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Show BRIGHT FUTURE PROSPECTS The most casual reader of the newspapers these days cannot help observing that there are forces and enterprises at work which within a short time will bring an undreamt-of progress and prosperity to the Salt Lake valley, and Salt Lake City in particular. par-ticular. These enterprises are five in number two smelters and three great lines of railroad. We already have smelters and railroads, but those now in contemplation are of a different,kind. One of the smelters is for the production of copper. It will be able to extract the copper from the immense bodies of low-grade ore at Bingham and other camps within a radius of seven hundred miles of Salt Lake City, which heretofore have lain dormant because they could not be wTorked at a profit. The existence of immense bodies of such ores has long been known, but it is only in recent years that processes were discovered by which the ore could be treated profitably, and even then the lack of transportation facilities, and long hauls, made their profitable handling impossible. With the new processes of treatment, coupled with having hav-ing a reduction plant close by, they can be handled at a good profit, and not only the copper extracted, but the gold and silver which the. ores also contain can be saved, and consequently the production of 'all the metals materially increased. Utah pro; dueed four, and a half million dollars' worth of copper in 1904, without any plant in the state for extracting it. This meant the shipment of the ore many hundred miles at great cost, and heavy charges for treatment in the eastern plants. Con sequently only the highest grade copper ore could be handled. Tho improved methods of reduction made this possible, whereas in 1S9S the Utah copper cop-per production was only one-tenth as much as in 1!K)4. By having the smelter at home, using the new processes and handling several thousand tohs of ore daily, it is reasonable to expect that the output out-put will again be multiplied by ten, and be fifty million dollars per annum, instead of five. Such a plant would mean the employment of at least five thousand workmen, which calculating on the average aver-age basis of five people for each workman, would mean an increase of 25,000 inhabitants, besides the office forces. That such a plant is a reality, and not mere talk, is shown by the fact that tho company com-pany has already.purchased an area of one thousand thou-sand acres near the shores of Great Salt Lake upon which to build the plant and construct houses for the employes. . The other smelter is for the treatment of zinc ores. Heretofore zine has been regarded as a detriment det-riment to ores containing silver and lead, and vast quantities of such ores have remained untouched in Utah because they could not be worked at a profit. The increased demand for zinc, as well as new methods of treatment, has just reversed this condition, and now zinc ores are in great demand. Within the last few years such ores have been shipped to Kansas and other eastern points for treatment, and have yielded fairly good profits, notwithstanding the higlufreight charges incident to such long hauls. The hew smelter will obviate these ruinous freight charges, not only on sending the zinc ores east, but in transporting the zinc back to Utah again. Large quantities of zinc are used in some' of Utah's best dividend-paying gold mines in extracting the gold, and heretofore it has been necessary to ship the zinc shavings in from the east, although we had the crude zinc right at home. Zinc has not figured at all as one of Utah's products, prod-ucts, and no mention is made of it in statistics, although al-though it has been one of Missouri's chief products in recent years. . As a matter of fact, Utah has more zinc in one of its mining camps than the entire en-tire State of Missouri ever hoped to have, and it m has only, needed a little enterprise to put it in marketable mar-ketable shape. The success of such an enterprise is a foregone conclusion, and the benefits to the State will be incalculable. Not only will the zinc be produced, but along with it gold, silver and lead which could not be profitably extracted before. The plant also, will employ at least five thousand men, which means another 25,000 added to the population pop-ulation of this valley. Both of these enterprises will be supplemented and fed by the three great lines of railroad which are now building in here,' and which tap the richest mining regions of the west. These are the San Pedro from the southwest, the Western Pacific from the west, and the Moffat road from the east. These great arteries will supply the valley smelters with the ores, and take back to the mining camps along .the lines the products of agriculture, manufacturing, manufactur-ing, and merchandise from this city, which will necessarily be the center and distributing point of the entire intermountain region. These plain facts, with their necessary results, should be considered by sensible people who desire to get on in the world. There is opportunity now in this city and valley such as never existed before for the homesetker, the manufacturer or the merchant. mer-chant. Agitation over political or religious issues makes no ultimato difference as against these great forces of nature. The treasure house is here, and it is about to be opened, and those who get in earliest earli-est will reap a rich harvest. |