Bisbee daily review., 1908-11-18
ARIZONA BEST
COPPER FIELD
IN AMERICA
Increase of Production Greater
Than In Any Other Country.
Thirty-five Per Cent of All
Companies Here.
(By Emil Holden.l

Commencing at the United Verde
in the Black Hill range, about forty
FIVE miles in a nortbeasterly direction
of Wickenburg. Maricopa county, Ari-
zona, and the Copper Queen at Doug
las, this region produces from 7,000,-
900 to 100000 pounds of copper
monthly, the various Bisbee camps
contained also considerable native
copper, and the sulphides are of No.
character; also the Greene Consoli-
dated mines at Cananea, all turn out
an excellent ore, but which demands
extensive treatment before 1t is mar
keted.
Arizona is without hesitation the
most promising copper field in the
United States; its increase in pro
duction Is greater than that of other
countries. Copper is found practical
ly In every county in this wondeTful
territory. Thirty-five per cent of the
copper companies are located in Ari-
iona.
The ore bodies here in Arizona are
blanket deposits. Instead of the enor-
nous shafts sunk and employed at
Calumet and Butte, tunnels are driven
mostly through which ore is extract
ed The great lenticular ore bodies
are very often deceptive as to its i'm
mense mineral contents.
This is the great problem of our Ari-
zona mines that makes them more
precarious as investments than the
copper properties further north. It is
further due to the fact that both min
ing and refining charges have been
radically reduced in the last two
years, owing to the number of fiuc-
tuating conditions in mining; through
the depreciation in the metallic con-
tents of the ores; certainly different
mines conduct their operations in diff
ferent ways. All this depends a great
deal on the officers in charge of such
valuable properties. There is abso-
lUtely no more chance for a yellow
legged expert than there is for a gro
Gerry clerk or a shoemaker to run
mine in Arizona, but a straight, up
right, theoretical man connected witt
practical experiences will always find
here wide open field
In copper mining as in all other
present day industries, the secret of
success lies in low operating costs,
compounded with the extraction of
every pound or ounce Of by-products.
1t will require several years yet to
educate the public to a knowledge and
appreciation of copper shares as an
investment, for the demand for cop
per will increase one hundred fold yet
from generation to generation.
The writer of this has been on the
staff of the great Iron Mountain Cop
per Co, in Keswick, Cal, for seven
years; has worked for Captain Dela1
more twenty-five years ago in Phoebe,
New, also lately in Copper City and
Bully Hill in Shasta county, Cal, but
for the last four years with Thomas
W. Lawson of Boston at Kennett, Cal,
under the general management of ".
Fl. Brown, and has acquired the knowl-
edge that copper will always be a
commodity WITH any market on the
globe; as the chief concern of the
consumer is "to get the red metal
regardless of price.
There may be more excitement and
romance In the discovery of gold, and
men may face death in more forms to
be the first In such camps as Tono-
pal and GoldfieId and other new gold
discoveries in Nevada, but to sensible
mining men and capitalists there is
equally as much satisfaction in the
opening of a property of virgin cop
per; and hundreds Of these people
from the east and other countries will
turn their backs in disgust and will
investigate In new copper camps
such as Wickenburg, Maricopa com
ty, Arizona, with numerous great
promising but undeveloped properties.
within easy access of two railroads
and plenty of water. Unlike most
other copper fields, taiS section of
Arizona, while 1t carries higher FER
cent in copper, its goll VALVES which
are indeed prominent EI1&n the in
dustry of double yalCe.