The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1901-05-17
MINING NOTES

ing shipped from the Chandler. Th,
steam shovel is at No. pile howeve
: prepared for work when the time ar
) rives.
: Z. L. Fairbairn. formerly of Ish
peming, has been appointed superin
tendent of the Jones & Laughlir
company's mining properties on the
Mesaba range.
Richard Fault, master mechanic OF
the Minnesota at Soudan, has gone to
Birmingham. Ala, where he goes to
take a similar position under Ed.
Ball OF the Tennessee Coal & Iron
company.
The official announcement of the
appointment of Dr. Nelson P. Hulst
as vice president. and general min
ing engineer of the Oliver properties
and James McNaughton, of Iron
Mountain. Mich, to be superintend-
ent Of the Menominee range district
has been made.
| Tile largest steam shovel ever
brought to the iron regions of Mime
sotais at the Stevenson mine. 1t has
a steel frame and weighs 1O5 tons.
The Stevenson will have its open pit
ready in July Seventy-five Thousand
tons have been taken out of the shaft
on this property. The mine is oper-
ated by Corrigan, Mckinney & Co.
Tile Pioneer has about 200, 900 tons
in stock and is awaiting the running
of boats to begin active shipments.
At present only the ore daily holsted is
going forward to the docks at Two
Harbors. Every thing is being made
ready at the mine, so that when the
rstorders come for the movement of
ore, everything will be in readiness to
push shipments.
The Minnesota tax commission has
enIholding meeting at Duluth
the past few days and much of inter-
est was discussed. o. H. Simonds,
Dwight Woodbridge, F. w. Kugler
andS. Fl. Bingham discussed mine
taxation, and arguments were present.
ed In favor of materially increasing
it. Mr.. Simonds illustrated the rate
at which the mines were being taxed
by saying that the Rockefeller hold
ings4were disposed of on a basis that
makes tlem worth about $4,000, 900
while their assessed valuation was
less than 100000 In Mr.. Simonds'
opinion, mining taxation should be
placed In the hands 'of Il competent
board, removed from local influences.
1t is learned that the shutting
down of the Commodore mine at Vir-
ginia, has behind it some
thing more than the question Of the
price of royalty on the ore produced.
This is said to be only one of two
principal reasons, and the other is
with reference to the pumping Of
water drained from other mines in
the vicitity. The Commodore mine,
it is claimed by people fully convers-
ant with Sne circumstances, is the
Penobscot of Virginia. Hibbing has
its Penobscot and Virginia its Com
mOdore and the properties are remark
able for the amount Of water they
drain from other mines, and have to
pump out in order to operate them
selves. The PenObscOt has enormous
pumping capacity to meet the con-
slant emergency of keeping the water
down, and the Commodore. while it
does not have to pump as much water,
has an extensive pumping plant, and
it is said that this mine drains the
Union Ore company'S property and
some of the mines Of the Franklin
group. Also that the Union Ore
company's mine, which is new pro-
position, would have to shut down if
the Commodore allows its mine to fill
with water, as the latter property |
now receives the drainage. The
Union Ore company has no pumps |
and could not continue if the Commo-
dore should fill up and the drainage
from the former property cease. The
people of Virginia are much concerned
regarding the shutting down of the
Commodore, but it is generally be-
lieved the property will not long be
idle. Corrigan, Mckinney & Co.,
however, are in good shape to stand
siege. They can fill their orders
for Commodore ore from their Steven
son mine, where the grade is the
same. The stockpile at the Commo-
dore contains enough ore to pay the
minimum output for two years, so
that the property could lie idle for
that length of time without the COM
pany suffering much inconvenience.
Short Time to Ship.
A dispatch from the head of the
ri 4 -