The Ketchikan miner., 1908-09-05
BRIGHT OUTLOOK
Victory Copper Mining Company Are Driving a Big Tunnel
 at Seal Bay

'
 district are abundant and of wholly
 encouraging character. These evi- dences are found in the apparently enlarged demand for copper. and the gradual if not rapid increase in the market prices for the red metal not only, but in the recognition on the part of practical mine operators and owners of the superior advantages which the district presents as field for the profitable investment of capital. To an appreciation. of these advantages they have re-awakened after period of somnolence. and are now renewing their consideration of the fact that the Ketchikan mining district offers natural adval tages in the way of eco- nomical eSplo- ration, development and exploitation of It's mineral deposits superior to any other district in Alaska or elewhere throughout the length and breadth of the whole United States. These natural advantages are embraced in the close proximity of it's mineral deposits to navigable waters adjacent to safe and commo- dious harbors, and consequent cheap transportation, inexhaustible water power for the operation of mining and other machinery. and an ahun- dance of timber for all practicaaf purposes-which insures the mining and treatment of ores at less cost than has heretofore obtained or is likely to obtain in any district less fav Irabiy situated. consideration oi this fact has resulted in an earnest inquiry for properties the owners of which are desirous of securing capital for development, or of selling outright, and has led to the bonding )f several very promising locations on which the work of development is either now in progress or about to be commenced, among which last is that of the Victory Copper Mining Con- pany, located at Seal Bay, Gravina sland, about twelve miles from Ket- chikan. in southwesterly direction.
 The property of the Victory Copper Mining Company embraces a group of fourteen locations of full size, .en of which are patented, and upon which a considerable amount of ex- ploration and development work has been done in the past. exposing more IT less comparatively high grace ore, carrying both copper and gold values, he whole in a very wide mineral zone. as evidenced by frequent out croppirgs and exposures made by shaf
 and tunnel at different points in the sid of the mountain extending all the way from it's apex, which rises
 70 a heIght of over two thousand feet
 Q the sea level at high tide. There
 every good reason to believe that ;his mineral gene contains very large and unu-ually valuable mineral de- rosi,s. assays of which have shown
 's much as twenty-five per cent. in
 copper, and from six to ten dollars per
 On in gold. The owners have now
 Hade arrangements, with ample pro-
 eis;on for he capital with which to carry out its plans, for the exploration and development of its property by driving tunnel from the water's side into and across the whole width of the property. distance of not less than 2.5e0 feet. This plan conte m- dates the cross-cutting of the entire formation and drifting upon and mak-
 ing ''raises' from such ore bodies as may be found as work progresses, and otherwise pursuing the work of devel- opment in the meantime. Power orills will be employed in driving the work k on the tunpeI, in which force of men were set 10 work On Thursday. MT. Patrick Heany, an old and ex- perienced mine operator, of Butte, Montana. is in charge of operations
 aud will drive the work with as much raplity as long years of practical ex- perIence in the business and a due regard for economy may be reasonably expected to enable him. It is fhe opinion of the best and most expert
 enced mining men of the district, bas- ing their belief On the reports of gov ernment geologists who have examined and described the mineral occurrenc $ peculiar to this immediate region, and whose opinions have been corfobo-
 rated by practical development where surface conditions wholly similar to those at the Victory prevail. that the driving of this tunnel on the lines mapped out will be practically certain 60 reveal very large ore bodies, some
 u least, very rich in copper and gold,
 md ultimately eventuate in the open- ing Up of enc of the greatest mines iI
 or any other country. Further evidences Of good times are 70 be found in the mines which has C neen kept in steady operation during | he period Of depression, and tfiOs. Ebat are about to commence sciua mine work and shipment Of product lo
 be smelter, together with tb. re- sumption Of operations At ihe Mar'i8 mine, where there are nov nrarIt