinl lli-rla viriii.i cupper can lie produced, mainly from ump stulf, at a cot of aliout twelve cents per pound, a clear protil, at pre-neiit pre-neiit market prices, of sixteen cents per pound. Tlio (uitjcy, on i'ortagc hike, under the same hj'Mi-in, paid a prutit ol'l'.'.rj,ij:)U the past year, while L 1 to (Joppor Kails, which at one time, utter giving out in tua.-aes and barrel work, was considered almost worthless, is earning now a clear prolit of ten cents per pound upon its product, and has been making regular dividends ol f per share semi-annually. These facts have of late turned attention to copper mining, and in Ujstoii where most of the Luke Superior companies nro mainiged, there is developing an interest which promUes to Htimulu'.o a speculation in co inter stocks beyond any experience in that hcndiiitirlcrs ol copper mining. In timo Lake Superior will lead the copper product of the world. Upon which the World lias the lid-lowing lid-lowing conimcntti, aside from the argument in opposition to a protective pro-tective policy, are statistically very interesting in-teresting and conclusive as to the great protiLs of copper mining at Ihe present prices of that metal : With theso facts before us it isonly ncee.v-aiy to say that the tariff charges a duly of 5 cents, gold, per pound on ingot copper. Thu present price of ingot copper in London is about 21 cents, gold, pur pound. Were copper free it could be laid down in New York and sold at a profit lor iM ' to '2' cents, currency. Yet our importation of ingot in-got copper last year was only ?,',i(j pounds, valued at $411, from which wo derived ilOj.jlO revenue. This fact proves that the copper duty is not a revenue measure, while the Tribune proves that our copper monopolists make 16 cents per pound prolit on their product. We therefore a.-k upon whnt grounds the Trilnuir can uphold the present copper duly, epeeial)y when that journal asserts (hat copper, which costs iu England 2i cents, gold, can ho produced at J li cents, currency, a pound, in the United States. It will be seen from this iiuotation from the World that waiving the duty on copper, the market price of the article still leaves a large margin of profit upon i ho cost of production. Moreover, the small amount of last year's importation of' copper, proves that the advance in price is the result of a largely increased in-creased consumption, and an advance resulting from this cause is never liable to a ruinous decline iu price, lor cod-sumption cod-sumption iucreases, pari k.-(, with production. I-Ntiuiutiug the entire cost of mining and milling copper ores at 'JO per ton, and adding thereto the cost of smelting na stated by (he Tribune Tri-bune $A twelve cents per pound for ingot in-got copper, (ho cost of converting cop-jwr cop-jwr ores yielding twenty per cent, ol metal into ingots would be (iS per ton, and the value of the pure metal, less the tariff duties, would be at the price stated by the World, twenty-five cents per pound, 5100,'giving a clear profit of per ton of ore reduced. Those- figures will give au idea of the great profit in milling coppcrorcsofevcu low grade at the present prices of the metal, or even at a considerable reduction reduc-tion from them, leaviiig out of consideration consid-eration any estimate of the value of the precious metals which in the copper ores of Utah is invariably an important impor-tant item of profit. |
