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Show OLD LEAD QUESTION HAS m REVIVED Ten Per N Cent Reduction To Cover Smelling Loss Is Called Excessive. A point that a great many producers of lead ores arc unwilling to concede i that 10 por cent of tho lead contained In ores is losL during the smelting process. The shipper of lead or, therefore, finds that the smelter cut.s this 10 per cent from his shipments, paying for 50 per cent of tho assay value of the ore. Thla haa been the custom for so long a time that a number of producers arc wondering if, during the past few decades, there hvc not been Improvements made in equipment equip-ment and smelting practices whereby much of thin rxcepslvo loss is not eliminated, elimi-nated, and. If eliminated, when the producer pro-ducer Is to begin reaping some benofit therefrom. A reduction al6o is made In other metals, but lead In used its on illustration. illustra-tion. Many producers assert that It is difficult to seeuro any accurato figures on the actual losses In smelting ores, but that the statistic:! as a mutter of course aro in possession of the smelters. They bcllcvo that these llgurcs should be available to them, and they believe furthermore fur-thermore that the 10 per vent is excessive. exces-sive. The general Impression in that tho Jose is not in oxccbs of 5 per cent Tim mines of Utah during 1H1C produced pro-duced H2.000.000 pounds of lead in round Mgurer. and the producers had to forfeit 1,420.000 pounds as a result of this 10 por cent ruling. If. as they allege, the actual smelting loss is onlv S per cent, they should have been paid for 710,000 pounds more than they received, the value of which was over ?31,000. Their theory is that the 10 per cent basis came about when lead smelting was pnie-tlcally pnie-tlcally in Its infancy, dating, perhaps, from the Swansea days, and that smelting smelt-ing companies arc reluctant to alter a settling basis once established. If tho producer could bo convinced that his Impression Is erroneous, and were he placed in possession of the proper statistics, there unqunBtlonablj would be established a far more amicable relation between tho producer and the smelters than now exists, a relation that would bo of benefit to both parties. |