Arizona silver belt., 1906-06-28
COPPER QUEEN MINE
 GREATEST IN WORLD
Goo. |. Walker Says No Other Mine VIII Compare with tt in
 Size and Richness


 district, is undoubtedly the most val. uable copper mine in the world. It is remarkable in the respect that it is both big and high grade mine, the rule being that big mines are usually low grade, while mines having very high grade ore are almost always rela- lively small. With copper selling around l8a to l9 cents, the Copper Queens cres have an average value of about $SO per ton.
 Though the daily output of it's mines is slightly less than 2OOO tons of ore, the Copper Queen will produce more copper and make considerably more money than the Calumet & Hecla com pany, which is putting out more than 5000 tons of rock daily. The Boston & Montana, shipping 5000 tons of ore per day, may make O,OOO. 900 pounds more copper in 1906 than Copper Queen, but it's net profits will be no larger. The great Anaconda may also greatly ex- ceed it in production, but it will fall more than $2, ,OOO, ,OO0 behind the Cop per Queen in net receipts.
 Much has been said and written of the marvellous richness of Senator w. A. Clark's great United Verde mine, and most people believe it the most valuable copper mine in Arizona. As a matter of fact, however, the total gross value of all the copper, gold and silver which will be produced by the United Verde this year will not nearly equal the net profits that the Copper Queen will divide among its ten CT twenty stockholders. The Copper Queen is more than twice as big as any other Arizona mine.
 The Copper Queen company has 100000 shares of a par value of S1 each, and it is claimed that almost its entire capital is held by eight persons, connected with the firm of Phelps, Dodge X Co. There is no record of sale of it's stock having been made re- gently. but it is claimed unofficially that A per share, total of SS, ,OOO, 900 was distributed in dividends last year. It is said that s75 per share was bid for 100 shares, which wes offered for sale few months ago, putting val uation of $50, 900, 900 on the property.
 Near the original tunnel workings, and within 300 or 400 feet of this shaft, and not more than 300 feet below the surface, saw one solid block of ore which is more than 2G0 feet long, l50 feet wide and 100 feet thick. l figure that there are 25O, ,O00 to 300, 900 tons of ore in this ono body, which carries an average of 9 per cent, or total of approximately 50,OO0,OOO pounds of copper Yet this is only one of the many tremendous nuggets of unex- plotted wealth which lie in reserve in this wonderful mine.
 Certainly, no one who realizes the rapidity with which ore bodies are ex- hausted by 2,000-ton daily production would expect to find such a block of ore as have described within little more than stone's throw of the oldest shaft of a mine which has been pro- ducing copper for 26 years and which has already smelted more than 3,50O,- 900 tons of ore. learned, however, that there is one stope, almost equally near the point where production began, which has been worked continuously for b years and still has about as much ore in sight as at any time in the past.
 The Copper Queen shelter, located at Douglas, 2S miles from the mine has 8 blast furnaces capable of reduc ing about 2,60O tons of ore daily. Two more blast furnaces are being con structed which will be in blast before the end of the year. A reverberatory furnace is to be built soon and used to receive and settle the slags from two blast furnaces and use the heat of the slag to smelt the flue dust. This is a new system which is being tried by Phelps. Dodge & Co. in the shelter at Morenci. It will be experimented with at Douglas also, and if successful A total of 5 reverberatories will probably be constructed.
 The company has developed an origi- nal ore mixing and storage system. Several enormous pits 50 or 60 feet wide and 800 feet long, have been dug in the yard between lines of railroad. The ore and fluxes are systematically dumped into these pits, leveled by great blows drawn by locomotives and then picked up from the bottom and loaded in the charge cars by steam shovel. This system thoroughly mixes the ore and fluxes.
 l figure that the Copper Queen is producing 7,5OO, 900 pounds of copper monthly from it's own ores and from resmelting the old slag dumps, aggre- gating nearly 100000 tons which accumulated many years ago around