Show tim DEMAND FOR COPPER COPPE n copper like the cost of living at five cents a nibble jias aas become an expensive necessity and seemingly will will continue to maintain it its s preset I 1 A altitudinous price and possibly higher never in the filst of the i f r af JT metal d u s try has aaa the copper market presented such abnormal features with a growing demand that 1 ean can hardly be supplied europe wallowing in blood holds out dripping hands in a plea tor more of 0 the red metal and domestic consumption has expanded appreciably every mine smelter and refinery in the united U cited states is being run capacity as is ia evidenced by the output sta tiB tica which show that for the first ten months of 1916 approximately pounds of 0 pig copper was waa produced while the production of refined copper reached ta the 0 ay iy total of pounds vast output has been virtu i ib r absorbed by consumption yet surope clamors cladora insistently latently ina tor for te ji abre more foreign interests have already contracted for huge quantities of the red metal to be delivered in the first half of 1917 and are still negotiating with selling agencies for further deliveries they are said even thus early to have purchased 95 per cent of the maximum output tor for the first quarter of the coming year and 75 per cent of the output for the first six months an inquiry from the french government for the delivery of pounds of copper during the last halt half of 1917 has had its effect in hoisting prices to higher levels even in heretofore conservative quarters the prediction is hazarded that the metal will reach forty cents and even fifty cents all facts and conditions justify the inference that nearly the whole of the 1917 copper output will bf lunder contract within the first sixty days of the new year leading producers and sellers are curtailing their bookings of 1917 metal and are making but few contracts for deliveries after juiyin the meantime premiums are being offered for nearby metal so urgent are the requirements of many purchasers the advent of new copper mining companies compa nies has become practically a necessity for every pound of metal they can produce is needed and can find a ready market at highly profitable figures on this basis the junior copper issues appear as a unique speculative opportunities offering remarkable possibilities tor for profit statisticians calculate that in 1917 the existing copper companies in the united states will make net earnings of from to with the latter figure more likely to be correct continued lavish dividends therefore are in order |