Show FIGHT FOR BETTER FREIGHT RATES ON METAL ORES FROM UTAH MINES testifying before the interstate commerce Comillis commission sion at washington D C on the of last month A G mackenzie I 1 secretary of 0 f the local branch of the american mining minin con congress ress explained the ore shipping conditions which confront the mine operators of utah in a most concise and illuminating manner such testimony as that given by tir mr mackenzie ought to have substantial weight in determining ter mining favorable action for relief on the part of the commission extracts from mr mackenziee Macken testimony show the painstaking care lie he used in elucidating the situation in utah as will be seen from the following in the ten year period 1912 to 1921 inclusive mines of the state of utah produced 39 of the gold of the silver of the copper of the lead and 16 0 of the zinc produced in the united states the 6 gold is obtained in almost every instance as a byproduct by product with the exception of one camp copper is also obtained as a byproduct zinc is produced in recoverable form by only a few fenn mines with the exceptions noted the metal minin mining b industry of the state is devoted almost exclusively to lead silver ores the ore tonnage averaged more than nine and one half million tons annually in the ten year period the 1921 tonnage was only about one fifth of the average for the period As metal mining is conducted in utah the ore producers sell their ore to local smelters shelters sm elters which settle with them on the basis of current market quotations the smelters shelters sm elters deduct from the gross value of the bre ore the amount of the freight charges from mine to smelter the cost of treatment the estimated amount of slag losses cost of shipping shi p ping b the bullion to re finers and cost of refining and marketing the metal these deductions leave the ore shipper only about half the gross value of his ore with which to meet all of his mining and other costs exhibits presented in this case were obtained from official public records or from the original sources whence the public records are obtained they show that as compared with the year 1913 the number of ore producers of utah in the year 1921 amounted to only 60 the tonnage to 2870 28 the number of employees compared with 1916 as no prior records were kept to 42 the avera average e wage to metal prices to 1006 ore rates to and bullion rates to effective january 16 1922 wages were reduced to as compared with 1913 since au august 11 1921 the bullion rate has been of the 1913 rate figures for the utah copper company are separately shown for the reason that this property is operated in such a way as to make complete comparison with other mines of utah impossible this property has been completely closed down since april 1 1921 and the company sustained a loss of approximately in the year 1921 almost all of the ores of utah are the kind known as low grade complex ores that is ores of comparatively y small metallic contents and which contain more than one metal increasing costs of the last few years have made it impossible to operate most of these mines and they have shut down one of the smelters shelters sm elters shut down in july 1971 1921 and the others are operating at greatly reduced capacity mines now operating are those with ores sufficiently rich in silver to offset losses on the lead and other metallic contents conditions llave have forced those mines now operating to practice what is known as preferential ri mining lining that is to extract only y ores of the highest grade this is bad mining practice it means a loss of a large part of his ores to I 1 the mine owner the loss of tonnage to the railroads and andi smelters shelters sm elters and tile the permanent loss of large quantities of metal that can call never be extracted metal quotations with the exception of silver are at substantially the levels that prevailed for many years to the the of silver is prior war price fixed by 9 government 0 vern statute at a little less than 1 an ounce for a limited time except for this silver price fixed by the pittman act all of the metal mines of utah would have shut down months ago silver almost invariably occurs with lead in utah ores those mines in which lead and copper are the predominating metals are all closed down them the metal market with the exception above noted is not likely to change greatly for some time A large copper surplus is still above ground b round and even with copper cop per buying bryin resumed the price is is not likely to go go above the prewar average lead may respond somewhat in price to the imposition of the increased tariff proposed in the fordney bill but cannot be expected to go much if any above 5 cents a pound due to the supply and the nature of its use all the metals produced in utah compete in worldwide world wide markets and the ore producer is wholly unable to control in any way the price of his product the only factor in the situation that is now materially out of line with the year 1913 is the freight charge it is a considerable item representing about 22 of the total production cost it will help an understanding of the relative i importance of mining in utah to note that 30 of all the wage earners covered by work mens compensation insurance ce in utah are mite mine employees the number of metal mine employees I 1 has decreased from in 1917 to 5 in 1921 a decrease of more than 65 the decrease of 1921 over 19 1920 1990 90 is more than 24 2470 the camp of bingham alone has decreased in population from to 2500 three underground mines at that camp that normally employ more than 1000 men have only a total of employed today the utah copper mine has about employees out of a force ace that normally runs about As the freight rate applying directly to ores to say nothing of the extent to which freight frei blit rates are reflected lecter in the cost of mine supplies Is is such a considerable item in mining operations and as has been pointed out is the only item substantially out of line at the present time relief through reduction of freight rate is necessary before re of operations may be expected the attitude of utah ore producers is to cooperate co operate with the railroads and in view of the fact that the railroads have handled tonnages ton nages greatly in excess of that for the year 1913 it is assumed that they chev have facilities to handle hand lea a tonnage at least equal to that thal of 1913 it is our opinion that the railroads would then themselves selves profit financially through the re establishment of rates which would move out the large tonnage of ore which can not move under present rates the exhibits in this case indicate and it is the opinion of utah shippers that a heavy healy increase of tonnage would immediately follow a reduction reductiO ll of rate the mine owners are naturally anxious to ha have their ores moving as mine property deteriorates ra rapid p i Y when idle and a shutdown shut down in the case of a mine is ciuch muc more undesirable than in the case of almost any other kind of property |