Bisbee daily review., 1906-05-27

are too low grade and silicious to anelt and too highly oxidized to con eentrate. The greater portion of such ores go to the mill, however, as, whatever else may be said of concen- tration, it helps to reduce operating costs by increasing the percentage of sulphur in the shelter charge.
 The very heavy losses in the mill tailings, 1.2 per cent, or 24 pounds of fine copper to the ton, result from milling ores which are partly oxidiz- ed. Everybody knows that oxidized ores will not concentrate properly; but in the Shannon oxides, carbonates and sulplides often occur in the same piece of ore, and separation without losses is impossible. This waste seems a necessity, but the tailings are being stored in gulch below the mill, which is damned by skillful dump ing of the furnace slag. and it may be possible to leach them very profitably at some future time.
 There is very large amount of cop per in shannon ores that is soluble in water, and this copper water is eating away constantly at the screens and every other piece of iron it touches in the mill. This makes the repair and renewal account abnormally high. and helps to bring the cost of concentra- tion up to about s1 per ton of ore
 The opinion held in the east that Shannon is badly managed on this end is altogether wrong. Results are showing conclusively that the proper ty is splendidly managed. Notwith- standing the irregularity of ore depos- ,l., crushing and caving stopes, high freight on ores, difficult concentration and lack of sulphur in the ore, the to- tai operating cost at this end is not much if any above $5.50 per ton of ore treated. The eompany's total work ing force at the mine, mill and smelter is only about sec men and with these the management is putting through about 800 tons of ore daily. Consid- erably more than ton of ore q 1-4 to 3-S tons) is sent down the incline daily for every man employed at the mines. When all of the company's difficulties are taken into considera- ton, such results shoul6sbe satisfacto- " to the most exacting stockholder.
 Net earnings of the Shannon must be at the rate of approximately S2 per
 
 that the ores from it's mines are yield ing an average of about 47 pounds of copper to the ton. At the present price of copper these ores have an average value of more than $8.50 to the ton. Add eastern expenses and subtract the income from gold and silver, profits on the treatment of custom ores, store earnings, etc, and the actual cost per ton probably does not exceed s6, or slightly less than 13 cents per pound of copper produced Figured this way, it appears that shannon is earning at the rate of S6f5, 1000 annually, or sufficient to pay off the usual s60, ,0e0 of it's bonds, take care of interest, spend sl0,000 on new construction and add S500,000 to it's working capital this year.
 Shannon's future depends largely upon the favorable development of some of its outlying claims. It seems that the ore deposits of this district do not carry commercial values at much greater depth than 400 feet The whole mountain from which the Shan non is now mining its big ore tonnage has been tunneled through from side to side, on the so-called Carter Lev el," little more than 400 feet below  the surface. and an extensive explo- ration atsthis depth revealed only one small bunch of ore of indifferent val ue The fact. however. that oxidized Iron and the decomposed, brecciated rock formation continued to go down, and that it carried occasional nuggets and scales of native copper, leads some geologtsts to believe that ore de posits of considerable value will some time be found at depth in this district.
 If the ores do not go down, how ever, the fact does not condemn the Shannon any more than it does the older and larger mines of the same camp. In all districts it is necessary to go after the ore where it is to be found, and here IL is near the tops of the mountains and hills, The Shan non owns many porphyry and lime porphyry hills in the district, and the work of exploring them is underway.