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Show MINING PROSPECT OF UTAH. j The Present showing and a Glance into the Future. Tbe array of facta and figures which appeared in yesterday morning's Herald, over the signature ofour Ophir correspondent, Judge Wells Spicer, is interesting nnd BUggestiye, Ophir contains some ol tho best mines in Utah, both for richness of the Ore and the quantity of it, but ns an ore-producing ore-producing district it is outranked by several others; yet such a allowing is made of the outlook of this as a mining min-ing camp as might cause people at a distance, or even those here not familiar fa-miliar with the wealth of this region, to he amazed; and tho half is nut told, even of this one district. Of course a report of the kind Judge Spicer has made must necessarily be incomplete in some particulars, still wo believe the one published yesterday yester-day is as nearly correct as could be made without much longer time than one week which he spent in obtaining obtain-ing the facta being employed in its preparation; certainly it is not overdrawn, over-drawn, but rather the reverse. Last Winter was tho dullest of any seen in this Territory since mining has been carried on to any great extent. ex-tent. Hundreds of good mines have been lying idle for months because of the scarcity of money with which to work them, and the difficulty and expense ex-pense of getting the oro smelted and into market. Yet notwithstanding notwithstand-ing this Ophir has on her dumns ready for shipment 4,352 1 tons of ore valued at $3S8,775, and many of tho producing niines have not been taken into account. This is only the showing from ono district of moderate extent and development. devel-opment. Does any one realize the amount of ore which ia now lying on tlie dumps of the Territory, awaiting the advent of Spring, the melting of the snow in the canons, and an opportunity for being turned into money? Littlo Cottonwood and Bingham each produces pro-duces more mineral than Ophir, and has more ore on the dump at the present time; Tin tic is not behind j Ophir in its ore yield; Star district, I while it has not been developed to I such an extent as Ophir, has more ore stacked up at present, on account of there not being mills and smelters there sufficient to reduce it; Big Cottonwood, American Fork, and Parley's I'ark, each has its dumpe full of ore; Jien there are Washington, Washing-ton, San Francisco, Granite, Freuss, Ohio, Xebo and others south of her e; Rush "Valley, New Foundland and others in the west, and some in the north; all of which have quantities of ore above ground. If exact estimates of the whole amount of oreo n the mine dumps in this Territory could be given the actual value would be shown to be not less than $5, 000,000. The estimate ;of the product of Ophir for this month 3,340 tons val ued at $ i53, 690, or for the year at the same ratio, $5,-4U.2SJ $5,-4U.2SJ is only suppositional. Yet it is bated on the present facilities for workiug the mines, and tho prospective pros-pective future of tho district, as compared com-pared with the past, and therefore can be considered as being not far from what will be the actual result. It is an estimate which might easily be realised. If suclf an approximate estimate of the coming year's output of oro for the whole Territory were made the array of figures would ap-I ap-I pear fabulous; and yet, when a twclycmoiUh has yawed wo cir(bt not that the value cf the ore taken out of phe mines of Utah will foot up to a more formidable sum than even the most sanguine now anticipate. Tin's is far from being a discouraging discourag-ing prospect for the present year in this Territory; and portends a bright and prosperous future fpr tho banner silver bell of the United States. We commend these figures to capitalists cap-italists east and west, and ask them if they can find better mining investments invest-ments than those presented by the mjnes pf Uf-ah ? |