OCR Text |
Show GDLD QUESTOH IS j DIFFIGULTPR0BLEIV1 Purchase Power of Yellow Metal Decreasing, With Output Lessening. MANY MINES CLOSING Deposits Not Exhausted, but Production Cost Is Abnormal. Shortly after the early development of gold mining in Alaska was made I and the indications were that from i $15,000,000 to $-20,000,000 of new gold might be received from .these mines, the late John P. Jones, who for thirty years was United States senator from "Nevada and was esteemed one of the ; best authorities upon the production of ' precious metals, said, when referring to ! Alaska, that he believed the time was not distant, depending, of course, upon i the Improvement of transportation t'a- cilities, when Alaska would become one ! of the largest gold-producing areas in the world. The late Maurice L. Muhleman, for many vears an executive officer for the bubtreasury of New l'OTk, and recognized recog-nized as one of the highest authorities upon gold production, saw no reason why our mines should not vield each j year well in excess of $100,000,000 in new gold and maintain that production for a long time. He spoke of the new 1 methods adopted in California, whereby deep mining was made available and i profitable, making it certain that Cali-! Cali-! iornia would maintain her prestige as ' a gold producing state, although closely close-ly pressed by Colorado. In the north-j north-j west Mr. Muhleman expected greatly ! increased production of gold. Purchase Power Declines. Now gold as a measure of purchasing purchas-ing power has greatly decreased, and at the 6ame time our, production of gold is falling off alarmingly. Congress has been called upon the recognize the danger dan-ger which confronts the countrj- by rea-son of the deplorable situation with respect to cold production. In 1915 the money value of the gold taken from the mines was a little over 8101,000,-000, 8101,000,-000, and there was a good deal of proper prop-er pride manifested in banking and ri-nancial ri-nancial circles when the announcement was made that the American mines were beginning to vield more than $100,000,000 of gold each year. Xow congress is asked to consider the fact that instead of an increase in gold production there was a falling off in two years of 517,000.000 in this production, and the probabilities are that in the year 191S our mines will I produce even less than the S4.O00,000 i reported as the production of .1017. In fact, it is authoritatively stated that the yield of new gold in the first six : months of the present year from the ! California mines has fallen off Sc.-; Sc.-; 000,000. Reserves Are Enormous. It is not because the gold deposits . are becoming exhausted. The belief of I the men of science is that under wise direction and economic treatment the ; gold mines of the United States and !' Alaska should continue a production " which would vield considerably in excess ex-cess of $100,000,000 each year." The difficulty seems to be due to the high cost and the shortage of la-i la-i bor. zs well as the increase in price r of materials and apparatus which are needed in gold production. The con's con-'s dition is said to be so serious that ; capital is being withdrawn from gold mining and the situation is such as to demand, in the view of all of the authorities, such legislation as will make it possible to maintain our gold mining activities. Courtenay De Kalb stated recently that very few of our gold mines are fortunate enough to possess reserve of high-grade ore. The Homestead mine, in South Dakota, whose managers have been conspicuous in their attempt to secure the highest possible aid from science in operating their mines, records re-cords only about $4.20 fcfi- each ton of ore. The average value of ore in the Mother Lode mine of California is only about $4.00 a ton, whereas the lode mines of Alaska recover from 70 cents to $2.46 a ton. In the early days of mining in Cali- fornia so small a recovery as this by the miners would not have been worth considering. We have in this country considerably in excess of three billions iu gold, but the amount is not likely to be increased to any great extent by imports from our debtors across the sea, so that if there is to be a yearly increase in our stores of gold it must principally come from American mines. Such a condition as was recently reported re-ported from California, the authorities say, . should not be permitted while there is power in congress to prevent it. For instauce, the federal law fixes the money value of gold at $20.6713 per ounce, and yet there are mining properties iu California where, since lfllo, it lias cost about $20 nu ounce to mine the gold. Some of the mines are running behind, since the cost of producing the gold is greater than the amount for which the gold can be sold at the mint-California mint-California Is Example. Mr. Be Kalb says that the La Grande hydraulic mine iu California, which has been in operation since the discovery dis-covery of gold in that state, had been compelled to suspend operations and to scrap its plant. Many other smaller mines have closed. The problem is a difficult one. It cannot bo solved by tampering with the standard $20.671S an ounce which the government has fixed. . let, in view of the extraordinary demands which the war has occasioned, and , also in view of the conditions which will arise after the war is ended, it ks regarded by the members of the federal fed-eral reserve board and bankers as vital that we should increase our gold supply sup-ply as rapidly as possible. Wachington Herald. |