The Ketchikan miner., 1907-08-31
MINING MOVES
What Was. is Now, and Destined to Become..A Brilliant Future
 Awaits Work of Development

mines of the ke,chikan district for the present calendar year may not reach the figures predicted by The Miner earlier in the season. the fact, if such it proves to De. will be wholly due to the insuticiency of transporta- ton and not because the mines could not. under other circumstances. have easily achieved much larger pro- duct. The fact is that they are rais- ing all the ore for which they can find transportation to the smelters, while at the same time driving the work of development ahead, and piling up ore in their stopes and drifts against the time when the transportation facili- ties afforded them may be such as to justify the largely increased produc- .ion for which ther are now in large measure prepared. But even now, hampered as they are, the chances are more than even that the copper production of the Ke.chikan district this year will exceed that of the whole of Alaska in lo07-again to be doubled next year. given the trans poriatioa they now lack, and a fair nrice for the red metal being assured them. For a district which up to two yeags ago had produced scarcely enough copper to merit even casual mention. this will be doing at least fairly well.
 Though the Ketchikan district has achieved q hy 10 means Insignificant place in the lis, of copper producers, | has nor yet passed the prospecting stage. if one is 10 judge from the fact that scarcely a day passes without one or more new ard promising dis coveries being reported. h fact, but little of the ground wherein mineral may be supposed to be hidden away has been subjected even to scratch ot the prospector's pick and shovel, and tha. many as good mines as any of those TOW in operation remain yet 10 he developed is reasonably 10 De anticipated. if indeed not predicted with absolute certainty. To such an extent are new discoveries becoming the regular order Of the day that The Miner finds difficulty in keeping tab or them.
 The latest promising discovery Of mineral has just been made near the mouth Of Chickamin river by T. E. kydig and E. K. Turner. The dis coTegy is promising. however, only in the character Of the ore, and not be- cause of sufficient work having been done 10 determine the extent of the ledge or deposit. The samples of the ore brough, 70 town are only such as could be broken of with pick alone. the prospectors not being epared at the time of discovery 10 do more. The ore. however. is rich boronite, assays of which run as high as 5 per cent copper. One of the locators is now or ihe ground with men making further investigation.
 The big ship Haldis sailed this Fri day morning carrying 5pO tons of Rush and Brown and 2.500 tons of Jumbo ore cousig gned to the Tyee smelter at Ladysnith, B. C.
 From Fridays Daily
 The big ship Transit, the first of the steamers of the British Coast Steamship company recently formed in Victoria, and of which J. K. Smith. well known here, is general manager, is now on the way, having left Karatsu, Japan, on the sth inst. with a cargo of 2soo tons of coal most of which is consigned to Portland. at which DOT: she is expected to arrive about Saturday. From Portland she will come 10 Victoria at which port she will load with full cargo of gen. sral freight for northern British Columbia and southeastern Alaska ports, in addition 10 the 500 tons Of Japanese coal which she will bring to Maple bay for the Brown-Alaska mine at that place. From there she will bring l, ,j0J tons Of ore to the smelter 3. Hadleg. l. is expected that after 3ischarging at Hadley she will take return cargo Of ere from one or more ot our mines 10 British Columbia snelters. The Thordis will follow ner with cargo of coal from Japan, and cn her arrival on this coast will join the Transit in the same service. The two steamers are sister vessels Of similar tonnage, and their entry into the ore-csrrying trade will go far tow ards remedying the lack Of transporta- tion facilities by which the operation of the mines of this district are so seriously handicapped.
 4 force of about ? men are em- ployed at the Rush and Brown, where room could be made. with advantage. for as many more but for the made quate transportation facilities with which the mine is s0pplied-a handi cap which applies with equal force to most, if not all, the producing mines
 flu