Recoverable copper produced from domestic mines (including Alaska) in January-June, July, August, and September 1941, in short tons

Mr. TARVER. You are not at this time in the possession of facts which would indicate the reason for the production below the production in the months of April and May in 1941, and the decreased production in other months through the month of October?

Mr. MILLER. May is one of the higher months, is it not, with 89,390 tons?

Mr. TARVER. Yes; that is correct.

Mr MILLER That is, as compared with September, when 81,000 tons were produced.

Mr. TARVER. But, with the emergent need for copper which exists, and which, as has been stated here by one of our colleagues, amounts to a need for four times as much as is available, if the copper mines in the country were capable of producing 89,000 tons in May, why should they drop below that production in subsequent months? With the national-defense effort going on, they should at least have been able to maintain the rate of production which they had then reached. Why should there have been a decrease in production?

Mr. MILLER. Part of the reason for fluctuation is due to the change in inventory in the smelting and refining operations. For instance, the smelter or refinery intake may remain substantially constant, yet, by reason of having greater or less material in process at the end of the period, the output varies.

REASON FOR FALLING OFF IN PRODUCTION

Mr. TARVER. You are speaking of what might be, I think, Mr. Miller. I want to know if you know of any reason why the production should have fallen off. You do not, at the moment you are testifying, know of any reason why the production should have fallen off instead of increased?

Mr. MILLER. No.

Mr. TARVER. You do not know of any efforts on the part of copper producers in the United States to step up the production of copper?

Mr. MILLER. I am familiar in a general way with the activities of the Office of Production Management and their attempts to increase the smelter production of copper. I see Mr. Hammond is here.

Mr. TARVER. We will talk to him a little later, but we want to find out what you know now. Do you know of anything that has been done, any effort that has been made, to step up the production of copper?

MORENCI, ARIZ., DEVELOPMENT

Mr. MILLER. Well, there is the new development out at Morenci, Ariz., which will be expanded with funds furnished by the Defense Plant Corporation.

Mr. TARVER. New mines are being placed in operation?

Mr. MILLER. The mine, the mill, and the smelater are coming into production now, a development that has been going on over a period of years. Present plans call for a large increase in production

facilities.

Mr. TARVER. Who are the largest producers of copper in the United States?

Mr. MILLER. The Kennecott group, the Anaconda group, and the Phelps-Dodge group.

EFFORTS TO INCREASE PRODUCTION

Mr. TARVER. What efforts of these three outstanding producers of copper are being made to increase the production during the pendency of this emergency?

Mr. MILLER. The Morenci development is part of the Phelps-Dodge group, and that is nearing completion.

Mr. TARVER. What have the other groups mentioned by you done in an effort to step up production, Mr. Miller?

Mr. MILLER. The large copper producers are limited by mill_capacity. If the mill will only handle a certain fixed tonnage a day, that is the maximum amount of production.

Mr. TARVER. Is it possible to provide other milling machinery, is it not?

Mr. MILLER. Yes; if they had the necessary time to build the plants, but it takes from 12 to 18 months.

Mr. TARVER. How long would it take?

Mr. MILLER. The Morenci has been in development for 2 years, or a little more.

Mr. TARVER. The Government is now engaged in the building of power dams which will not begin to produce power for some 2 or 3 or 4 years. Why should the copper companies, with this great need for copper, which is four times as much as we have, not engage in installing new machinery, new mines, and new mineral operations, to take care of the emergent need for copper?

Mr. MILLER. My own opinion would be that they have not been forewarned sufficiently in advance to start this expansion. It takes a year to 18 months to get new equipment installed and into production. Mr. TARVER. I presume they knew the war was on since September 1939, did they not?

Mr. MILLER. Yes.

Mr. TARVER. Assuming that they did read the papers and find out about the war, they have had, then, more than 2 years to try to do something to step up the production of copper, have they not?

Mr. MILLER. That is true, but the peak demand for copper has developed rather abruptly in comparatively recent months. I doubt if anyone was in a position 18 months ago to fully anticipate the tremendous demand that would be placed on copper production.

Mr. TARVER. Do you know of anything that these two companies. Anaconda and Kennecott, have done to increase the production of copper in their holdings?

Mr. MILLER. The capacity of the various plants of these companies has been increased gradually over a period of several years. I am not certain what plans they have made that may increase their milling capacity.

Mr. TARVER. I am not talking about plans, but accomplishments. They have not done anything, as far as you know?

Mr. MILLER. As far as I know, there have been no substantial increases in capacity at these plants during the last year or two.

COPPER IN THE UNITED STATES AVAILABLE FOR MINING

Mr. TARVER. Do you have any information as to the amount of copper in the United States that is available for mining?

Mr. MILLER. There are reserve figures published for several of the larger properties. I know there are published figures for the Utah Copper operations at Bingham, and for New Cornelia, and other properties.

Mr. TARVER. I am not talking now about individual operations. I want to know the total estimated tonnage of raw copper available in the United States for mining?

Mr. MILLER. That is, ore in the ground?

Mr. TARVER. Yes, sir.

Mr. MILLER. It has been summarized in technical articles.

Mr. TARVER. I am sure of that, but do you not know how much the estimates are?

Mr. MILLER. No; I do not know offhand. I could get you the figures and submit them for the record.

Mr. TARVER. Can you give it to us approximately?

Mr. MILLER. No; not without referring to the publications. Mr. TARVER. It would run into the billions of tons, would it not? Mr. MILLER. Yes; very clearly it would, because one property would have several million tons of ore.

Mr. TARVER. Which property would that be?

Mr. MILLER. The Utah Copper Co., which has over 500,000,000 tons of ore.

Mr. TARVER. Over 500,000,000 tons?

Mr. MILLER. Yes, sir.

Mr. TARVER. How much is the Utah Copper Co. producing of this 80,000 or 90,000 tons per month that is being produced during 1941? Mr. MILLER. I do not know that I am allowed to give their confidential figures. Their annual figure is the only one that I could give. We do know their mill capacity in tons of ore per day, and it is over 80,000 tons a day. That is the capacity of their two mills.

Mr. TARVER. You mean that one company can produce 80,000 tons of ore a day, and all of the companies are only producing between 80,000 and 90,000 tons a month?

Mr. MILLER. The copper ore that they mine runs about one percent of copper, and that is only

Mr. TARVER. I see. What is their tonnage of copper per day? Mr. MILLER. The total content would be approximately 1 percent of 80,000, or 800 tons per day, or thereabouts.

Mr. TARVER. And you say only 1 percent of that is copper?

Mr. MILLER. Yes; 1 percent of the ore is copper.

Mr. TARVER. When you give us these figures you meant copper, you did not mean ore?

Mr. MILLER. No; I meant copper ore.

Mr. TARVER. I am trying to keep you in terms of copper. How much copper do they produce per day?

Mr. MILLER. Do I have the right to give confidential figures which are given to the Bureau of Mines?

Mr. TARVER. I rather think we would not ask you to, but figures available to the general public.

Mr. MILLER. The Utah Copper property produces the bulk of the copper from Utah. In 1940 Utah produced 248,730 tons of copper. Mr. TARVER. And the Utah Copper Co.'s properties are all in Utah? Mr. MILLER. Yes, sir; at Bingham, Utah.

Mr. TARVER. This is a company with 500,000,000 tons of copper in the ground, and it produced in the whole year 1940 only 248,000 tons?

Mr. MILLER. Yes; of copper, and not quite all of that, because some of that came from other properties in Utah.

Mr. TARVER. I understand that, but if it produced it all, it only amounts to 248,000 tons.

Mr. MILLER. Yes, sir. The company mined and milled twenty or twenty-five million tons of ore in 1940 and produced somewhat less than 248,000 tons of copper.

Mr. TARVER. And yet we have a tremendous copper shortage and we have only a quarter of the copper that we need, and these huge corporations owning all of the copper in the country are making no effort to increase their production?

Mr. MILLER. That is the capacity operation, or virtually so, for the Utah Copper Co.

Mr. TARVER. Well, with its present plant?

Mr. MILLER. Yes; that is right.

Mr. TARVER. But when it has 500,000,000 tons of copper and the country is so urgently in need of copper, why cannot its production be stepped up, and why can it not get other machinery and other plants and increase its production of copper?

Mr. MILLER. That statement I think you would have to get from someone representing the Utah Copper Co.

Mr. TARVER. You represent the organization of the Government which is supposed to look after the interests of the people and to advise us about these matters, and it seems to me that you should be able to give us information which will enable us to determine whether these copper companies are doing what Mr. Slattery said, just holding down production in order to keep up the price, or whether they

are really trying to produce to the limit in an hour of national

emergency.

Mr. MILLER. Their mills have the capacity to use 80,000 tons per day, and they are now, and have been for months past, been producing 80,000 tons a day, I do not think that it follows that they could be curtailing their production.

Mr. TARVER. Even if they have that 500,000,000 tons of ore, and when you say 80,000 tons a day you mean ore?

Mr. MILLER. That is right.

Mr. TARVER. And only 1 percent of that is copper?

Mr. MILLER. That is right.

Mr. TARVER. I do not know why you jump from copper to ore. If you divide that 80,000 tons by 100, you will have less than 1,000 tons per day?

Mr. MILLER. That is right.

Mr. TARVER. Now, then, 500,000,000 tons, and you mean copper there; you do not mean ore?

Mr. MILLER. No; that is reserve ore.

Mr. TARVER. You mean ore?

Mr. MILLER. Yes.

Mr. TARVER. At any rate, you think that although they are not installing any new plants, and no new machinery, that because their existing plants are, or may be, operated to capacity, that they are doing all they can to produce copper?

Mr. MILLER. It would take them months to get more mill capacity built.

Mr. TARVER. Well, this war may go on for years.

Mr. MILLER. That is right.

Mr. TARVER. Everybody else is being asked to plan ahead. The Government is planning ahead for the production of power, as I said awhile ago, 3 or 4 years, in the construction of dams which will not produce power for that length of time, and what motive would the copper companies have for not planning ahead for the increased production of copper other than the motive ascribed to them by Mr. Slattery to hold down the production and keep up the price without regard to the national need?

Mr. MILLER. The prices they are operating under now are lower than any previous year when they approached that production level. The nearest comparable figure we have is that for the year 1937 when 1,699,000,000 pounds of copper were produced. The prices in 1937 were slightly higher than at present. The average price of copper in cents per pound in 1937 was 12.1 cents. In 1938 it was 9.8 cents. In 1939 it was 10.4 cents, and in 1940 it was 11.3 cents.

Mr. TARVER. Of course, 1937 was about the time when we all thought we had a resurgence of prosperity in this country, and the prices of everything were going up. That is true, is it not?

Mr. MILLER. The prices of copper were approximately the same as today.

Mr. TARVER. Of course, the companies have had difficulty in maintaining the price of copper to what they thought was a desirable level throughout the years of the depression. They went up to 18 cents a pound just before the depression, did they not?

Mr. MILLER. Yes.