Show of what importance is utah copper company to utah Q by E E PARKER engineer of mines of the utah copper Com company salt lake city what utah makes makes utah this is a slogan with which all of us are familiar but I 1 often wonder how many realize to what extent the welfare and prosperity of the state and the county and city of salt lake depend on oil certain of our industries we all standing that it was given special mention in an editorial in the august 1927 issue of the engineering and mining journal the writer starts his editorial with the following utah today can be ranked as the pr premier ernier copper mine the article goes on to state that while the 7 77 7 A 4 aig T mk 7 J az recent which feeds the capacious maws of the arthur and magna mills with becent view ew of utah coppers immense power shovel mining enterprise amr tons of rf rm ore daily kv ow in iii a passing way that the mines are of great moment t to this commonwealth we also know tile the utah copper is individually the peer of all the copper mines H of this country in fact its achievements have been so out copper company owns 95 per cent of the utah copper companas Comp anys shares that Kelin ecott without utah would be like a handsome automobile with five of its eight cylinders missing fire for tile the engineering journal to single out in its editorial columns any one mining company and call it the premier is unusual procedure it was vas however a glowing tribute to the organization it is to be noted also that in referring to the utah copper company writers speak of the company as utah to the layman this would naturally mean the state all of which means that the state of utah secures a deal of advertising especially in ill mining circles from the utah copper company what is of importance to us individually is that it does not take a year to put it over this advertising which is of a very substantial variety costs the townspeople nothing so has a double value to those of us who believe in advertising our state when we say advertising circles we should remember that this is an all extremely large field its importance might best be illustrated by the fact that the annual value of mineral production in the united states amounts to six RL V Y el X al r V U fill 7 7 1 electric shovel in operation at bingham utah 2 rotary dump at magna mill 3 secondary crushing department in which handles two 40 ton cars at one of the concentration mills mill a time billion dollars we hear a lot about farm relief and the products of agriculture and those not interested in mining are sometimes inclined to believe that mining 6 is really y insignificant compared to things agricultural the agricultural products of the united states have a value of twelve billion dollars annuala annually y so that th the value evalue of mineral t products is fully 50 per cent of the products produced on oil the tremendous farm areas of this country this is a real market in which to sell the states potential resources resource i utah coppers value to state is great and varied everything that can call be done to advertise utah is or of real value and the utah copper company if for no other reason than that of the magnitude of its operations has lone done much to put the state on oil tile the coni commercial mercial and economic map mining companies from all over the world are continually asking the utah copper company for nien men skilled in ill mining mining and metallurgy and its engineers have gone to the four corners the reason for this prominence can perhaps best be brought out by the fact that in the year 1927 as in ill the year vear 1926 the utah copper company held the ranking position of all companies from a standpoint of production in ill 1927 it produced per cent of all the copper mined in ill the state taking the year 1928 to date this company produced per cent of the united states total and since the united states produces 55 per cent of the worlds refined copper it can safely be stated that this company s output represents about one twelfth of the world production like these for themselves figures speak and acco accomplishment lil ment is universally recognized when we say that an industry means something to a state the first question always is what monetary value has it or just what part of the states expense does it share the utah copper companas Comp anys proportion tinn rj of the states general property tax amounts to approximately 5 per cent of the whole in salt lake county including the city of salt lake its proportion is 1298 per cent or more than one eighth 6 of the whole think of it one eighth of the countes coun tys part in maintaining all these fine sch schools roads and improvements of every kind and nature paid for by one mining 1 I company I 1 stop a moment and just suppose that there iva was no utah copper company where would the loss be felt the answer is everywhere payroll pay roll expenditures over annually the number of employees on oil the payrolls of the atall L copper company averages about men at an andua 43 expense of more than six million dollars it if we wa take as a family factor the number of people directly supported suppo bec becomes onles in ill round numbers to serve 1500 peopled the families of company employees who gain their liveli i sibly hood directly from company paychecks includes passably pass pas more by that I 1 mean there is the butcher tile the baker alid a the candlestick candle stick maker not to mention the ice nian cie c e the the insurance agent what about the laundries ers the house maids the stores of every description i 11 II all their employees working early and late to serve sere yott yo me how about the farmers coal miners distri truck drivers telephone employees street car operatives opera 1 bankers I 1 yes and alil the doctors dentists lawyers and would they prosper so well if the payment of this monthly lalor labor and supply bill of was discontinued in this connection I 1 am sure you forgotten 1921 when tile the mines were nvere closed what about your apartment house and city property owners how would you feel with your proportion of these vacancies on oil your hands dont worry I 1 am just supposing As a matter of jact fact the company volunteered an all increase in wages the other day clay so there is another 2000 a lay day to scra scramble rable for we should learn to analyze these facts because individually they mean everything to us contribution to education aid to industry to b go 0 on oil exclusive of the city of salt lake utah copper pays per cent nearly one half of the county s burden irden bt in the jordan school district its share of taxes is per cent in this district which comprises the lower section of salt lake county and includes the west mountain mining district there are registered pupils of this number 1481 pupils or about 25 per cent attend school in the towns of Bing bingham harn lark and copperton hopperton Cop including 6 copperfield and the highland boy section these 1481 pupils take in practically all of the children of mining 6 coni company pany employees and townspeople in the places mentioned yet the utah copper company pays 70 cents on every dollar expended to educate the students in this district and when the taxes of the other mining com companies pallies are added it will be seen that upwards of pupils children of the rural taxpayers representing 75 per cent of the whole are being educated for perhaps not more than 15 per cent of the district cost we could go b go on oil and in a similar way deal with the granite school district where the utah copper company pays per cent of the taxes in the town of bingham more than one third of the burden is carried by this company explosives and electricity consumption noted As a few ramifications of the industry let us take tile the plant blant of the hercules powder company at bacchus it was vas largely through the operation cooperation co of the utah copper company that the hercules powder company built its plant at bacchus this plant was completed march 1915 A few figures in connection with this undertaking may be of interest taxes paid from inception to january 1st ast 1927 were COO the explosives manufactured since that time amount I lount to pounds A saving in freight amounting to approximately has been made for the consumer Sti nier the production for 1927 shows that there was avas manufactured at this plant pounds of explosives of which output pounds were used in utah it further develops that per cent of the explosives consumed in utah is manufactured in utah of the production sold to all the mines in utah during 1927 amounting to pounds the utah copper company used per cent payroll of this plant amounts to about annually this is an all industry brought into being largely by reason of this copper companas comp anys operations electrical energy consumption for the utah copper company amounts to kw hrs annually this is a tremendous item and constitutes one of the largest blocks of consumption at or near its source in this country one might go on and compare this to the power used by the city in the way of further enlightenment as to what it means but time does not give me the opportunity to do so there is the garfield plant of the american smelting smelling Sm elting refining company with its men built to smelt utah coppers concentrate about which a whole story could be written huge consumption of home commodities getting I 1 back ack to the number of employees and their families directly dependent on the utah copper company compani I 1 can call give you an all idea of the annual consumption of certain staple commodities by this number of people for example in a year people would consume pounds of fresh meat quarts of milk pounds of butter and cheese pounds of lard dozen eggs pounds of flour and meal pounds of sugar pecks of fruit pounds of 1 potatoes pounds of fresh vegetables this consumption is supplied almost exclusively 1 by utah agriculture then there is the consumption of coal and fuel which might tl be elaborated upon and an endless string 9 of commodities modi ties used by the company in its supply items one outstanding commentary is the movement of breight eight tr and it will doubtless surprise you unless you already know that 80 per cent of the tonnage 6 originated by the railroads of this state is furnished by the mineral industry the entire state freight reduced to forty ton carloads amounts to annually utah coppers proportion of this item for 1927 was forty ton cars or 60 per cent of the whole where the farmer benefits through copper now what about our farmers where to do they benefit by the operations operation s of this copper enterprise one thin thing 6 is certain we cant all raise potatoes and run sheep there would be no one to sell to for cash if we ave did and we ave cant buy automobiles for a shipment of spuds automobile manufacturers want money with which to buy copper the copper operator needs money to pay his men and his men must have a medium of exchange with which to buy food this in a crude way is the cycle if you anatoze this cycle and apply it to our present civilization you will find that the initial step is ini mineral that is the origin of things commercial tile the last step is the satisfying of the demands of our stomachs the former has become the means to the latter mans mails first necessity of course is food but after a hearty more and cant make him if he meal he wont eat any you wont so why grow more if you do you will not be likely to sell it the solution to this problem is unquestionably tion ably the regulation of production it is all a malter of supply and demand and it is in this regu altion of supply that government aid is needed to be successful the farmer must operate cooperate co and stand pat on oil whatever is undertaken to get back to the subject while you cannot make a man mail eat more if he does not choose to you may talk him into buying another aatonio automobile even though he already has one so while the consumption of food is fixed and limited depending entirely on oil population there is no limit to the expansion of industry for the farmers to prosper you and I 1 or someone has to cons consume tinie the food he produces the greater the market the more will lie he sell and the more limited the quantity of his products the better will his prices be this is basic if he can sell at or near home he saves freight bills if industry at home does not prosper lie he will either have to take less for his product by reason of freight or raise his price which at once places him at a disadvantage in markets foreign to utah home industry means population home industry means population and a home market this is where the utah copper comes in with the task for the farmer of feeding people employed directly and e indirectly nobody wants the farmer to prosper more than the miner we want vant to sell him automobiles and refrigerators milking machines and tractors anything to lighten his work and make him happy by the use of capper co first of all we must take something from the ground new wealth new dollars that have been spent while we ve are doing this we ve must be supplied with food and clothing an and a place to live and farmers service men and landlords will prosper only insofar as the industrial population prospers and no more of course we ve could all do without automobiles radios motors and aeroplanes aero planes and each one of us its might get a piece of ground somewhere and grow our own food and make illace all of our necessities with our own hands our ancestors once did this but we are now living in a new civilization and want more than food and clothes we have so to speak changed from a two stage cycle of hunting and eating to a multi state cycle of mining building riding flying and eating and it is this civilization that depends first last and all the time on mineral production in my humble way of thinking the mining industry i is sin in first place and all else compared to it is secondary show me a nation that will not or cannot dig in the ground for these hidden treasures be it oil coal clay or metal and I 1 will name one for you that is dependent on others for its existence A nation cannot long hold a prominent place in the world today without mineral resources so as I 1 have said we come to mining in this day and age as the paramount industry copper is one of the most important metals and utah has it I 1 have entitled this paper of what importance Is the utah copper company compan to utah and my an answer is that forming as it does an important part of the states mining enterprises it is all important it boosts home industry and what it makes in part makes utah |