The copper era. (Clifton, Graham County, Ariz.) 1899-1911, 1907-06-13
SHANNON.
Its Recent Transactions With Arizona
Copper Co. Whereby it Saves
100000.

ing of Shannon stock based on the
company's improved position among
the copper producers and the result
of recent negotiations with the Ari-
IONA Copper company, whereby the
Shannon will not have to build a high
line railroad.
While President Amster was at
Clifton, he was in conference with
John Gill and J. G. Hopkins, of the
Arizona Copper company, at which
meetings it was decided that the
Arizona company would build the
new high line railroad connecting the
mines with the smelters which would
obviate any further damage, and in
terruption to copper production, by
pany, in return for the Shannon re-
firing from the railroad field, will
give that company a material reduc-
ton in freight rates on both the
Coronado railroad, the Arizona &
New Mexico railroad and on the pro-
posed new road when built. 1t will
also reduce the cost of limestone. to
the Shannon company, all of which
will effect a direct saving to the
Shannon of about $4,000 per annum.
The building of the high line road
will obviate interruptions to smelling
operations by the floods, and this
should save the Shannon company
several hundred thousand dollars per
annum, and save the Arizona COM
pany very much more.
Mr.. Gill has been in Boston within
the last few days closing the trans
action between the two companies.
He has sailed for Scotland.
of Af
News Bureau recently visited the
Shannon property at Clifton. This
company is under the efficient man.
agement of ]. w. Bonnie, who has
had long experience in his chosen
profession at the Rio Tinto, Noun
tain Copper and Greene Consolidated
companies.
Mr.. Bonnie has had a difficult
proposition to handle in the Shan
non. but he now has a complete re-
duction plant in every detail, concen-
traitor, smelter and converter plant,
and the mine is in position to not
only supply for many years the pres
ent needs of 700 tons of ore per day,
which, with the custom ore it is pro-
posed to handle, will meet the in
creased smelling capacity when the
new 1000 ton furnace is placed in
commission within a few weeks.
This new furnace is the largest in
Arizona. The two present furnaces
have been put in thorough order.
They are each of $50 tons capacity.
These two furnaces have produced as
high as 40 tons of blister copper per
day. The regular output, however,
runs between % and 30 tons per day,
and had not the concentration lost
in, h <,F
lightning striking the plant, the
Shannon copper output for May
would have been in excess of l, $780,
700 pounds. With the new furnace
the Shannon company, keeping one
furnace as a spare, should produce
regularly from 100000 to 100000
pounds of copper per month.
OF the present output 700 tons of
ore per day from the mines, so per
cent. is concentrating and 40 per
cent. smelling ore.
The company has been suffering
from lack of mining timbers due to
an embargo by the railroads. This
has necessitated the working over of
some old dumps from which the COM
pany has recovered S65, 900 in net
profits; also it has prevented the
company from getting at its best
L
has been taking more ore from open
cuts and upper levels. This trouble,
however, has now been overcome.
1t is estimated that the Shannon
company has reserves of 10000 tons
of ore. On the Harrison level, the
Shannon company has an ore body
800 feet long, 10 to 40 feet wide,
averaging 4 per cent. copper, com
paratively little of which has been
extracted. Fifty per cent. of this
ore is smelling ore and 80 per cent.
There is no longer any question
about the mine end of the Shannon
proposition. 1t is steadily opening
up more ore than it is Extracting.
The ore recovery from the Shannon
ranges between 40 and so pounds per
ton, whereas the average ore recov-
cry the past year, of its neighbor,
the Arizona Copper company,
amounted to 80 pounds per ton.
Shannon mining costs are the lowest
in Arizona ,Iranging from $3.50 to S275
per ton. Its ore bodies occur in len
ticular masses, measuring il. places
from 200 to 300 feet, in width similar
to the ore bodies in Bisbee, Ely, Cali
fornia, Bingham and other camps.
In the 1906 fiscal year Shannon cop
per cost amounted to 1875 cents per
pound. For the first six months of
this fiscal year its copper costs have
been 1871 cents per pound. This
slight increase has been due to nigh
er wages paid, to the floods of the
winter which cut off oyer 100000
pounds of copper production, and to
the fuel and timber embargo.
These costs, however, should be
materially decreased when the new
furnace is in operation and the COM
pany is receiving the benefit of re-
duced limestone costs from $1.25 per
ton to Is cents per ton, and reduced
freight rates from 80 to % cents per
ton, on all the ore shipped from its
mines to the smelter.
The Shannon company has always
been regarded as a high cost pro-
Queer, but somewhat unjustly so.
The Shannon company was formed
with 100000 shares of stock and $780,
900 of bonds. Not an additional dol
lar of new capital has ever been
raised, but out of earnings and at
time when the price of copper ranged
between u and IA cents the company
has completed a modern reduction
plant, complete, in every detail, has
reduced its bonded Indebtedness from
5000, 900 to 1850, 900, and will pay off
another 100000 in August of this