Arizona republican., 1899-05-31
Other Properties in the Big Bug
 District.
WAITING FOR A SHELTER
Thousands of Tons of Ore Which Will NOf Stand Freight Charges on inc Dumps of Many Mines. A Description of inc Copper Mountain and Other Properties in inc District.

Mayer, Ariz., May 29.-(Special cor respondence of The Republican.)- mentioned in my last letter that there were on the dump of the McCabe mine 10, GOO tons of tailings which would not
 bear shipping charges but might be treated with advantage at home or at a reduction works in the near vicinity. Yesterday I found the same condition of things existing in the Big Bug dis triet. At Providence there are over 1,500 tons of concentrates that will not stand freight charges, and Mir. Little of the Red Rock mine informed me that he had made a proposition to the people who were contemplating the erection of a smelling and reduction works at Mayer to the effect that if they could show him a saving of 25 per cent in his freight charges and un- lertake the treatment of the Red Rock ores at the present cost he was pre- pared to give them the whole of his work As the ore could be delivered at Mayer at about the same figure as it costs to put it on rail at Chaparral this would give the local smelter a strong advantage and should much encour- age the promoters of the projected en- terprise.
 The fact that the sulphide ores of the district are very heavy in charac- ter, concentrating at a ratio of 2lA to tons Of ore to one ton of concent trates, is an additional argument fos home reduction, and as to further en- couragement there are some 50.O00 tons of tailings at the Crowned King and 2,O00 at the Gladiator mine avail able for local treatment
 Of course, the establishment of such a works requires most careful consid- eration and this is what the matter is receiving at the hands of the repre- sentatives of eastern capital, who have for some time past been devoting their time to this object.
 A local smelter where the strug- gling prospector could dispose of small quantities of ore and thus be enabled to continue his exploration work would be a great boon to a most deserving class of men who, when they are lucky enough to make a favorable strike, have pretty hard fight to make any thing out of it. and although the pro- jected enterprise is not an assured fact I may say that favorable progress is being made to that end
 Close to Mayer is a bed Of onyx, which, in the opinion of Mir. Underhill, an expert whose word carries great weight with stone men, is one of the very finest and most considerable de- posits of this ornamental mineral in the world. Tha beds are of great depth, we'll situated for working, the stratifcation is regular, the material unexcelled for beauty and variety of color, and the extent of the deposit may be gathered from the fact that POS acres are held under one patent by Senator Fowler of Elizabeth, N..J., and Messrs. Stephenson of Hoboken, N J., and Black of New York An adjoin- ing sixty acres is held by a Mir Boyne The first named holding, on which con siderable work has been done, repre- sents in its present shape a capital out lay of $160,000 and when some mat ters of a personal nature which led to the stoppage of the quarry have been satisfactorily adjusted a valuable and important addition will be made to the industries of Yavapai county.
 COPPER MOUNTAIN.
 Five miles northeast of Mayer is the Copper Mountain mine, owned by I. T. Stoddard Gone of the mining pioneers of the territory and Omaha capital on this property at various times for the past nineteen years during which time from first to last upwards of S260 900 have been expended on explor- ation. development and plant.
 About a mile from the mine on the bank of the Agua Fria river smelter the first copper shelter put in op- eration in the territory north of Globe was erected by Mr. Steddard and has done considerable work in it's time, up- wards of $50, ,000 worth of copper ore (rich carbonates and oxides) having been taken from the Copper Mountain mine during the various development operations and smelted and shipped.
 What is known as the Lower tunnel, 730 feet in length, passed through more than eighty feet of low grade copper