Bisbee daily review., 1911-03-25
MEXICO LEADS IN PRODUCTION
 IF SILVER
MEXICO LARGEST IN PRoDUc- TON OF SILVER. BESIDES
 MUcH GoLD AND COPPER.

I=eIN aaHfH -l-f .fAtHe~
 ICD CITY. March 2L Few nations are So favored ia tne matter -f ri1era wealth as Mexico Hum
 oIdl once called thjs country the treasure housa Of the world Whcn one considers tfat untold millions have been taken out Ul its gold and silver mines. and three-foutrhs Ci ali Mexican mining territory Is as yet uuoyuloited. Humholdts pictlre does not seem tO be ogerdTawn. Certainly there are bat few of the metals used by modern civilization that are not found here in abundant quality. Be sides its metals Mexico has rich de- posi-s Ut precious stones, its opal mines being famed throughout the world for the abundance ana .ccr Of their product
 Rarks Firs h Silver.
 Mexico today O. iT ies first rgnH among the nations of the world in the production of silver Its mines have been worked from times so re mote tha, even tradition does not record t5em. Long before the Aztec Indians sWarmed down from the north and took possession of the land Cl the Toitecs, silver mines Of seemingly iUeAhaustabia richness had been worked for uuc0lnted years, When Couez invaded the land ol the AIoct tczumas be took from it more than S7 O0e 900 worth oi gold and silver Silver Is sometimes found in nuggets of vast proportions. One Of these discovered in the state Of SO nora. near the American frontier weighed 2I5j pounds. The prodUc tion of silver has ceased to be as profitable as it once was, owing to the decline in the market value or the refined metal
 The annual output Of silver am cunts To approximately 77 900. 900 pe- sos. it was hoped by the Mexicans thar theimproysment Of trade con ditioas ia foreign markets would re- suit in an increased demand for sil- yer in such countries as Indis and China, the principal users of the white metal. It was thought that in connection with the gradually dimin- ishinE supply Of bar silver it would bring about an improvement of prices But just at the time that 1t | aiized a new competitor appeared on the scene. and silver went still low CT. The extension of a railroad in Canada was the means Of discovering rich deposits of silver mixed with co bait and nickle. Tn 1910 the output of these mines amonted to one-sixth of the worlds total production of silver. The cost of mining and treat meent Is so small and the assay in many Of the Feins so great, in some clses averaging more than 3000 ounces per ton, that the effect of this discovery has been to drive the price Of silver down and almost swamp the worlds markets, Mexico suffers most severely by this, owing to the fact that many of it's mines produce noth- ing but silver.
 Gold Production increases.
 But what Mexico is losing in sil- yer is being made up in the produc. iton of gold. Last year the output of the Mexican gold mines arlounted ito s55,000.000. an increase Of S9,000.- 00o over the years 1906 and 1907. This increase is partly due 10 the discovery of new mines, but mainly 10 the further application of the eva hide process to the treatment Of gold-silver ores. The Real del Orc mine is one of the largest gold mines ia the world IT. has been worked for period far antedating the Spanish occupation. and is still producing large quantities oS the precious metdt
 There are upwards of 1000 copper mines in the republic, some of them possessing deposits Of remarkable richness. Those at Cananea are said 10 be -he thi-d largest in the entsrr world. The annual output of cop per appro1mates $20.000,O00. The territory of Lower California boasted of the largest output from a single mine last year, even suprassing the 1 record of the Cananea mines Thi was the Bolleo mine with a produc ton of 12.000 metric tons of copper The United States is the principal ' consumer of Mexican copper, using nearly one-half of the entire output