Show A little high powered publicity for utah mining minin when A G mackenzie secretary of the utah chapter of the american mining congress was in attendance at the annual session of the parent organization in washington on the first of the month lie he was invited to talk on the state of the mining industry in utah and lie he did also he said some rather pertinent things things that probably some of the old hard shelled easterners who still frown on silver and nonferrous non noil ferrous metal mining generally did not relish in undertaking to drive horne home the importance of the metal mining industry and particularly as it related to accomplishments in utah mr mackenzie decided to illustrate the points involving I 1 the indu magnitude and importance to this state and to the nation by drawing word pictures of what could be done with the metals so far produced in utah statistical information is usually hard to assimilate and comprehend offhand off hand but frigand mackenzie spread the story before his listeners and the readers of the daily press of the country in a manner that all could understand As reported in press dispatches mr mackenzie said graphic illustrations of metal output and volume nonferrous non ferrous metal production of record to date would be sufficient to lay a pavement of copper lead and zinc fourteen feet wide and one inch thick from salt lake city to washington with a solid silver m milepost two feet square and six feet high at the end of every mile and a solid gold guidepost six inches square and six feet high at the end of every tenth mile by inclusion of the gold and silver in the pavement itself tile the width could be increased two inches which would be of advantage to those who meet oile one arm drivers at night such a pavement would cost a mile continued mr mackenzie A cost not incomparable with tile the cost of roads actually constructed in many places this seemed to appeal to some of the delegates having experience with modern highways and it would be a versatile as well as a durable pavement lie he added in case of war we could shoot it at the enemy and lend the mile posts and guideposts guide posts to our allies but in such a contingency we should have a definite understanding with the secretary of the treasury and his successors giving some further idea of the volume of metal output mr mackenzie said that the total metal produced by utah mines to date would be ample to erect eight and a half monuments of solid metal of the same size and shape as the washington monument which towers feet in the air or it would be sufficient to provide two ninety pound railroad rails that would form a track long enough to circle the earth at the equator with a branch line to salt lake city and miles of sidetrack copper lead and silver in abundance the copper produced in utah would make sufficient no 1 B and S wide lie he asserted to reach from the earth to the moon times if the moon is where the astronomers say it is the lead production is equal to more than twice tile the total displacement of all the fighting vessels of the united states navy and the silver converted into the form we believe it ought to have would ibe be sufficient to lay a path of silver dollars nine inches wide from salt lake city to new york via washington with enough left over to lay a path on both sides of broadway and a cross town path at forty second street we sometimes think the industry in utah has spent about the equivalent of that silver path on that identical route since the intrusion of excess profits depletion depiction and other newcomers into what we now know used to be a happy life mr mackenzie continued but non ferrous metals did not go directly into pavements monuments rails and paths they did go to war very effectively with the men and minerals from the other states and they have gone into a multitude of employments essential to civilized humanity as we think they will continue to do indefinitely ini tely our state is curious in that its production great as it has been has come from a few areas but those areas show a persistency that is noteworthy some of the oldest producers in the state surpassed all their previous records of production last year years public activities in mining industry public activities of the industry this year included entertainment of the western division of the american mining 6 congress and the regional conference of the A 1 I M E in ill august and a comprehensive mineral exhibit at the utah state fair in ill october both of which were regarded as successful cess ful the mining industry of utah is in as good shape as could be expected under the market conditions that have prevailed this year the larger companies have maintained their dividend payments and considerable development work has been done in consequence of which several new shippers have been brought in total nonferrous non ferrous production may be somewhat less than 1926 when utah led the states in the production of silver was second in copper second in lead fifth in ill zinc and sixth in gold gold conditions have been good the labor sti supply aply has been sufficient there were no labor disturbances and transportation facilities have been adequate operations of the coal and hydrocarbon hydro carbon mining companies as previously were limited only by market requirements recently tile the utah coal mines have been shipping about cars weekly to colorado to relieve the situation created among consumers there by tile the labor disturbance oil prospecting continued with encouraging indications although the states commercial iner cial production is not yet considerable |