Show A GAIN IN THE PRECIOUS METAL OUTPUT judging from the preliminary figures sent out from washington the output of the two royal metals in the western states during the year 1904 was considerably in excess of the production of the previous year and the gains have been of considerable magnitude while the record shows that two states at least which have been prominent in the past as silver bearing are making enviable records in the production of gold these two states are nevada and utah A year ago nevada was considerably behind utah in this regard but at the close of 1904 it took the lead and comparatively speaking made greater gains in this respect than did any of the other metal bearing states in the west which fact doubtless gave rise to the report in circulation to the effect that its gold output for 1904 was greater than that of any other state this report as the records show was untrue and without foundation in fact as there were three states which produced more gold in 1904 than did nevada not counting alaska the leaders in gold production basing the standing of the states on the figures furnished by the government are colorado california south dakota nevada montana utah and arizona utah stands sixth in the list which is a fine showing when it is remembered that for the year 1895 its output in gold goja amounted to only in silver production however utah stands third in the list while it also crowds the top botchers in its output of lead and copper so that it will be seen that it is well balanced in its deposits of the four metals in 1904 alaska made a gain of in gold production california colorado montana nevada and utah it is believed that full returns will make these figures much higher the record shows a big increase in silver production in idaho and there is every reason to believe that when the returns are all in this state will also show big gains in its lead output to say the least the outlook is most encouraging for the coming year and the close of the season may reveal many sensational sat ional surprises in several of our mining states |