Arizona republican., 1913-08-31
RAY CONSOLIDATED.
A Summing Up of the Ray Situation
 After Visit to the Property.

1 The following is supplies by | Thompson, Towle & Co, of Boston:
 Ray Consolidated, the first of the l ccuntry's large underground porphy-
 ries to be equipped and placed on
 d producing basis exceeding 5000 | tons daily output, after several years of untiring effort is now coming in
 to it's own Few realize what an 1 enormous undertaking it is to prepare l enc of these mines for a production
 of from 5000 to 10000 tons of ore per 1 day. One is apt to draw conclusions 1 too hastily and compare the time l necessary to bring about these re suits with certain of the steam shovel | prOpertieS-a comparison which great | ly faVors the open mine but one 1 which should in no way detract from 1 the more slowly developed under ground porphyry when ultimate pro duction and earnings are considered. The bulk of this great work has been 1 accomplished and from now on a steady improvement in Rays opera l tions should be noted until at the
 close of this year the mine should be in a position to supply the entire | requirements of the mill.
 To open one of these underground pOrphyry mines to supply any such i tonnage as required by Ray, very eX- tensive development has to be car ried on. In a period of two and a 1 half years more than 54 miles of un- derground workings have been driven and today this work has reached q point where very little further dcvel- opment or equipment will be required to place the property on a normal l producing basis.
 Anyone visiting the Ray mine can not help but be impressed with the | stupendous nature of the undertake ing, and the systematic manner in which operations arc being carried on Labor saving devices play an impor- | tant part in handling the ore at the and help to make possible the low l cost of around 70 cents per ton ob- | taining in mining and extracting the ore.
 The mine is equipped with electric | haulage throughout and the ore is ] transported to the various shafts in l trains, each car of which has a capacity of three tons. Three of these cars al a time are drawn upon | a tipple which revolves thus dump | ing the contents into the ore pock- cts at the various shafts 4Ttre is is | Ieu Into IZ-lOn SklDS, HolSted CO IHe surface where it is automatically
 dumped, crushed into inch size and transported on belt conveyor to the
 steel ore bins, which have a capacity 1 of 26,OO0 tons This material is drawn from the bins into standard gauge railway cars and transported 1 to the mill. All hoisting is done by electricity: in fact, this power, which | is generated at the mill and trans | mitted to the mine, is used wherever | practicable.
 Several novel methods have been | employed in various stages of the | operation or in the development of | the property. One of these which is giving entire satisfaction is in cline shaft which is used as a pas | Sd ge way for the men into the mine. l This incline has been driven at a very slight angle and a series of stairs have been installed by which the men walk into the mine, thus 1 leaving the main vertical shafts for ore exclusively. This incline is also employed for the extraction of all waste
 The mining method used at Ray which has been worked out by MT. ! Louis S Gates. the general manager 1 at the mines, is one which is attract 1 ing much attention among those iden | tified with the porphyry properties and particularly those mines which 1 are adapted to underground opera tions. The method employed is l shrinkage stoping, the stopes being carried up fifteen feet in width with 1 ten feet pillars. When the stope is completed and ready for drawing the pillar is of such size that it will crush and come with the broken ore. An ingenious method has been em- plOyed of sealing up the chutes from wrich the ore is taken resembling somewhat that used in the sealing Of freight car doors, so that the ma terial is drawn upon only uniformly
 from the various stopes, all of which
 is under the supervision of one of the
 company's engineers Space will not
 permit of giving more than a few
 Of the important details of the sys-
 tenn. Suffice it to say, however, that
 the method of mining out very we'll