Arizona silver belt., 1888-01-07
Facts About Copper.
TFrom the Globe-Democrat. I

force is 26O0 men. There are thirty
 eight levels which enter to depth o
 over 2O00 feet. The lodes of copper
 vary in width from 6 to IS feet. h
 1886, 5G8,552 tons of ore were treated
 yielding nearly 27,O0O tons Of pure
 copper, or more than third of the
 entire production of the country. Tn:
 capital invested in the mine is S2,50O,-
 900, on which a dividend of $1 100000
 was paid last year, making the total
 amount paid to shareholders slnce the
 mine opened, in 1867, $30,O5O0oe.
 Last July the timber " Iich supports
 the passages in the mine, caught fire
 near the first shaft. In spite of the
 efforts made to keep it under, the fire
 spread to a disused portion of the
 mine, where old tim 5er and lumber
 had been thrown. After burning Tor
 months, an effort was made to descend
 into the mlne on November 20th of this year. On descending the second
 shaft, the explorers found that the fire
 had broken out in r@rt of the mine
 which had not been previously burn ing. Since then strenuous efforts have
 been made to eYtinguish the fire with out flooding the mine. By acting on limestone, immense quantities of car bonio acid gas were produced and driven through the mine for the pur- pose of depriying the timber of oxy- gen, without which nothing can burn.
 The last fire in the Calumet and Hecla came Tn the nick of time to help the French syndicate in its scheme in cornering copper The Rio Tinto mines, in Spain, have long played an important part in the copper itlarkets of the world Many of its shares are owned by the French people. Iii the early part of this year the price of copper fell to the lowest point that it has ever reached-9.9c in New York for Lake copper and f39 a. ton for Chili bars in London. The shares of the Rio Tinto mines have declined two-thirds since 1883. The efforts of the French syndicate have proved highly success sful. The price of cop per has steadily ristu"ln Loudon to fS0 los per ton, and the French peo- pie disposed of their shares before they reached the lowest point. The out look of the Calumet and Hecla fire may keep this price up for some time, but with the aid of new machinery the Butte mines, in Montana, expect to soon to be able to put 200 tons of fine copper day on the market, which must bring about a reaction.
 In 1915 100 tons of copper were pro- duced in the United States. What Is known as the Lake Superior district contributed twelve of these tons. In 1867, tie year the Calumet and Hecla miEe was opened, tho production of copper in this country had increased to 10000 tons. In 1886 the total out put of copper had swollen to 67C0O tons, and the United States had gone to the front as the largest copper-pro- ducing and exporting country Tn the world.
 The ores of copper are found in larger or smaller quantities in most of the States of the Union, The first mine opened in the country was the Simsbury, near Granby, Conn, in 1709. Ten years later the Schuyler mine, near Belleviile, N. J., Was dis covered, and, with a number of others in its vicinity, successfully worked for years. The first mine opened in Penn sylvania was the Gap mine, in Lan- caster, in which work was commenced in 1882. Since then the apparently InexhauStible mines of the Lake Su- perior district, in Michigan, have been opened up; rich mines have been found in Arizona; a seIes of wide velns of copper, mixed with silver, have been discovered in Montana and California; Colorado and Utah have also produced copper at profitable rates.
 The character of the copper ores diff fers greatly, according to the localities in which they are found. In "mass" mlnes the copper is in the form of pure metal, varying III size from few pounds to hundreds of tons. Such mines are, as a rule, soon worked out. i The most prominent in former years were the Cliff, Minnesota and Natlon- al mines, in the Lake Superior district. The bulk of native copper is, however, found distributed in fine grains, mixed up with iron ore in two classes of rock, called conglomerate and amyg- aloid. The ore, after being raised from the mine, is crushed into small ?; ,oes by huge stamping machines, after which the copper is melted out . . ol:..,,.- r,,.,ls fTL - .. l