Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1899-07-15
MINING DEFINED.
An Educational Editorial by the Copper
Situation.

An Educational Editorial by the Copper
Situation.
There are many people, especially in
the eastern portions of this country, and
even in the agricultural sections of the
west and south, who have very limited
information as to what the mineral in
dustry really is.
The vague impression is that mining
means sinking deep shafts hundreds of
feet into the ground and trusting to
chance for finding valuable minerals;
that when the latter are found they ex-
list in substantial quantities, and that
to get the minerals into merchantable
condition.
This Is true of mining the precious
metals, and also of the base metals.
Now, in a general way, valuable miner
ais are found in well-defined veins or
deposits, and their presence can be as
clearly indicated as nature can desig-
nate their location.
When the mining prospector or engi-
neer sees a great mountain of rock split
and the crevice filled up with mineral
deposits differing from the rock on each
side of the fissure, he can safely expect
that a valuable mineral is generally
somewhere in this fissure, if it's presence
is discovered anywhere at or near the
( surface or any openings made down in
to the vein.
The walls of the country" rock, as it
is sometimes called, are as clearly de-
fined on each side of the mineral as the
walls of a building would be. The min
eral substances within the fissure are
| called ore, and the ore consists of the
metal or metals giving it value, and
other substances of no value, but asso-
ciated Herewith.
The mining operator endeavors to fol-
low the course Of the vein, or 'lode," as
it is sometimes called, by vertical shafts
and horizontal tunnels leading from the
shafts at different levels down from
the surface OF the ground.
Now, this ore may require a variety of
forms Of treatment to extract the metal,
and the methods depend upon the diff
ference in the character Of the ore it.
self.
Take copper mining, for instance.
There are three kinds of ore. That Of
the Michigan region, where the native
metal exists in a finely divided state in
beds of rock that once was a sand or
bed of the sea.
This rock is brought to the surface,
pulverized in water by stamp mills so
as to wash away the foreign matter,
and is afterward melted into bars ready
for the market.
In Montana the ore is a high and
heavy black substance somewhat like
coal, consisting mainly of iron, sulphur
and Upper, and including a small por-
ton of gold and silver. None of the
metals is visible to the eye. The treat
ment is by burning some of the sulphur
out of the ore, after which the latter is
melted in furnaces, called smelters, and
about half of the remaining sulphur and
iron is removed. This flows out Of the
smelter in a black substance called
Stag" What remains in the smelter is
called matte. 1t Is about half copper
This matte, while in a molten condi-
ton, is then run into a vessel called a
converter" and hot air is blown
through it until the iron and sulphur
are all burned out, leaving the metal in
a comparatively pure condition, which
is then cast into bars Of copper "bul-
lion" This kind of ore is called sui
phide, on account of the presence of
sulphur therein.
In Arizona some of the ore deposits
ground, but owing to the long action of
the elements thereon the sulphur is
washed or leached out, leaving a COM
position called oxide, or carbonate, ore
only to be treated.
The treatment of this carbonate, or
oxide, ore is very simple, being precise
ly the same as the treatment of iron
ore, which consists in having provided
in the smelter fuel enough to melt the
latter compound and separate the iron
and other substances from the copper,
so that the copper bullion can be drawn
off directly into molds and ready for the
market with a single melting operation.
This is a great advantage Of the Ari-
iona ores compared with copper ores in
other localities, as they are mined near
very rich in the percentage of copper.