Arizona silver belt., 1901-03-07
An Extraordinary Growth of
 Our National Output.
BULK OF THE WORLDS SUPPLY.
More Than Half Billion Pounds per Annum Mined in the United States. Increasing Con-
 sumption,

pounds per day. In fact, we produce considerably more than one- of the worlds total supply of copper.
 Copper mining has very pictures que interest for more reasons than one. In point of beauty the metal is hardly surpassed even by gold, rivaling the latter in the brilliancy of its yellow glitter when new and unoxidized. So far as usefulness goes, iron Is its only superior, and within the last few years there has been an enormous increase in its production, owing chiefly to the development of electrical industries Immense quantities of copper are re- quired by the telegraph, telephone and the electric railway, as well as for wires used in the transmission of cleo tric power.
 The great boom in copper prodnc- ton came at the end of the eighties, when there WAS much speculation in the metal, and since then the increased price has led to an eager seeking for fresh deposits. There has been ie- verish development of new mines in various parts of the world but, not. wIthstanding the anxiety of the search, no great properties have been discov- cred. Improved processes have made 1t possible to extract the copper prott- ably from very low grade ore, some of them containg as little as one half of one percent, and 1t is mainly to this cause that the wonderful growth of the out may be attributed.
 MUST BUY COPPER HERE.
 Though we are by far the largest users of the metal, we are able, while supplying our own wants, to export immense quantities. lu fact, We sell to foreign purchasers as much as we utilize ourselves, Great Britain, France and Germany taking pretty nearly all of the copper ingots and plates that we send abroad Those countries-ex- eepting Germany, which has only a small out-sre not producers of cop per, and so they are obliged to buy from us the enormous quantities of the stuff which they require in their busi, ness
 During the year 1900 we sold to for eign consumers about 3Sl ,OOU, 900 pounds of copper Full statistics for that twelfth month have not yet been gathered by the output of the United States Geological Survey, but the ont pnt of this country in 1899 was 567, 300, 1000 pounds. In the same year the rest of North America contributed 95, ,594, GOO pounds; South America yielded 73,315, 900 pounds, Europe sent to market POI, 075, 900 pounds, Asia furnished 6l, 730, GOO pounds, Australia supplied 0,O96, 900 pounds, and Africa added for her share IA, 537, 900 and the output of the entire world being thus somewhat over one billion pounds of the metal.
 The bulk of the copper output of this country comes from three states Michigan, Montana and Arizona. The mines of the Lake Superior region, which mp to 20 years ago, furnished four-tifths of our total yield of the metal, are most picturesquely interest. ing. not only hecause they produce the stuffin pure state, ready refined by Datnre. but also on account of their history. They were worked by the Indians for centuries before the com ing of Columbus, and the copper from this source was distributed all over the eastern part of the United States through that wonderful system of bar ter and exchange which had been estab. lished among the aborigines. extend ing from the GreaC Lakes to the Gnlf of Mexico and from the Mississippi river to the Atlantic Ocean.
 MASSES DIFFICULT TO MINE.
 The Jesuit priests who first explored the southern shores oi Lake Superior found huge masses of pure copper, winch naturally excited thelr astonIsh. ment, lnasmuch as the metal Is not found Tn such shape anywhere else in the world. Early aboriginal miners found It impractlcable to deal with these great Jumps, because of the diff culty of cutting them to pieces, and modern operators, provided with ma chisery and every facility that capital and enterprise could furnish, have had much the same trouble. Indeed, the mining of this mass copper, so at tractive to the eye and stimulating to the imagination, has proved very haz- ardous and often unprofitable to in. vestors.
 There Is, however, plenty of copper to be found in quite another form in the Lnke Superior region. It occurs in n kiDd of couglomerute rock, which though low grade ore, Is dealt with ill enormous quantities and yields great profits. Some of the deepest mining in the world is done for this conglom crate, and special machinery for quick hOistiug has been devised, Tn order that as much as possible of the ore may be fetched to the sur face in the shortest time. Instead oi steel hammers depending on gravity for the force of the blows with which they pound the rock, steam stamps of tremendous power are employed. smashing the ore to powder. When the powdered rock is washed away. the copper remains in the shape of tiny flat plates, which are melted into in gots.