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Show COPPER USED IN CABLES. Proposed Line to Philippines "Will Require 4,000,000 Pounds. (San Francisco Chronicle.) The proposed construction of projected project-ed trans-Pacific telegraph cables has an intimate bearing on copper mining. Those Interested in the copper trade in the east are already figuring on the quantity of metal that will be consumed con-sumed in the construction of the cable to be laid between this state and the Philippines. This cable will be about 7,000 miles long, and as it will contain from 450 to 650 pounds of copper to the mile, about 4,000,000 pounds of the metal will be absorbed in the enterprise. Then the British-Australian-Pacific cable will use quite as much of the red metal, if not more. As the Pacific ocean is in I these days the scene of the greatest activity in commercial development of any part of the world, the demand for facilities for rapidly communicating intelligence is growing apace. When the main cables across the ocean are laid, undoubtedly interisland cable systems sys-tems will be introduced to bring. the various rich archipelagoes of the sea into closer commercial communion. Those will in turn require an immense amount of copper to construct, and help to bolster the industry of mining min-ing the red metal for many years to come. 'The consumption and production of copper is steadily increasing. Last year j one statistician 'placed the production j of copper In the United States at 603.- 000.000 pounds. Statistics specially collated col-lated for the American Metal Market of New York put the total copper production pro-duction of the country in 1900 at 537,-574,000 537,-574,000 pounds. The consumption the same year aggregated 335,000,000 pounds. This year it is esti- i mated that it will reach 433,000,000 pounds. Since 18S7 the production of '. copper' in the United States has more ! than trebled. It amounted that year j to only 81,017 tons. In 1900 it reached I -268,787 tons. The United States is now ' the largest copper producer in the ' world, and the greater development 1 occurring in the industry Is taking 2 place on this continent. Copper-trtpar- I in.rr properties have, in consequent, L become more valuable than anv other I class of mineral-producing lands. |