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Show THE MARKET AND THE MINES It is always difficult to predict with accuracy where lightning will strike next, and where the next mining excitement will center. But, to judge from present appearances, that part of western Utah known as Deep Creek is on the schedule for an early boom. For more than twenty years Deep Creek has been a promised land, tantalizing Salt Lake City with its display of wealth, but kept afar off by the Jordan of desert and mountain. We could see, but couldn't touch; mine, but couldn't ship; own wealth, but not realize on it. Time and again plans have been laid to bring the isolated mines within reach of the Salt Lake market by means of a railroad. While these plans have uniformly failed, each failure has left the scheme a little nearer realization. The Western Pacific, though it passed up the riches of Deep Creek in laying out its main line, brought the camp nearer to the world than it has ever been before, and established a base from which the construction of a branch line to the chief mining properties would be cheap and easy. No one expects ex-pects the Western Pacific to throw out many branches until its main trunk is finished, but it seems reasonable to suppose that It would do everything possible to encourage the building of feeders by anyone who was willing to put up the money. Persons who are clamoring for an opportunity oppor-tunity to put their cash into just such an enterprise enter-prise are said to have been discovered in Paris. Heretofore our Gallic cousins have evinced a preference for such conservative investments as the Panama canal, but the outcome of that venture ven-ture may encourage them to tackle something wildly romantic like an American railroad. tJ C? x Gould branch or Clark branch, French road or Irish road, or even no road at all, Deep Creek has lain fallow as long as will be permitted. In default of transportation to the mills and smelters, smelt-ers, the mills and smelters may be brought to the ore. With a new smelting process, by means of which a furnace can bo kept at top temperature tempera-ture for a week with a cupful of gasoline and a hired girl, the western Utah mines will become emancipated from the domination of the railroad builders. There are at least a half-dozen prospects pros-pects in Deep Creek that would be regular producers pro-ducers of ore, and possibly payers of dividends, if they could be set down in Tintic, Bingham, Park City or other close-in camp. One of these is the Western Utah Copper property, a Heinze holding, " i which Captain Duncan MacVIchle returned ;ast week. It has been opened to the depth of 700 feet and reveals to the eye of the export not less than a million tons of copper ore of smelting grade about half the visible reserve of the great Cactus mine at Newhouse. & & j& That the Colorado-Sioux vein strikes deeper as it goes south through the claims of the Iron Blossom company has been demonstrated by the drift which follows the ledge from the station at the end of the east drifr from the north shaft. That sounds rather complex, doesn't it? But if there is a clearer way of describing the lay of the Iron Blossom's new workings without drawing draw-ing a map or making motions with the fingers, it has not been revealed to the writer. At any rate, the vein is getting farther under ground as It makes toward the south end, and it is bearing slightly to the west. It may be getting ready to dive under the porphyry which skirts the ore-bearing ore-bearing lime on the south and east, or it may bo preparing to swing with the lime-porphyry contact con-tact southwest into the Carisa. The guessing contest con-test is still on at the rate of from 5 to 85 cents a guess. The minimum rate is the price of a share of South Iron Blossom, and the maximum the prevailing quotation on Carisa. The Iron Blossom itself has no particular reason to be concerned con-cerned over the destination of the big ledge. It has an ore body averaging about forty feet in thickness for the distance of at least 500 feet, and that ought to be enough to last one mine a while. The benevolent Carnegie may be held . up to the Iron Blossom as an example. Having assured -its own future, the Blossom may Improve its time by advising its neighbors to take it easy and not find their ore till they come to it. & & Big earnings are in prospect for the Columbus Consolidated at Alta. There can be no question that the shoot of sulphide ore opened above the 100 level at the end of the west drift is a tremendous tre-mendous resource and will pour cash into the treasury of the company. The Columbus will soon be out of debt and financially strong enough to resume dividends, but as to the wisdom of distributing dis-tributing profits there is room for argument. To assure the future of the mine a deep drain tunnel tun-nel on the plan of the Ontario at Park City is needed. Such an outlet would double, perhaps treble, the value of Columbus shares, and give access to great bodies of ore which will otherwise other-wise not be worked, owing to the excessive cost of submarine mining. The Columbus cannot undertake un-dertake a tunnel of such magnitude all alone, bub the Columbus Interests lead the camp, and with a treasury full of money to start the enterprise, enter-prise, they can make certain the success of a great drainage plant for Alta properties. & 5 5 Next to Columbus Consolidated, Mason Valley, the Yerington wonder, was the sensai.on on 'change last week. For a long time Mason Valley Val-ley has been touted for the rise, but it was not until a new strike of unquestioned merit was rumored, ru-mored, reported and duly verified that the rise took place. One would like to know whether the seers who foresaw the stock advance also saw the strike. The Mason's new high-grade copper shoot, it is credibly reported, dips under the end-line end-line into the Yerington-Malachlte ground, where it wijl be accessible afc considerable depth, jc v1? Goldfleld and Nevada in general are busy trying try-ing to figure out the significance of the move by which Senator Nixon disposes of his large holdings hold-ings in the Goldfleld Consolidated to George Wingfleld. It is hinted that Nixon is virtually trading his mine stock for Wingfleld's banking and commercial interests. "Banking" and "commerce" "com-merce" sound more dignified in Washington and New York than does "mining," and as Wingfleld has no ear for dignified sounds, everyone is happy. j: What does Provo want of a mining exchange? It already has an insane asylum, and, besides, what would the brokers find to do after the natives na-tives had bought all the Knight stocks they could get for their money? The trading would be like a horse race, at which everyone bet on the same horse. |