The San Francisco call., 1906-10-29
Crude Oil Great
Factor in Our
Statistics.

Tne greatest gold producing county
of California, Nevada County, is sur
passed in the value of it's annual OUT
put by Kern County. which boasts
much more oil than gold.
Kern County now figures at the head
of all mineralized counties in value in
production. It's total for 1905 is S4,-
912,095, according to the State Minera-
logists figures, while Nevada County
makes a showing of s3.214.S2S-
Gold Is the leading mineral product
in value in this State and probably
always will be unless copper takes the
first place. The red metal now has
record of s2,650.605. Gold makes UP
total of $19.197,043. Petroleum, which
is Kern County's staple, amounts to
SIS, ,007,S20 in the returns for 1905. Pc
troleum is therefore far ahead of cop
per and gold leads petroleum with even
a greater margin. Petroleum has been
compelled to struggle with adverse
market conditions for years. From a
dollar barrel for fuel oil the price
had fallen so low that the output has
been much less than 1T might have
been.
COPPER WIDELY DISTRIBUTED.
No one knows how much oil there
| is in any field. The sands are impreg-
mated richly with that substance. The
expectation that copper may eventually
take first place in California is based
on It's wide distribution.
map devoted to indicating the cop
per deposits of this State is sprinkled
from one end to the other with
signs indicating that "a great many
counties are known to have copper.
Where the deposits have been worked
they have proved to be rich. Shasta
County is the greatest copper producer
and may remain to be so indefinitely.
Great stories are told concerning the
copper in the Greenwater district in
Inyo County Siskiyou County is also
rich in copper.
While the oil fields of California have
been found to be enormously rich, the
oil areas on the basis of present knowl-
edge are comparatively limited.
CLASSIFICATION OF MINERALS.
The general classification of minerals
adopted by the State Mineralogist in
annual returns to be submitted to the
Governor is herewith given:
The total yield of metallic sub
stances, including gold and silver, was
for the year $23,523,984. and in these
are also copper, quicksilver. chrome,
This is the first year the latter sub
stance has been produced in California.
The value Of on-metallic substances
was $2,146,930, including borax, salt,
soda mineral waters, asbestos, coal,
fullers' earth. gypsum. infusorial earth.
lithia, mica, magnesite, mineral paint
and gems.
The total value of HYDROCARBONS and
natural gas was $s,456.025. The hydro
carbons include asphalt, bituminous
1901 the he produet of petroleum in the
State was 29,736,003 barrels, worth
sS,s17,S0s.. The increase IN output for
the year is thus shown to be 4,539.6sS
| barrels and in value S690,0i1.
| In structural materials the total
| value for the year was S7.943,28S, an
increase oyer 1904 % Of sess, Az These
macadam, glass, sand, marble, granite,
sandstone, paving blocks, rubDle, slate,
soapstone, brick and pottery clays, ce-
ment. In the latter substance the in
crease in the output for the year
Der. made in 1906 being 1.2s5.55s bar
| rels.
The relative value of the principal
mineral substances of the State is as
| follows: First, gold, second, petro-
| leum; third, copper; fourth, cement;
quicksilver; eighth, rubble.
GOLD IN MANY COUNTIES.
/ While copper in California is widely
distributed, gold is found in even more
localities than copper. Thirty-five
counties in 1905 yielded gold and there
County's showing in gold alone for
/ 1905 is s3.179,715. Kern County's pc
! troleum is not alone worth quite as
much as Nevada County's gold. amount
! ing to s3,174,966. Kern produces ten
mineral substances and its desert
| mines add to it's showing.
Butte County is second to Nevada
| County as a gold producer. The gold
| dredgers have given Butte second
| place. Shasta County fell into the
| third place in 1905 on account OF the
reduction in its copper output. This
falling off was due mainly to the ces-
sation of the smelling operations of
the Iron Mountain Copper Company at
Keswick. With this temporary draw
back Shasta County shows mineral pro-
duction of the value of S2,679,014
LARGE TOTAL PRODUCTION.
The general statistics relating to
1905 are not included in this article.
The total production of minerals in
1905 amounted to $43,069,227. which is
getting back toward the great figures
| when the California placers were new
/ at exploitation and gold was the only
| mineral product of California In a
statement supplied by Mineralogist
Aubury is the amount of $3.4y1. .5zs
credited to ''unapportioned." In ex-
/ PLANTATION of this Aubury says:
Certain substances have to be placed
in an unapportioned column so as to
conceal the identity of single mines in
certain counties. For this reason it is
necessary to put under this heading
borax, soda, coal. Portland cement and
a few other substances formerly cred
tied to certain counties. If credited
to the exact county, where there is
only single operator, private business
| would be made public. Under these
circumstances the figures of values of
output in some counties do not actu-
! ally represent their relative rank, as
/ some of the products may be placed
under 'unapportioned.' The total val
ues of such substances appears in the
/ main table, but not in the table of
! counties. Out of fifty-seven counties
of the State, fifty-four made some min
eral production in 1906"
Mining deals involving large sums
are simultaneously reported from two
| sections of the State. One of these is
south of the Needles, where mines and
a townsite have been sold in the Mo-
lrengo District for $4,000. The buyer
is the Goldbend Company. The other
deal involves an additional 440 acres
at Deadman's Flat, acquired by Shite-
head & Co., who now have about 1000
acres in Nevada County and in the
Deadman's Flat locality
The capacity of the Bonanza Kings
/ milling plant in Trinity County will be