Arizona weekly journal-miner., 1895-11-13
THE COPPER QUEEN.
One of krizOna's Bonanza Copper Properties Surrounded by Others
 Equally Promising.
4 District Which Offers Great h. ducements to Capital for h. vestment in Copper
 Properties.

make speciality or mln'nS news or the territory, some information from this section may not be considered out of place.
 The mission of the following lines is to dissipate the erroneous yet universally prevalent impression that the Warren mining district Is wholly controlled by the Copper Queen Mining company of Bisbee, Arizona. Whether the opinion IS cultivated by that company and measures taken tC suppress. adver- tisement of this district, 1t Is i'm possible to say, but certain 1t Is that
 mining capitalists every day pass us
 by to invest in property far inferior to that contained in this district.
 The Warren mining district,
 basin of one hundred square miles extent in the south end of tho Mule
 mountains, Is beyond question the
 richest undevelope3 copper region
 in the United States. That this statement is not in the least degree
 hyperbolical, subsequent data will go to show. At the northwest coraer of the basin Is tie Copper Queen and its creation. the town of Blsbee. As an illustration of the abundance of the ore, tho Copper Queen at first producing aoOut nine hundred tons of bullion every month and m con stant operation for more than fifteen
 years has not found it expedient 10 go below a depth of four hundred feet until within few months, when one of the shafts was sunk one hund- red feet below its former depth.
 Some Drospector whose name Is in all probability unknown to its pres ent owners, discovered the first in dication of the mine where the Queen "Cut" now is. That perpen- dicular vein of ore was the only out let in the three or four hundred feet of lime formation that covers the entire copper field. Upon this bung-
 hole in natures treasure casque he
 stumbled. Had he not stuck his curious pick into that spot, what is
 now one of the most thriving camps in the southwest would still be given over to buzzards and Apaches.
 The at that time insignificant claim passed from hand 10 hand, be-
 ing staked at one time against a bottle of "rot-gut," until it eveltu- ally became the property of MT. Riley. Riley was an Arizonan, aud as a natural sequence, hustler. He took into partnership Ballard x
 Martin, who were at that time en- gagged in the construction of the San Fernando tunnel in California, and erecting a shelter they did the first work on the mine that paid last year dividend of SI ,S00000.
 Their beginning was small, start ing with two claims, one an exten- sion of the other, along the base of the mountain. Though the prop erty higher up the mountain was equally as good they made no effort to get it, which would be surprising to any experienced miner, as the ore body pitched back into the noun tam. But Ballard, Riley X Martins slag dump and bank roll grew apace and the camp rose to the dignity of the toughest camp (barring Tomb stone) on the frontier.
 Along about 'S3 Professor Doug 1 lass, representing wealthy New | York syndicate, visited Bisbee. The | professor was either a practical | mining man or he had several dimes | in his old clothes to exchange for | practical mining knowledge. This | knowledge allied with his shrewd ! Scots judgment. told him there was ore behind the Queen, so he pur- chased the claims farther up the side and on top of the mountain, and started what was called the At lanta Mining company. At a depth of several hundred feet the Atlanta shaft struck ore-to say nothing of a drift the Copper Queen had run some eighty feet beyond their bouad- ary line and into the Atlanta. The professor was beligerent and threat ened to bring suit but finally some compromise was effected that re- suited in the consolidation of the two companies. Not long afterwar1 the original owners, Riley, Ballard * Martin, sold their share of the mines to their partners.
 Since then they have extended their lines by purchase until they now own enough property to out last the life time of the youngest man connected with the company; i. e., about one-sixth of the Warren mining district.
 The Copper Queens plant con sists mainly in two hoisting works, smelling plant and foundry. The two shafts iD operation are operated by 70 horsepower hoist engines. A third sba:'. or rather incline, at the original queen Gut" owing to its inconvenience to the smelters is no longer in use, as the ore body be- meath it IS connected with the other shafts by a system of tunnels that have an aggregate extent of over sixty miles. The smelting works are made up of four smelters and a converting plant. Of the smelters two turn out each one hundred tons of ore every day; two smaller smelt- CTS smelt each sixty tons of ore every day. After smelting the ore is run through the converters which turn out every twenty-four hours about thirty five tons of bullion that runs ninety-eight; ninety-nine and some times ninety-nine and nine-tenths per cent copper. The foundry has been erected but recently, the great of slag-pot and various other utensils and castings con sumed by the company prompting them 10 build plant of their own.
 OTHER SOURCES OF REVENUE.
 Their railroad, line some fifty odd miles in length connecting with the Southern Pacific at Benson, is ,he only means of transportation, and therefore a source of no small revenue to its owners. Though ouilded mainly for freighting their bullion and coke supply, the travel ( md United States mail contract must go we'll towards paying its ex-