Arizona republican., 1908-06-07

CredltaDle one, taking into cOnSluerd' tion the youth of the mines, the lacl of corporations with large capital
 and the difficulty experienced nj sell ing ore on fair terms.
 Montana was very hard hit by tho panic for some six months. and the policy of the Amalgamated Copper
 compans, calling for restricted out but and regulation on the copper trade made matters much worse than would have been the case had the mines been owned by a number o1 independent companies. The Amal- gamated has been holding the um- brella" over the copper trade for nine
 years, to the benefit of it's competi- tors, and is little nearer to control
 of the American copper trade than when the company was organized in ! 1899. That the closing down of the | big mines of Butte was unnecessary was shown conclusively by the Pitts | burg x Montana, a small producer which continued work and output without interruption all during the i period of depression, when the inf nitely larger mines of the Amalga- mated were closed. Butte produc- tion remains only 75 to so per cent of normal, but is slowly increasing.
 In Arizona, the effects of the panic varied in different camps, but, on the whole, Arizona laid off fewer men and effected a smaller reduc- ton in output than any other district
 in the United States, with the eX- captions of Michigan and Utah. Many
 of the developing mines in Arizona
 were forced to suspend, either tenn
 porarily or permanently, but the
 largest producers. including the Cop
 per Queen, Calumet & Arizona,
 United Verde old Dominion, Arizona and Detroit. laid off but few men, and
 reduced production to but a trivial extent. The Shannon. which appar
 ently should have been one of the first of the middle class mines to suspend, surprised even it's best friends by largely cutting costs through great increase in output The
 Imperial Copper company, in Pima county. is arranging to increase pro duction in the near future, and the Superior X Pittsburg is increasing it's output as well. A number of the smaller mines have hung on re- markedly well. and have demOnstrat- ed their ability to take punishment though the difficulty in selling ore, which existed for some months, made the situation very awkward for the smaller mines lacking smelters of their own on the whole, Arizona has come through the test in a man ner highly creditable to the mineral resources of it's mines and the cour- age and sagacity of its mine man agers.
 Utah is the only American state making a considerable production of copper that has actually increased its output under panic conditions. This increase has been due largely to a single mine, the Utah Copper company. which continued it's policy of expansion with but slight atten- ton to untoward market conditions The Utah is now handling tre- mendous tonnage of low grade ore, and. taking into consideration the removal of the rock overburden cap ping it's enormous deposits of cop per bearing monZonite, as well as ac- tual ore extraction, probably is han ding more material, both metallifer- ous and barren, than any other metal mine in the world. the present volume of material handled daily being about II 900 tons. for which seven steam shovels are utilized Some of the great iron mines of the Mesaba range. in Minnesota, have consider ably exceeded this tonnage in the short working season for several years past by extracting upwards of 10000 tons of ore, with
 lou fl at present mining matters are very dull on all the Lake Superior iron ranges. and the best that can be pre- dicted is an output of 55 to 50 per cent that of last year.
 Nevada, which has been a small copper producer for several years, is just about to enter the field of pro duction on a large scale from the cupriferous monzonite of the Ely camp. and the prospects of both heavy production and large earnings are bright. though the large earnings must be set forward year or two. to a time when copper sells at better prices than now rule.
 California is copper producer from nearly twenty counties, but only Shasta, in the northern part of the state, furnishes an output of more than local importance. Shasta production. until two years ago, has been mainly from the Iron Mountain mine, but of late the Nam moth mine of the United States Smelling x Refining company has become a producer of importance. The Bully Hill mine of the General Electric company also is about to make copper on a considerable scale. failed ingloriously through poor financing. and Lawson's Trinity remains an iridescent dream so far as making copper is concerned, though it has proven a good money maker for those who discounted the promises of the management and sold their shares at high prices during the boom.
 In the Lake Superior district there has been a slight contraction of out put, amounting to something like per cent, but at present copper is being made on as large a scale as ever before in the history of the dis trict. The only companies to quit because of financial depression were the Copper Crown, a little St. Louis company, conducting an exploration in OntonagOn county. and the Ad- venture, which latter would have been forced to take the step, in all regardless of market con ditious Some of tho lpappr mines