Selected Articles from "The Mining Journal" 1944 ... - Vredenburgh

they were, but at a price of $191 a flask
the mine must have shown a 1943 profit
of at least $1 million. The story of New
Idria is the story of dozens of smaller
producers who were amazed and delighted
to find themselves under a ceiling higher
than the highest average price they had
ever experienced.
"New names have appeared in the business.
Second biggest producer after the
New Idria is the two-year-old Bonanza
II, at Yellow Pine, Idaho (4,261 flasks in
1943), followed closely by the original
Bonanza (3,294 flasks), at Sutherlin,
Douglas County, Oregon. Both 8re controlled
by the appropriately named Bonanza
Mines, Inc., a stock company reorganized
by S. R. Smith of San Francisco, a
veteran gold-mine operator. Three of the
Bradley mines-Reed, Sulphur Bank, and
Mount Diablo, all in California-were
among the first 10. The old New Almaden,
owned by eastern entrepreneurs, employs
as general manager an outstanding quicksilver
authority, C. N. Schuette, but last
year turned out less than 1,200 flasks."
The article continues with a discussion
of the European cartels, their activities in
the control of prices and production, and
something as to the future for the industry.
It concludes with the statement that
the boom is not only over, but that extinction
may lie ahead for most operators,
even if the government does establish a
policy of buying a certain amount of domestic
production at a fixed price in the
interests of national safety. This opinion
is based on the belief that few U. S.
producers could survive at a price of $75
a flask, the figure to which many miners
pr.edict the price will drop. The chief
hope of the industry lies in the development
of new uses for the metal, the mercury-powered
turbine at present being the
most promising. Three such power plants
have been completed and are in use, the
largest being 20,OOO-kilowatt generators,
each of which uses around 4,000 flasks
of mercury or about 25 per cent of U. S.
prewar annual output.
THREE EAGLE-PICHER MINES
CLOSED BY LABOR SHORTAGE
AGLE-PICHER MINING AND SMELT­
E ING COMPANY has announced that
it has been forced to suspend operation
of three of its major mines and its Bird
Dog central mill near Picher, Oklahoma,
because of an acute labor shortage. The
company also is said to have cut production
by about one-half at its Galena, I¥'nsaB,
smelter for the same reason.
Eagle-Picher, which is the largest producer
of war-vital zinc and lead concentrates
in the Oklahoma-Kansas-Missouri
mining district, is shifting the crews from
the three abandoned mines to other operations
to fill personnel gaps caused by
military inductions. Eagle-Picher Mining
and Smelting Company, a whollr owned
subsidiary of the Eagle-Picher Lead Company,
is headed by Joseph M. Bowlby,
American Building, Cincinnati Ohio. D. C.
·McKallor, of the same address, is general
manager of all mining and smelting operatioM.
PGfI, 10
REFINED COPPER UP IN APRIL
BLISTER PRODUCTION DOWN
OPPER production for the month of
C April, as reported by the Copper Institute,
amounted to 95,280 tons of refined
U. S. duty-free copper, compared
with an output of 99,118 tons in March
and 87,128 tons in February. At the end
of April refined stocks on hand, at refineries,
on consignment, and in exchange
warehouses, but not including consumers'
stocks at their plants, amounted to
38,382 tons, an increase of 1,123 tons over
stocks at the end of March. However,
stocks of blister copper decreased 3,243
tons during April, following an increase
of 2,171 tons in March, and 8,585 tons in
February. As a result, total stocks of
copper at the end of April were down
2,120 tons.
In its preliminary estimate of copper
production for March, the United States
Bureau of Mines reports an output of
93,617 tons from domestic mines, an increase
of 6,265 tons over that in February.
The average daily production in
March was 3,020 tons, an increase of 8
tons from the average daily production
for February and an increase of 39 tons
from the average daily production of 2,981
tons for 1943. The production from the
combined western states increased 6,100
LITTLE MAN yOU HA.VE
A DIZZY DAZE/"
tons (7.4 per cent) in March as compared
with February. In the eastern
states the increase was 59 tons of recoverable
copper. while the central states reported
an increase of 106 tons over February
production.
There were increases of varying magnitudes
in the production from all of the
copper producing states of the West in
March. The largest increase was noted in
Arizona production, where the Morenci
plant worked at full capacity throughout
the month, producing about 1,500 tons
more recoverable copper than in February,
the total production being the great;.
est ever recorded for that property. Gains
in output in March over February also
were noted at Inspiration, Miami, Castle
Dome, Nevada Consolidated, and New
Cornelia.
The March production from Montana
mines also was the highest recorded this
year and was due to a steady increase in
output of copper from the Anaconda Copper
Mining Company's properties at Butte.
The output from New Mexico increased
about 1,900 tons in March due to an increase
in the output from Kennecott Copper
Corporation mines at Santa Rita, New
Mexico. A substantial increase also Wal
noted in production from the Utah Copper
Company in Utah.
THE MINING JOURNAL for MAY 30, 11.14