OCR Text |
Show BUTTE & SUPERIOR ESTIMATE DAMAGES Butte & Superior Mining company Interests In-terests believe that damages adjudged in the accounting proceedings covering : their use of Minerals Separation's flota-1 flota-1 tion process will not exceed $1,500,000, ! says the Boston News bureau. ! They call attention to the fact that ! Butte's gross earnings to date (exclusive (exclu-sive of depletion and capita! redemption charges) amount to a little more than $23,500,000, adding that this is not ail profit. Even if it were, $17,800,000 is due to 1915 and 1916 operations. In those years the price for zinc was forced up by war shortage to two and one-half times its normal range. In their opinion the court will undoubtedly undoubt-edly view excess profits as belonging to the mine in 1915 and 1916 and not as arising from the use of less than 1 per cent of oil, feeling that if damages are based upon earnings they will be assessed upon returns in normal years, when gross ranged from $1,000,000 to JL, 500,000. Burte interests expect that the real basis for whatever award is made will be increased profit resulting from the use of less than 1 per cent of oil in treating its ore, and that this will be arrived at by taking into account recoveries made when using more than 1 per cent of oil. |