Show HIGH RECOVERY BY UTAH COPPER utah coppers dop coppers pers operating results for the fourth quarter of 1919 were made to appear only moderately satisfactory by the inclusion of increased charges to cover state and conaty taxes additional refining expense and the writing off of obsolete property and equipment the striking thing accomplished was the recovery of of the copper contained in ore that averaged only this means that instead of losing 10 or 11 pounds in mill tailings as formerly the loss was kept well under five pounds per ton the net cost of producing copper after crediting miscellaneous income was cents per pound production for the quarter figuring on the basis of copper in concentrates and precipitates was 28 pounds this being approximately the average of the preceding three quarters and barely 50 of the companas comp anys present productive capacity net earnings for the fourth quarter were swelled by a dividend paid by the bingham garfield railway and a dividend by the garfield chemical manufacturing fac turing corporation these being the only payments received from these companies by utah copper during the year including these dividends a net profit of was realized which was in excess of the amount required for the quarterly dividend of per share for the full year utah copper produced pounds of copper in concentrates comparing with pounds of refined copper in 1918 net earnings were per share and the pay payment m ent of 6 a share in dividends resulted in a net deficit of these figures are obtained by summarizing the four quarterly statements and are subject to readjustment in the forthcoming annual report it must be appreciated that copper mining companies are obliged now to report their earnings on the basis of cash received this being in keeping with the method of computing used by the government in arring at profits taxes if utah copper sold a very large tonnage of copper in november and december for 18 or 19 cents a pound to be delivered and paid for in january and february that copper still would figure in the report of the last quarter at the nominal carrying price of 13 cents a pound however earnings for the last quarter 4 were computed on an average price of cents a pound as compared with cents for the third quarter 1474 cents for the second quarter and only 1289 cents for the first quarter the astonishing advance in the price used as the basis of computation was due to the sales in the closing two quarters being considerably in excess of the amounts produced in view of the very heavy tonnage of copper sold in december and january utah coppers report covering the first quarter of the present year should be such as to indicate great prosperity the nevada consolidated nevada consolidated produced pounds of copper during the three months ending december 31 1919 at a net cost after crediting miscellaneous income of 1613 cents a pound net earnings for the quarter were which was less than the amount required to pay the regular quarterly dividend of 37 cents a share this compares with a net cost of 2026 cents per pound the third quarter of 1919 when operations were suspended for about a month by labor troubles for the full year nevada consolidated produced pounds of copper at an average net cost of 1588 cents per pound earnings for the year based on an average of 1867 cents for all copper sold together with unsold copper carried at an inventory of 13 cents a pound were only or about 62 cents a share this poor showing was due to the necessity of figuring on the basis of a profit of only cents per pound for copper according to the figures given in the report it was necessary to draw upon the treasury reserve to the extent of to pay dividends aggregating a share it must be appreciated however that when the company finally disposes of all the copper at market prices which it is carrying at 13 cents a pound a considerable proportion of this apparent loss will be restored production for the year amounted to just 50 of mine and mill capacity there is every prospect now that the companas comp anys earnings for 1920 will be more than double those of 1919 geo L walker in boston commercial |