The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1913-05-25
MARVELS Of THE
BINGHAM DISTRICT
Millions of Tons Of Ore Are
Converted Into Millions Of
Dollars in Dividends.
MINING AT WHOLESALE
Camp Was Cradle of Modern
Porphyry Copper Indus.
try of the World.
MINING AT WHOLESALE

Last week s Know Utah letter Of "
II. Child & Company handled the Bing
ham mining camp In a very entertai in
ing and instructive manner, following
the history of the district from the dis
covery in 1863, Among the interesting
points brought out in this letter are
that the copper ore of the camp aver
ages two hundred and forty-sever
thousandths of an ounce; the copper
production is about $50 900 900 pounds
annually; the camp during the past
eight years has produced about $4,000,
600 tons of ore. and during the past siJ
years mining companies operating there
have paid $36,0O0,000 in dividends.
This letter in part follows:
Every Utahn knows that Bing-
ham, Utah, is the greatest copper
camp in the world Most Utahns
know that Bingham was the cradle
Of low grade copper mining and
was a silver-lead camp before it
was copper camp and gold
camp before it was a silverlead
camp, but there are a number of
interesting details about Bingham
that have been related only in the
technical language of the mine
writer and understood only by
those versed in the vocabulary of
the miners.
A full understanding of the past,
present and future of the camp of
Bingham and the district of which
it is the center, would cause the
people Of the state to appraise 1t
at its true value as one of the
wonderful places on the globe.
Home of the Giants.
It is the home of giants. The
mines are mammoth undertakings,
the volume of ore production is
enormous and the capital function
ing there is stupendous. To de-
scribe it one much search the die
tionarv for superlatives Diminu-
tives do not fl into the scheme Of
things, as Bingham left small
scale operations behind it years
ago.
The biggest copper mine, one of
the longest tunnels, the cheapest
copper production, one of the most
expensive railroads, the largest
visible tonnage of paying ore
have made Bingham at various
times the talk of financial circles
on two continents. 1t is TO be
feared that there is less Ssal knowl
edge Of the camp IN Utah schools
than on Wall street and the Paris
bourse.
It's history seems to fall natur.
ally into three periods-the AGe of
Gold, the Age of Silver an. the
Age Of Copper,
The golden age already has been
obscured by the mists of time.
We know that miners returning
from the gold fields of California
were among the first persons to
pay attention to the mineral posi-
bilties of the section, but who
they wee. how much they found
and where they went are unrecord
ed. We know only that they found
gold in the bed Of the little stream
near the mouth of Bingham can
Won and worked it with gold pans
and rockers and, perhaps, with the
more permanent sluice boxes. They
do not seem to have sought or
acquired titles to the ground, but
to have been content with such
migratory operations as would
Weld them a reasonable return for
their labor.
Inherent placer miners fire..
auented the canyon for several
wears in the sixties. They fol
lowed the gold-bearing sands up
the stream into the canyon and at