OCR Text |
Show UIO TIN TO MINES. The British owners of the Rio Tinto copper mines hi Spain should be laying by considerable: wealth these days, for the wages paid the miners amount, to tl or $1.20 per day. This, by the way. is more than other miners in the same district receive for their labor. In normal times from lit.D'iO to 12,000 workmen are employed, and they inhabit in-habit four separate villages, one of which is exclusively British. The dividend divi-dend for the past year was ro per cent, against Ji.j per cent in the preceding pre-ceding yea r, a very eonsiik ra ble i n-creae, n-creae, Th-so mines ;irc very old. They were worked by the Iberian?, l'hoc- necians and Carthageuians, and later by the Romans, but the supply of ore .seems to be inexhaustible. In modern times they were first worked by a Swedish company, but were acquired by the British company in 3872 at a cost of $in,4'(36(0O0. The war in Europe Eu-rope has been a godsend to the Kio Tinto company, but even in normal times the profit is very considerable, for they arc close to the European market, and naturally have first call. They do not size up with tho Utah copper or Anaconda, Mont., properties, located in Butte, but they are great wealth producers. |