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Show Underground Mines Seek to Solve Problems v CfT 1 S V v r , -vr ' o N i s K 111 s rt . More War Workers such as these are needed to keep -'l ( h'-V metal production up. '.5 The state of Utah, its public of-' of-' ficials and irs citizens are becom-i becom-i ing alarmed over the decline in the ! production of lead and zinc, which comes primarily from underground . mines. ! It is well known that mining is I the backbone industry of Utah and that during normal times the indus try supports directly and indirectly nearly one-half the population of ; Utah. Yet, during a world war, the . production of lead and zinc has , been permitted to decline 15 per cent from the first month in 1932 to i the middle of 1942. ' First let us consider the market for mining stocks which is a barometer baro-meter of conditions. Stocks of Utah producing companies are selling sell-ing at depression levels. The pub-lice pub-lice has virtually abandoned the 1 mining market, indicating that : there is no confidence in their ability to earn a fair return under present conditions. Why cannot they earn a fair return? Most of , the producing companies have large reserves of low grade ores. The answer seems to lie in costs. During the past eight months, numerous num-erous war industries have located in Utah. Surplus workers have been employed and the war industries indus-tries have drawn upon the older established industries for their employees. em-ployees. Despite the fact that mining min-ing is an important war industry, it has not been able to hold its men, as it has not been in a position to meet the higher wages offered in other war construction industries. Thus mines with inexperienced men and an insufficient number of mines have been forced into an unbalanced un-balanced operation. Whereas one underground miner formerly produced pro-duced in excess of one ton per shift the output has fallen to .7 of a ton in one important mine. Recently steps have been taken looking toward solution of these problems. Soldiers who have worked in mines are being given furloughs if they return to their work. Wage and metal price adjustments ad-justments are also under consideration. |