The Arizona copper camp., 1915-12-03


of Arizona prospectors have given
over their search for gold, copper and
silver to hunt for "black jack" the
once despised ore that caused mill
foremen to tear their hair and smell
ter superintendent to emit language
even more sulphurous than the fumes
from their own smokestacks
For ''black jack" is either wolfra-
mite or hubnerite, and wolframite and
hubnerite carry tungsten, a metal
which manufacturers of electric light
bulbs and steel are anxious to buy at
$45 unit of twenty pounds.
For years Arizona has led the world
in the production of copper and now
she expects 20 take front rank as
producer of tungsten. Already she has
mine. Shipments of ore, raw or con-
centrated are being made frequently
from three other big mines, and a doz-
en- discoveries are being developed as
fast as the energy and capital of their
owners will allow.
'Sleepers rs"-mines which were aban-
doned years ago as worthless are be-
ing relocated for their tungsten. The
old Tip Top, in pioneer days one of the
most famous silver mines of the west
but ultimately abandoned because
BLACK jack made it's ores difficult
to treat, is now worth more than it
ever was, and all because of that
same black jack" The impoverished
fortunes of Col. w. F. Cody buffalo
BilD may be rehabilitated through
his Arizona tungsten mine.
Wolframite and hubnerite are usu-
ally black but sometimes they are
brownish in color When mined with
ores carrying other metals they play
hob" generally with the reduction
process. They were long known as
refractory or outlaw" ores, and
nothing was quite so much dreaded.
A few years ago it was discovered
that tungsten, when mixed with steel,
made it extraordinarily tough. Tool
steel is nothing but tungstenized
steel Tungsten steel is used for bat
tleship armor plate, for guns, for
wearing parts of automobiles and
other machinery.
Formerly most of the tungsten used
in this country came from Burma,
India and Australia 1t was subject
to fifteen per cent import duty,
which was removed when the demo-
Gratis came into power. But these
sources of supply were removed
shortly after the opening of the Eu-
ropean war when the British govern
ment forbade the expectation of tung-
stem from any of its possessions.
American manufacturers turned to
the western states of their own coun-
try for tungsten, nd the price of the
metal quadrupled.
Arizona's biggest tungsten producer
is in the Dragon mountains of CO.
chise county and is owned by the
Chemos Chemical company Of Ro-
chester, N. Y. The Chemos company
employs 200 men in getting out the
wolframite and concentrating it in a
mill Six tons of concentrates are
shipped daily to Rochester for final
reduction.
The Tip Top, which will probably
become heavier producer than the
Dragon mine before many more
months have passed. is in southern
Yavapai county, some fifty miles north
of Phoenix. On the Tip Top dumps
are 10000 tons of ore carrying one
and one-half per cent tungstic acid
Much of this was carefully picked
from the silver ore and thrown away.
In addition to the dumps, thousands
upon thousands of tons of wolfra-
mite are exposed in the old work.
ing. An experimental mill has proven
successful in concentrating the ore
and a larger mill is now being in
stalled.
Col. Cody has pent a fortune in de-
veloping his Wolframite property at
Bonita, northeast .of Tucson A mill
was erected several years ago but it
was not adapted to the most econom-
ical treatment of the ore and opera
tions were suspended. Since then
methods of reduction have beer
greatly improved and the price of
tungsten has gone 'out of sight," so it
is quite possible that the Bonita mine
will be revived and Buffalo Bill"
placed once more on Easy street"
William Conner and partners own
a group Of hubernite claims in the
Eureka district, few miles southeast
of Prescott. These claims cover a
vein from two to six feet wide which
was discovered only year ago. A
Colorado syndicate headed by E. S.
Temple, of Boulder, has just taken
over this property and will develop it