The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-02-20
CALIFORNIA MINING INDUSTRY
Gold Abandoned for Base Metals In
 Many Districts.

San Francisco Cor. New York Evening Post attention more to base-metal prospecting than heretofore. mainly owing to the ex- tensive mineral oil products tp the vlcin- ity of the copper and other base metal deposits. Before the discovery of the vast oil wells. within the past few years. the fuel was taken from the forests and the expense was so great that ores or less value than $S ton could nor De worked with profit. Now there Is a profit in 8 ore. In consequence, there Is renewed activity in this class of mining. from the Mexican border to the Oregon line.
 A foreign corporation not long ago was developing a gold quartz mine and sank a fortune in it. The ore was too rebel lious to be treated with the base metals of copper, sulphur, etc. so the company decided to extract the copper, thus min ing for copper instead of gold; The com idends. and the output of the mine is about 1000 tons of copper month. This new departure has induced many others to follow their example. and they have turned their attention from prospecting for gold quartz to searching for the bas- CT metals. This has greatly changed the mining industry of the State. and may ultimately revolutionize this industry.
 The indications are that within few years the value of the output of the cop per mines will exceed that of the gold mines of the State. Before copper mining became a profitable industry in Califer- worked, because they contained too lit- tie mineral. But the demand for fuxes for smelting copper has made them val uabe especially where these low-grade veins lie convenient to the copper belts.
 The copper industry thus opens up a field for gold ore that heretofore could not be extracted with a profit. and the cheaper oil fuel also enables miners to work low-grade ores that were formerly left in the mine, and which could be ex- tracted only with loss.
 In consequence of this new era in min ing, prospecting for copper Is lively throughout the State, and several New York companies have recently invested in plants. The search for copper has de- veloped the existence of iron deposits of high grade character in the mountains and foothills and 1t is reported that some of the large iron manufacturers in the East will soon develop these mines and erect smelters at convenient points to the iron districts.
 Gravel mining, or dredging the river beds for gold, has also received an inn petus and capitalists are looking after them instead of passing them by for prospective bonanzas. The dredGer Is an endless chain of buckets. raised or de- pressed, and they lift the auriferous gray el to the tables above. The machinery also pumps up the water used in wash ing the gold gravel from the dross. The dredger can remove from 2,0O0 to 5000 cubic yards in twenty-four hours. The ranges from 15 to 75 cents a cubic yard. The cost ranges from 5 to 12 cents, or more. per cubic yard, according to the softness of the river bed. The districts now being worked are mainly those that were abandoned years ago. when gold was more plentiful and miners were look ing only for big strikes. In the days of '49 fortunes were mined on some of these streams, and now, after half a century. their beds are being scooped out for what was considered as worthless.
 Gold mining has been reduced to the lowest possible cost, and there Is profit Tn minerals which could not be utilized few years ago. There is also less waste in reducing oIeS.