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Show INTEB-MOUNTAI- N MINING EEVIEW. 3 press as Mercur, they are receiving the attention of capital. At Eureka and Bingham many undeveloped, and partially developed properties have recently passed from weak to strong Devoted to the Mining and Smelting Interests of hands and much money will be exWest. the pended upon their operation. DiscoverRoom C. T. by ies of pay ore have been made in secHARTE, Published Weekly 223 Atlas Block. tions of the Tintic district heretofore looked upon as barren, and the whole TERMS: district is being explored more intelli(Payable in Advance.) $2.00 Year One be1. 00 gently and thoroughly than ever Six Months 50 fore. Improved conditions are reported Three Months To England, Mexico and Canada, $3 per year, in all the old producing mines and the postage prepaid. price of silver is advancing. At Eureka Entered at the Salt Lake City Postoffice as and Bingham valuable properties that second-clas- s matter. have been tied up by litigation have 65 : 64 and Merchants been taken out of the hands of the San Francisco Office Exchange, where this paper is kept on file. Adcourts and restored to the list of provertising contracts can be made with E. C. INTER-MOUNTA- IN MINING REVIEW. Inter-Mounta- in Dake, Agent. Salt Lake City, March 19, 1896. A New Era. The birth of spring brings to the mining industry the dawn of a new era. Within a few short weeks these everlasting hills will have laid aside their snowy robes and an invincible host of prospectors will be storming the crags and peaks. A careful observer cannot escape the conviction that the opening of no season has been filled with brighter promise for the mining interests of this region. A prospecting and mining craze is upon the people. The activity and revival are not centered In a few districts, but overspread that vast stretch of mineral-lade- n territory extending from Kootenai to Mexico, the greatest treasure belt on the face of the globe. The fruits of this years labors will be the discovery of many new mines, the development of many that have heretofore been unproductive, and an increased output from the old producers. Mans inventive genius and the discoveries of science have so changed conditions surrounding mining that the industry is rapidly being placed upon a new basis. A few days ago the purchasers of an old property at Bingham came across a body of ore, estimated to be worth $100,000, near the surface workings. It had been passed over by the old owners, because at that time the smelters would have charged $65 per ton for treating it. This very ore the smelters will now treat for $6 per ton, and it can be mined and marketed at great profit. This incident suggests f,ne of the causes of the renewed activity in the old camps. New processes and cheaper methods for handling ores, lower transportation charges and cheaper supplies have made bonanzas of properties formerly regarded as being of little value. Here in Utah the chief interest is just now centered in Mercur. It offers, s, greater opportunities for speculation than any other, and will beyond doubt experience all the benefits and penalties of a boom during the coming season. But of significance almost equal to the new discoveries and developments in the Camp Floyd district are the changes that are taking place in the old camps. While the great producing districts of Tintic, Park City nnd Bingham are not receiving as much attention at the hands of the inter-mounta- in low-yra- de per-hap- corporations alike. It is ridiculous to say that the Mormons desire to stifle the mining industry, as the leading men in the church are heavy stockholders in big producing mines and are expending their money in the development of others. There is no more ground for the apprehension of hostile legislation than exists for the fear that the sky may fall, and such erroneous statements as the Mining Record has put forth are calculated to retard Investments in Utah. The people of this State have put religious differences aside and are working hand in hand and shoulder to shoulder in the promotion of mining, irrigation, manufacturing and all other material interests of the new State. It seems incredible that mines. ducing otherwise well informed people should At Park City the recent strike of not be able to comprehend the changed high-grad- e ore on the 1500 level of the conditions. Ontario and the work of the diamond A Idaho man. has written back from drill in the lower workings of the Anchor have demonstrated that this is Mercur to his home paper that the a camp for deep mining, camp is no good; in fact, he describes and that, in a comparative sense, past it as a grand fake and says 1700 of operations have been confined to the 2000 people there are idle and would scratching the surface. Much prom- leave had they the means with which ising ground will be explored at the to get away. This augurs well for Park during the season, and the camp Mercur. When a mining camp reaches has not yet reached the zenith of its such a degree of importance as to fill the outside press with fairy tales conprosperity. From the Marysvale, Detroit and cerning its merits or demerits, it is Beaver districts, to the south, come coming along. Some famous yarns reports of work to be resumed on many have been put forth by professional roold properties and the active develop- mancers on the subject of Mercuris ment of new ones, while the new dis- riches, and some infamous slanders are coveries in the Line district promise to be expected, but these need not disturb the growing camp. The populathe making of a lively camp. The Idaho mining districts have not tion is steadily increasing, hundreds yet received the attention to which of claims are being developed and new their merits entitle them, but there are mines opened up, five mills continue to signs of an awakening all over the put forth a golden stream and the State. The Boise gold belt is giving number will be doubled and the tonsuch proof of permanence and richness nage quadrupled during the coming as will be certain to attract invesments. season. Some men will fail to find pay In Owyhee reduction plants are to be ore and curse the camp. Many others erected and energetic operations inau- will achieve moderate success and ' a gurated. The big properties in the few will win great fortunes. Such is Coeur dAlene region will Increase their the history of mining since treasures output, the labor troubles having been were first wrested from the rocks. And settled and much money having been every mining camp has inspired the expended in improving the milling fa- best efforts of the most industrious cilities. Custer and Lemhi counties are liars. Park City, Eureka and Bingincreasing their list of producers, while ham have each been decried when Snake river placer operations will be struggling for recognition, and they are conducted on a more extensive scale now the three greatest camps of the than ever before. Reports from all the region. Cripple Creek districts indicate that the people have was pronounced a fake by d as much and fever, the prospecting experts, and Mercur may just as well never been has promising territory prepare to share the common fate of discovnew thoroughly explored, many all, for the pessimist, the doubter and be expected. eries may reasonably the scoffer will raise the chorus of the foris carried The mining industry croakers. ward on a rising tide a tide that is Superintendent Church of the Boise certain to greatly increase the number of producing mines and increase the assay office has forwarded to the Director of the Mint his revised statement prosperity of the whole people. of the mineral output of Idaho for 1895, The Denver Mining Record is a very as follows: Gold, 125,517 ounces, of a meritorious journal, but it betrayed value of $2,594,666; silver, 4,033,180 confused ideas of Utah affairs by pub- ounces, of a coining value of $5,214,498 The Mormon and a commercial value of $2,633,666; lishing the following: Legislature of Utah lias levied a tax lead, 65,752,037 pounds, of a value of of 50 cents per $1000 on the stock of $2,301,321. Total, reckoning silver at its mining companies. This is an attempt commercial value, $7,529,653. It will be of the Mormons to drive Gentiles out of noted that the lead product, which the country by stilling the mining in- came chiefly from the Coeur dAlene The Utah Legislature is not country, nearly equaled in value the dustry. a Mormon Legislature; neither is it silver. Owyhee was the banner gold a Gentile Legislature; nor has it levied county, producing 35,203 ounces, while a tax of 50 cents per $1000 upon the Shoshone was the greatest producer of stock of mining companies, but has silver, with 2,471,300, or over half the fixed the fee at 25 cents upon all in output of the entire State. pre-eminen- tly inter-mounta- in self-style- |