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Show I The Market and the Mines iWhat mystery there was about the Fink smelting smelt-ing plant at Garfield was dispelled on Sunday when the inventor, Mr. Edward, Fink, gave out a f statement in which he declared himself satisfied I with the results of the test run and explained in J words of one syllable the principles upon which j his process is founded. It was never much of a I mystery at any, time. Knowing the fate that lias 1 befallen many a promising metallurgical process i the men interested in this one wore reluctant to make claims for it until it should actually demon- H strate its ability. This reticence gave rise to the I gossip which made of the frank and open little plant at Garfield a veritable impenetralia concealing con-cealing Eleusinian secrets. The whole thing is !very simple when you know about it. Most big filings are simple. A Fink furnace consists of - H two cylinders in which the ore is placed. While H one cylinder is at maximum temperature the B ' surplus heat is going into the other and giving ! j the ore there a preliminary roasting. By the time j the ore in the first cylinder is reduced to bullion i the contents of the second are roasted to a turn j and ready for the highest deb I'eat. While M J this is being applied in the seer ylinder a new M I charge in the first is undergoing roasting. This M alternation of the maximum heat between the two H cylinders explains the rapidity of the Fink process. B "Ore Smelted While You Walt" would be an ap- Hi proprlate inscription for the walls of the first Fink H custom smelter. SHI, i W H The crowning achievement of the new smelting H plant was the production of blister copper from H ordinary concentrates with a single handling. H Even Samuel Newhouse, appreciative as he was Hi of the superiority of the Fink furnace, had to see H it done before ho would believe in the miracle. H But, once convinced, Mr. Newhouse became as H zealous a convert as anyone could ask. He an- H' nounced that he would be sponsor for a company H to put the Fink devices upon the market. He is H also credited with the prediction that the inven- m tion will treble the world's production of copper &VI Certain copper mine owners, who possess no share H in smelter patents, have read this prophecy and m are troubled thereat. "What profiteth it a copper H company," they are asking, "to save seven-eights H of its treatment charges if the metal market is M to be overwhelmed with thrice the present influx H of bullion? It does not seem probable that the tripling of production will occur in a minute, nor is it likely that the price of copper would decline by reason of reduced smelter rates more than the amount of the smelter reduction. The producers may 'icomflort themselves by remembering tho axiom that action and reaction are equal and opposite. op-posite. t& fc t It has been suspected that the interest in control con-trol of the Fink patents might be able to maintain main-tain a private tariff for the protection of American mines by limiting the operations of their furnaces to the United States. This would be a highly unselfish un-selfish and very patriotic policy, but there are insuperable obstacles in the way of its adoption. It was only in the days when trade secrets could be kept thatinventors were aule to serveHhefr countries and themselves at the same time. & & $ It seems that the legal fans who have been looking forward to a beautiful ruction-fn the courts between the Silver King Coalition and-F. August Heinze,, alias the Miners' Smelting Co., are to be disappointed. The Coalition has come at Heinze with the proposition to hand him its ore when he puts his money down on the counter. "Payments to be made f. o. b. at Park City," is the way Manager Man-ager Kearm expresses it. There may be some difficulty in arranging the settling price before shipment, but the trouble can be overcome through a neutral sampler at Park, or an escrow agreement. In view of these extreme precautions among gentlemen it seems almost unbelievable that, two years ago, Mr. Heinze would have been permitted to pocket the entire Silver King property, prop-erty, had such a tiling been physically possible, and take it to Korea with him on a verbal promise to pay for it when he got ready. tv O That Colorado-Sioux vein is an obdurate formation, for-mation, indeed, if it can withstand the argument advanced by Manager Holdaway of the Tintic Central to prove that it should turn to the left instead in-stead of to the right. The law of the road is against Mr. Holdaway, but he has a half dozen other laws that are just as good. It seems certain that Tintic Central's chances of getting the famous fa-mous ledge are just as good this week as last. It is still any man's vein. The Iron Blossom hasn't got it, the Crown Point hasn't got it and the Carisa hasn't it. If the follower of the mines has no other concern over the destination and destiny of the ledge he finds himself wishing that it would be found somewhere soon so that the nerve-racking suspense would be over. The mining game has its advantages, but it is handicapped by the uncertainty as to the time of the decision. In playing faro or the ponies you know just 'about how long you will have to wait for results. ' & & & As yet there has been no reason to recant any of the good things that were said of the strike in the Honerine Extension at Stockton. The ore I opened a couple of weeks ago has been followed I 42 feet and the face of the drift contains the best yet. Some of the directors of the company have visited the property and were surprised to find it looking so Veil. One of the strange things about directors is that they are always "surprised" when a mine looks very well, indeed, but never surprised sur-prised in the least when things go all to the bad. The latter course of events seems always to have been anticipated and is never "as bad as was expected." ex-pected." One would think that an optimist would, now and then, be elected a director! "Well, perhaps per-haps the directors are optimists --when they are elected. Then again, there are pessimists outside of the directorates. Certain gentlemen are so filled with the certainty of disaster if the Daly-West company shall be amalgamated with the Ontario and Daly that they are advertising at their own expense for proxies to be voted at the annual meeting in Denver, February 15. The war having commenced so early there will be no time for quite a frolic before It is over. Possibly we may find an opportunity to learn during a lull in the excitement, excite-ment, just what would happen if the Daly-West. Daly and Ontario DID merge. v v It is next thing to picking gold up in the street when you can walk out to the mouth of Big Cottonwood Cot-tonwood and pick up a chunk of ore that will assay as-say $3,000 a ton. That is what W. J. Westen-holme Westen-holme is said to be doing on his Big Mitt claim near the Con. Jefferson. The vein from which the gold comes is not very wide 'but then the hole where it is found is not very deep, only about 70 feet. For what is practically a surface showing show-ing the 'developments at the Big Mitt are remarkable. |