Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-01-26
PRODUCTION
Of COPPER
How it May be Increased in the
United States.
BIG PROPERTIES EXPAND
Certainty Of the Lake Superior, Butte,
Utah and Arizona
Camps.
BIG PROPERTIES EXPAND

OoN ANA"S
asked to name the points at which an in
creased production of copper can be ex-
pscted, as the great mines OF the
United States are declared to be working
to their fullest capacity, n no new
great mines are in sight. 1t Is declared
that Calumet is working to it's limit, that
the Butte mines have reached their
maximum output, that Utah will develop
slowly, tina the United Verde Of Arizona
contemplates no extension, etc.
1t is very difficult to point out in ad-
vance the increased supplies that are al
ways tempted into the market by en-
HANGING prices, for it is not the old es-
tablished mines that materially increase
their output under the stimulus Of higher
prices. Hope in the human breast is the
great worlds miner, and every advance
in metal prices stimulates production
from poorly located or poorly equipped
mines, stimulates the opening of new
fields, stimulates plans for expansion in
the larger properties, n the fruition Of
it all is seen two or three years after
ward, in an enlarged production to come
upon the market, after the boom in prices
has passed.
Lake Superior Is the old established
copper country of the United States, and
yet the late copper boom has opened three
new districts on Lake Superior that give
promise Of an aggregate production, q
few years hence, equalling the present
output of any mine at Lake Superior,
save the Calumet & Hscla. It has also
stimulated, we not, the develop
ment Of the three largest mines at Lake
Superior, now contemplating a much
larger output in the near uture. These
are the Calumet, the Tamarack and the
Quincy. The Calumet has been opening
the past year on the Osceola lode, which
is entirely apart from that from which
the great dividends of the Calumet have
been paid, an entirely new mine, with
complete equipment, and openings under
ground that surpass all the underground
Developments that have been made in
the past year by the new properties, in
| Guiding the Arcadian. Including this de-
velOpment, one may look for a Calumet
& Hecla production in the next few years
increased by somewhere from 10 to 20 per
cent. The Quincy soon puts q new shaft
into commission, n before the end Of
this year should be producing a very
much larger product, and next year the
| great shaft Of the Tamarack, which has
been piercing the earth at a record break
ing speed for three years past, should
strike the Calumet lode at it's deepest
and richest point. The outlook, there
fore, is that the older mines of Lake Su-
perior will not diminish in production for
the next five years.
To the north of the Calumet & Hecla
the Mohawk has found the Wolverine
Kearsarge lode. and is making a mine
which should be far larger than either
the Wolverine or the old Kearsarge, now
a part of the Osceola.
On the south range the new Copper
Range railroad has thrown the whole
copper country south of Houghton open
to development and the Baltic, the Tri-
mountain and the Champion make GER
tain a new copper mining district that
will produce increasisg amounts of cop
per. The Winona and Elm River and
WyandOtte mines make another group,
further south, which are ploughing at
least 81, 000, 900 into underground OPEN
ings, and from present indications the
chances are that one, or more, profitable
producer in this region will come into be-
ing.
Still further to the south, the old On
tOnagOn mines have opened as the Mass,
the Michigan, the Victoria, etc., with
several hundred thousand dollars CT
money; and probably another million
dollars will go into underground develop
ments In these properties. with prospects
OF Fair production. The Mass mine, allied
with the Carnegie interests, seems ia
have the lead here. but it's success will
stimulate other developments. When it
is remembered that 49, 900, 900 cash was Of
fered for the Ontonagon, mines, before
copper was IL cents. 1t may readily be be-
lieved that these mines are something
more than prospects. 1t can easily be
computed that from six to ten million
dollars will be planted underground at
Lake Superior, in new copper PROPOSE.
tons, as the result Of the 1899 come,
boom, and a single successful conner
mine can return 1t all in dividends
There are chances here for half q dozeu