Arizona republican., 1913-08-31

any now in vogue at the underground mines.
 The ore reserves of the Ray mine are estimated at S4,OOO,000 tons, as saying 22 per cent copper, which rep resents life of twenty-four years on the basis of 10000 tons treated per day. There are possibilities for further extending the reserves, par ticularly in the western portion of the property in Gila ground. where the last row of drill holes stopped in ore.
 In the above tonnage figures there is included a block of high grade ore originally owned by the Ray Central, which contains 760,000 tons of ore averaging 6 per cent copper. The Ray Consolidated company only re- gently started production from this ore body, and to date there have been extracted 10000 tons This ore. which owing to it's richness is mined by square setting, is sorted into high grade smelling mixture and into a concentrating product averaging around 31h per cent copper. From 100 to 15O tons of this ore is being mined daily and sent to the reduction plants and though the tonnage is yet small, owing to the richness of the ore and low cost of production, which is placed in the neighborhood of cents per pound, it is proving of value to accelerate Rays production with a corresponding decrease in cost. It is the intention to increase this Ray Central high grade tonnage and in a short time from 300 to 400 tons of this ore should be mined and treated daily.
 The total production of the Ray Consolidated mine at present is 6,7OO tons of ore per day, averaging slight ly under IS per cent copper DOT tion of this ore is coming from the fringes of the ore body, from areas which must be extracted in starting the present methods of mining. This material is more or less oXidized and carries carbonates which temporarily has resulted in a lower extraction in the mill than was formerly made on a higher grade but cleaner sulphides- This condition will not be of long duration, however, and a steady i'm provement is looked for as the more central portion of the ore body is reached. They are now getting a 92 per cent recovery of the copper in the ore stopes thus far opened.
 The Ray concentratOr is situated at Hayden on the Gila river, twenty one miles from the mine. Nearly seven miles of this haul to Ray June tion is over the company's own rail- road and the remainder by the South crn Pacific line. The A. s. & R. shelter, which was originally started by the Ray Consolidated company,
 a1 l,N~ he Guggenheims, and with whom the Ray company has an exceedingly fav- oIable contract as part of the agree ment of sale. is located adjacent to the mill thus doing away with any haul on concentrates.
 Seven sections out of a total of eight are now in commission at the conccntrator The necessary ma chinery for the completion of this last section has been ordered, and in two months time this should be in operation. At present close to 1000 tons of ore daily are being treated im the seven sections, but it is es- timated that these can handle 5000 tons when this tonnage is reached by the mine, even without the completion ot the plant In fact. there is little doubt but that the eight sections will be capable of treating 10000 tons of ore per day with good results.
 The average grade of ore treated by the mill at present is about 11o per cent, and on this an extraction of around 661a per cent is obtained. It will be recalled that Ray in 1912 made d higher extraction than this the average for the year being 6S278 per cent. As explained above. this reduction is due entirely to the carbonates in the ores, condition which should improve rapidly On the Ray Central ore an extraction of St per cent is made
 It is believed that an average grade ore of say ? or 2,1 per cent which allows for a slight dimunition in mining from the average of the re- serves, that a 72 to 73 per cent ex- traction will be possible. On the treatment of 5000 tons or ore per day this would be equivalent to an annual refined production of 77,OO0.OOO pounds, assuming 350 actual work ing days, and on 10000 tons to 96,- 900 pounds
 Ray at the present time is turn ing out at the rate of 54,500,0O0 pounds of refined copper per annum. The cost of producing this copper per pound is now a shade under 9 cents. At 15h cents for the metal this indicates that the company is now earning at the rate of s3,5Oo,000 Ter annum. or $2.20 per share.
 The output of the mine possibly by fall, or before the close of the year at the latest. should be brought up to at least 5000 tons per day. Un- der these conditions a corresponding reduction in cost should be made and an S1h cent figure attained. This