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Show i 1 , "Look out or a merger will get you!" is the conventional warning to the Utah Mining company com-pany these days. Only the very small and obscure ob-scure companies seem to be secure from the pre-vailing pre-vailing epidemic of mergeritis. The specialists now claim that Mammoth of Tintic has all the ' ; symptoms, the most pronounced being a rising of the shares. The diagnosis further states that Mammoth has the Guggenheim germ and that the I control is being tied up at $2.50 a share, or on he basis of $1,000,000 for the property. Just how much truth there is in the rumor that the Grand Central and Victoria mines at ,' Tintic are to be annexed by the Bingham Con. j is as problematical as the truth of the story that Bingham Con. itself Is a likely candidate for initiation ini-tiation into the colossal copper merger contemplated contem-plated by the Guggenheims. The public is in a A frame of mind to believe in any merger story, no I matter how improbable it may sound. Combina- tions which seemed impossible six months ago have been effected with so much ease and dis- patch that the word "improbability" has almost disappeared from the mining dictionary. Manager Hatfield declares that he knows nothing of negotiations nego-tiations for the absorption of Grand Central arid Victoria, but in such matters denials count for about 10 per cent less than nothing, so the matter mat-ter stands just where it did before. Mr. Hatfield ran afoul of the interviewer. There is no doubt, however, that the big. Tintic producers will, ' sooner or later, fall into the hands of companies . ' that operate their mines as appendages to milling ' and smelting plants. Tintic ores contain elements much needed in smelting and this fact, if nothing noth-ing else, would cause them to become more closely close-ly allied to the smelting interests. Another denial that leaves much room for speculation is the denial of Managing Director George H. Robinson of the Yampa at Bingham, that the control of his company has passed into a merger. He makes no secret of a disposition to merge when the proper financial inducements are offered. The Yampa's new furnaces are being fired up and promise is made that the plant will be handling from GOO to 700 tons after the first of April and this is not an April fool, either. Speaking of mergers, nothing has been heard lately of the blending of the Daly-West and the Ontario at Park City. This does not prove anything, any-thing, as the most effective merging is done with the least noise. The Daly-West seems to be doing, do-ing, rather well without the Ontario. Figures produced pro-duced at the annual meeting in Denver give the cash surplus on hand at $424,084.68. Meanwhile the stockholders have received $432,000 as dlvi- ' i dends. The income from 34.9G7 tons of ore has been more than $1,230,000. The restoration of the Ontario drain tunnel is proceeding in a satisfactory satis-factory manner and there is promise of a great addition to the mineral resources of the mine when the 1,200 level is connected with the newly discovered ore body of the Little Bell. The latter property is still engaged on development work and has made .no attempt to stope, but in spite of this fact ore has been accumulating faster than it could be taken care of. The completion of the ore bins will overcome this difficulty. With the coming of spring the mine will have enough stuff blocked out under ground to insure continuous shipments for a long time. The Odin, at Park, which has been making abortive strikes in its tunnel for some time, at last has something which gives every indication of durable results. This is a 7-foot vein in the face of the ore 400 feet from the mouth. Samples run l1 ounces in silver and about 10 per cent copper. . What, will be to many the most interesting" development de-velopment of the week is the starting of the steam shovel at the " Cactus at Newhouse. Important Im-portant results have been forecast from the use of steam shovels in handling the immense deposits de-posits of low grade copper In Utah, but the work now in progress at the Cactus is the first practical practi-cal test of the theory. For a time the- steam digger will be occupied in stripping tb wash from an acre of ground. This done it Wii. plow up the copper-bearing rock, load it in cars and leave the remainder of .the process to the big mill. The wash is from 12 to 15 feet deep. If the mechanical navvy handles the ore Inthe same way it .is disposing of this waste quarrying for copper will undoubtedly become fashionable in the near future. Having failed to reach the expected ledge within the time limit allowed by its creditors the Lower Mammoth company has been compelled to levy an assessment of 5 cents a share. The payment pay-ment of this Hibernian dividend will enable the company to settle with the bank which holds $17,-000 $17,-000 worth of its paper, and carry it's drift for some distance. A dividend of more satisfactory sort is that declared this week by Con. Mercur. It will distribute $25,000, or 2 cents a share for the first quarter of the year. The opening of now ground and the excellent work of the mill has increased in-creased the earning capacity of the property to such an extent that the management, conservative as it it, intimates that a higher rate of dividends may be expected within a few months. The proposition to issue $250,000 of bonds was not received with favor by the stockholders of the Consolidated Jefferson Co., which owns terri- t'ory between. Big . and Little Cottonwood can- yons. A clear majority felt that the prospects could be developed without mortgaging its future to non-resident bondholders and the bonds were voted down. Big doings are expected at Alta within the jjH next month when the Columbus Con. will have tapped the ore bodies on the 300 level. The re-suits re-suits obtained in drifting and sinking are a sure forerunner of dazzling achievements when the management shall really and truly try to get out all the ore it can. President Jacobson has an-nounced an-nounced the wise policy of maintaining an ore reserve three months ahead of shipping require-ments. require-ments. While the old and well known Utah properties have been making an enviable record for the first of the year more astonishing developments are in ! a fair way to be seen among the prospects in the HI Deep Creek region. The landscape is dotted with holes from which remarkable gold assays are of jH almost daily occurrence. With the opening of the jH country by the Western Pacific road, it will be the scene of great excitement and, in all prob-ability, prob-ability, will add immensely to the wealth and population of the state. |