Arizona weekly journal-miner., 1902-08-06
A STRAIGHTFORWARD REPORT FROM A
 RELIABLE EXPERT
THE VAST COPPER BEDS AND THE FABULOUS WEALTH OF
 THE VALDEZ REGION.
That it is the Richest and Most Ex- tensive Copper Belt in the World is Substantiated by Men of Keen Observation and Conservative Judgment. Mi. Persons Careful Examinations and His Open Statements.

SuuHtICtA' Uit Oi SOlI . Ooi OiGE
 Examinations and His Open
 Statements.
 The following will be found inter esting reading by men whose especial calling links them to the channel of mining, and particularly that branch of the same embraced in the copper industry. Coming as this report does from a gentleman who as an ex- pert, more particularly on copper than any of the other sister metals, ranks high, and who also Is prac- tical as well as a scientific authority, enjoys the confidence and backing of many as to his honesty and ability, his statements must necessarily be considered paramount and go with out contradiction. Below will be found also a few endorsements vol untarily from Mir. Person to substan- tiate the reliability and competency of the man, coming as these tributes do from men who also are authorities on copper mining. From Mir. Fer sons exhaustive report we condense as follows:
 I herewith submit to you my report on the Kinnecot and Nicholi groups of copper mines.
 The Kinnecot group consists of thirty-one claims.
 The Nicholi group consists of seven claims, making in all thirty-eight full claims, or about seven hundred and sixty acres.
 The course of the lead is northeast and southwest dipping to the east. It seems to be a.contact between lime and michaloid formations although on the Bonanza claims, where the strongest croppings appear on the surface, it dips into the lime forma- ton, which appears and crops out from 1000 to 1000 feet higher up than the uppermost croppings of this body of ore.
 I took a large average sample from the croppings of the Jumbo group which assayed "A per cent copper.
 Then following along northwest | from this group the ore appeared on the surface along near the contact very strong, in some places at least l seventv-five feet wide.
 As these mines are undeveloped | except the development that nature has done, it Is impossible for me to l report upon anything except the ore actually iii sight. As far as possible | I made a very exhaustive examina- ton of the whole group and 1 must | say that 1 never saw anything like it | before. Nature has done more to de- velop this ore than perhaps at any other place on the Pacific coast, or perhaps in the world.
 Very conservative measurements of | the Bonanza lead are 575 feet in length with an average width of fifty | feet and an average depth of fifty | feet. Although the lead is much . wider and the ore crops out plainly in . sight, I have calculated it fifty feet wide. The lead stands up in some places fifty feet above the surface clean solid ore.
 A few samples which I took from the full length of these croppings | and crossing the lead in thirty or forty places and sampling the ore down until l could get an average of the whole body in several different ways as thoroughly as could be done, assayed over 40 per cent in copper.
 There is also broken down and ly- ing about in plain. sight many thousands of tons of ore which can be shoveled up and shipped.
 1 calculated these masses of ore only three feet deep.
 But in my opinion this ore in some places runs from 10 to 15 feet deep and perhaps deeper. l give you these figures merely to show you the meth cd by which 1 arrived at what 1 call ore in sight.
 The ore is clean and the gangue is all lime, which has been broken down from the main lead and lies on the side of the mountain and in the gorges, some of which are completely filled.
 In my letter to Mir. Bradshaw l l stated to him that there was from S1O,OOOOO0 to Sl5,0OO,OO0 in sight, and there is no doubt in my mind | from what I actually saw but that there is many times that amount in this group of mines.
 The largest sample from the lead l had assayed by Thomas Price x Sons in San Francisco. It assayed 72.5 | in copper and SIP in gold aud silver, and the poorest ore assayed 16 per cent copper and S4 gold and silver.
 As said before, tt is very probable | that there is five times as much ore in these great masses already broken | down as 1 could see or sample. l | put a man to work for one day to see how much ore he could throw out or sort from the lime. This man, al | though a green hand at sorting ore, in eight hours selected three tons as near as I could get at it by measure ment and weight, which assayed 50 per cent.
 1 made other samples in some cases to see how poor 1 could get ore. Per haps it is the best to give you the re- suit of the assay of these samples: