OCR Text |
Show INTER-MOUNTAI- INTER-MOUNTA- IN MINING REVIEW. Interests of Tinted to the Minins and Smelting West. the Inter-Mounta- I 1 in by C. HP H ARTE, Room pruLisnED W eekly 223 Block. Atlas TERMS: (Payable in Advance.) One Year. Six Months Throe Months...... To foreign countries except Mexico S3 ;; per year, postage prepaid. 2.00 0 jvv Canada, littered at the Salt Lake City Postoffice as second-cla- matter. ss Sax Francisco Offiok : 51 and 65 Merchants Ptrl'&ncSi where this paper is kept on file. Ad vertfsing contracts can be made with E. 0. Dako, Agent. i 'inn ago Office: 761 Monadnock Building. 71 1 i, loUb. LITY DEPT. SALT JjAKE I I I Z The statements frequently made by or vicious goldbug writers and speakers concerning the cost of producing silver are ludicrous. These people seem to entertain the notion that by building a big bonfire on the side of a mountain, rivulets of molten silver may be made to course down the mountain side, and that this is the manner in which silver is mined. Ev- ery experienced silver miner knows that, were the value of silver governed the cost of production, the white metal would at all times be worth more than $1.29 per ounce. It is not to present exact data concern- ing the cost, as no two mines show exactly similar conditions, but a most comprehensive and very interesting statement was prepared by Hon. R. C. j I ed Xote. This was before the completion of the drain tunnel. Since then the cost of production has decreased a few cents while the price of silver has ouce, fallen 30 to 40 cents. world cannot be accepted as a criterion, to the exclusion of the innumerable failures. Then, there is a large class of mines that are worked on year after year, now at a loss and again at a profit the owners loath to abandon them as long as there is a fair prospect ahead. The City Rock mine at Alta, Utah, may be taken as an example. it has been worked for twenty years and today shows a net loss of $85,973. Evidently the silver product has cost more per ounce than the average mar-th- e I ket quotation. "Even in the case of bonanzas it has usually happened that the original profits have been subsequently lost in continuing the prospecting and other work. Not to mention the Comstock, I where this process is now going on, me direct your attention to the Little Cottonwood district, Utah, and Yankee Fork mining district and Wood River region in Idaho, where, as is well known, these subsequent losses are an accomplished fact. It is easily within the knowledge of any experienced mining man of the Pacific Coast and Rocky Mountain re- gion that the foregoing but faintly outlines a vast array of similar statistics that could be furnished. There is no doubt that the cash balance in the business of silver miningT tdkenas"a I whole, is largely on the account. I re-b- y quests for information concerning the present status of the Uncompahgre In- dian reservation lands. The commis-possib- le Sion that was appointed to allot lands in severalty to these Indians exhausted the $16,000 appropriation, but made no allotments. But they did recommend that a certain portion of the reserva-Chamber- s, tion, including all lands suitable for grazing and agriculture, be set apart for allotment purposes and that the balance of the lands, embracing the as- phaltum deposits, be thrown open to the Public. This recommendation was approved by the Interior depart-th- e ment, and a proclamation was prepared, but it was never sent to the President; Secretary Hoke Smith pigeon-hole- d the documents pending a geological survey of the lands proposed to be opened. This survey was com-M- r. was approved by the Interior Depart- pleted last winter, and the aione. The Anchor Mining company, on same lode as the Ontario and Daly mines, has spent over $1,000,000 for plant and expenses, and has produced silver-lea- d ores. The silver produced has cost $1.18 per ounce. The assess- ments on this property to date have been $480,000, and no dividends. Outside of the mines mentioned, there are numerous others at Park City that have been heavy losers, and I should estimate that not less than 000,000 have been lost in a smaller way and through individual efforts to find a paying claim in this acknowledged wonderful mineral belt. The Empire expended about $750,000 and did not nf nrp while the take out .,10,000 Alliance silver output has thus far cost per statement at$10.50 per ounce, tached. I attach statements of the manager of the Utah Gem and Old Jordan mines (at Bingham and Opliir, Utah), by which it appears that the silver product cost $2.37 and $0.87 per ounce, respeclively, extremes of success and failure. it cannot be emphasized too with men. strongly that with mines, as the debit side of The Mining Review has received plant, leaving the purchase of the property out of the question. Since 1S88 the mines have been operated at a loss, the assessments having been I attach a statement show- $60,000. ing that the loss for last year was $22,- 872, and that the silver produced cost $1.10 per ounce in operating expenses I 3 the occasional success heralded to the pany, one of the largest mines in Park City, has been operated for about thir- teen years, and up to October, 1888, had paid dividends amounting to $238,000, a sum not equal to the cost of their inent member of Congress, when the bill for the repeal of the Sherman pur- chasing act was pending. There has 7-- 1C MINING REVIEW. haps five or six great silver mines today operated in the United States. For each mine that makes a record as good as these, there are hundreds that barely pay operating expenses, to say noth- ing of cost of plant, and thousands of smaller ventures that have not returned $1 for every $10 expended. In saying this, I am not using glittering generalties, but making an assertion capable of itemized proof, although tc furnish it would require a considerable amount of time and expense for gath- ering and tabulating. Instances of heavy expenditures in search for and development of min- ing properties are cited by the writer. One gentleman had expended over $1,- 500,000 in attempting to find just one good mine, and had worked over a hun- dred mines in Utah and Idaho that had made such slight returns that the total loss equalled the above named sum, an(j m0st of the mines are now practi- cally abandoned. Another operator some years ago sold an interest in a famous Utah mine for over $1,000,000. He was a sober, steady, industrious man, with no extravagant habits. A few years subsequent he found himself dead broke," having spent nearly ev- ery dollar in the attempt to find an- other paying property, I have ob- The writer continues: tained some statistics and general in- formation concerning a few properties whose operations have been of such magnitude as to attract attention in this State. The Crescent Mining com- - superintendent of the On- tario and Daly mines at Park City, in response to a request from a prom- - strengthened by the conditions exist- ing today. Following are extracts from Chamberss statement: From a general and varied experi- in silver mining during the last twenty years, I feel justified in assert- ing that for every ounce of silver pro- on the Pacific coast at least $1.30 has been expended in silver r lining, As a reasonable basis for this asser- tion, I have had prepared statements of the cost of producing silver In ihe mints at Park City and elsewhere, From these it will be seen that at the Ontario mine the cost has been 62 N I re-en- ee $2,-liuc- od ranted delay and perform good service to the public by forcing derelict officials at Washington into an observance of their duties. It would be a rich Joke a I strenuously opposed the opening of the reservation, should Utah citizens estab- js not a reserVatlon. jish that Some advocates of free coinage fall into the error of believing that free coinage would raise the price of silver bullion to $1.29 an ounce, measured in at its present value and thus restore parity. It would do nothing of gold The two metals will be the kind. brought together partly by raising the value of silver bullion and partly by reducing the value of gold to 100 cents on the dollar. |