Weekly Arizona journal-miner., 1905-05-31
AR1zoNA's COPPER MINES.

uninitiated, how long will it take the mining companies at present operating
 in Arizona to work out the mines and
 exhaust the ore bodies. If the latest
 performances of the producing copper
 mines of Arizona can be taken as an
 example at the end of the present een-
 tury the existing generations will com
 pare the present efforts at production
 to the work of weddings.
 The mining and metallurgy of eol
 per in Arizona were prominent inte
 ests even before the advent of the raj
 road The Ajo mines were worke>
 before the eessiOn of Arizona to the
 United States, and the Planet mine~
 on the Colorado river shipped by wa
 ter large quantities of ore to San
 Francisco for shipment to Europe be-
 tween 1850 and 1880. The Longfel-
 low mine in the Clifton district, was
 worked actively by Lezinsky Bros,
 as early as 1872, when their product
 
 500 miles to the nearest railroad sta
 tiOn, feat which could have been
 performed only by merchants, hauling
 merchandise into points upon the Rio
 Grande from the east. Their first at- tempts were directed to smelting in reverberatory furnaces, but brick costing dollar a piece soon eompell- ed them to resort to primitive eupolas of the Mexican type. These were sup planted by copper water-jaeketed furnaces, east out of their own crude copper, and these again were not re- placed by iron jackets until the rail- road reached LOrdsburg. The fuel up to that date also was charcoal, hauled in from the Burro mountains.
 The arrival of the railroad was sig nalized by active operations at Bis bee in July, 1880, and by increased ae- tivity in the Clifton district, where . the Detroit group of mines had al- ready been partially developed. The first furnaces, however, for the treat ment of Detroit company ores were not blown in until the winter of 1881, under Mir. William Chureh's manage ment. Globe also felt the stimulus, the Old Dominion company opening. up the New York and Chicago mines near the base of the Pinal mountains. It was several years subsequently, be- fore the same company secured and operated the mines in the immediate of Globe, which since .hen have become prominent produc- PTS. The United Verde mines at hat time were known to exist, bu; he nearest railroad station, Marieoya being 1S0 miles distant their active fife dates only from the building of he Atlantic and Pacific across the northern section of the territory. These our eenters of active copper mak- ng still represent the only permanent rodueers, but all have grown in pro- uctiveness and extent of operations so etively that Arizona bids fair within
 short period to deprive Montana of he first place, which she has so long coupled among the United States roducers.
 In the early days it was assumed hat the life of the Arizona mines Tould be limited by the duration of heir supply of oxydized ores. as the duplicated processes then in vogue for he treatment of sulphides could not ossibly be praetieed where labor and uel were so costly as in the south est. But the application to copper f the pneumatic method, which has evolutionized the metallurgy of steel. endered it possible to handle sul- hide ores to advantage. Though the ust of treatment is increased, the sav- lg of the copper in the slags eompen- ates so notably, that sulphide ores t present, instead of being Getrimen- al are source of advantage The iessemerizinf of copper was first of Il applied at the Copper Queen, then dopted at the Clifton and Jerome 
 It is interesting to note the history f the old Longfellow mine at Clifton. his mine, which is one of the oldest n the territory, has been worked since SIP. Twenty years ago a mining su- erintendent in the employ of the Ari- ona Copper company arrived at the Onelusion that the old mine had seen $ best days, and if the Arizona Opper company was to be a success ! the future from an investment the company would b, breed to look elsewhere for it's ore.
 The superintendent was succeeded by
 new man whO refused to repoOniye