The Washington herald., 1916-10-09

No wonder then that the mining of
copper Is bound up In the romance of
progress. America is by far the great
est producer OF copper in the world. If
the true story OF the discovery and de-
velopment Of copper mines in America
could be written It would be filed with
romantic Incidents in the daily lives of
red-blooded prospectors who lived and
worked on the border lines OF eiviliza-
ton.
Take for example the story of Kenne-
colt Copper-one of the latest as It is
also one of the greatest of the worlds
copper mines. Locked for ages In frozen
Alaska, this huge copper deposit has
awaited the hand of man and the touch
OF science to give It life. Not without
struggle did nature yield her treasures,
and many a man has sought copper In
Alaska who never came back. But
science has won, as she always will
when backed by brains and capital, and
today the huge mountain of ore which
contains the great Bonanza and Jumbo
veins OF the Kennecott is yielding cop
per at the rate of 100000 pounds a
month Of the precious red metal Of COM
merce.
At the Kennecott mine a new and great
industry has developed, a huge plant is
being erected and a railroad line and
feet Of steamships is busily engaged in
transporting copper from where It is
found to where II Is needed.
Back Of all this Is the great romance of
discovery. Into the wilds of tractless
Alaska men of iron went to wrest from
nature her hidden wealth. They fought
the elements, laughed at death and dis
ease, and fiirted daily with starvation and
the nAmeless dangers OF the frozen will
derness, until finally they won. No lure in
the world Is so compelling to the man
who lives in the open as the lure of min
ing discovery. And when at last the
prospector really finds a mine, he may
have to sit for weeks with his gun on
his knees lest some one not so fortunate
as himself steal his prospect from him.
Unknown Decade Ago.
Ten years ago the Rennecott Mine was
unknown, and mining in Alaska was stiIl
in its infancy Today the gold and COP
per mines OF this great terrttory-larger
in aera than all OF the United States east
of the MississippLproduce more wealth
in a single month than our government
paid Russia for that giant iceberg in
1861.
Today the Kennecott is earning at the
rate Of approximately $50, 10000 annually
on its Alaska properties alone and with
its interests in the great Braden Mine of
South America, the Utah Copper and
Nevada Consolidated and its railroad and
steamship lines in Alaska, It's income for
1915 should reach close to $4,000 .OOO
In 1903, when Stephen Birch Joined the
Klondike rush. he heard Of wonderful
discoveries along the PIPER River. Going
in with an outfit across the Valdez
Glazier he found the great Bonanza Wien
probably the richest and most extensive
deposit Of copper glance thus far located
in the world.
1t was a trip to try the temper OF the
hardest pioneers Horses and men
dropped by the trail and half the outfit
was lost in the snow. When Birch and
the few survivors Of his party reached
the Bonanza they were too exhausted to
struggle further. Even with slight sur
face showtngs, Birch recognized the ear
marks of great deposit But, rich as It
was, the ore would not pay the cost Of
powder to open 1t up until the transpor-
tation problem had been solved Back
to the coast came the remnants of the
party and having located the ore, Birch
began the search for capital with which
to mine and market 1t.
New York Supplies Capital.
In New York he found the money to
back the enterprise, and went IN next
season with larger outfit and the neces-
sary machinery. 1t cost 800 a ton to get
the outfit to Bonanza over the snow trail,
but Birch kept on with such splendid re-
suits that today Kennecott is producing
over 100000 pounds Of copper per
month from it's Alaska mines at a cost
of less than cents per pound-the lowest
cost production of any copper mine in the
world. The great Tacoma smelters have
not sufficient capacity to handle all of
kennecott's output and some Of 1t goes to
the Garfield smelter on the shores of
Great Salt Lake, while shiploads are sent
through the Panama Canal to Perth Am
boy for treatment
Amid scenes Of rugged beauty, about
midway of the great southern shore line
Of Alaska, La Touche Island rises from
the Pacific. Here is the great Beatson
Mine of the Kennecott, where hundreds
Of men are engaged In breaking down
The mountain Of ore by Quarrying, or
daylight mining" Back in the noun
tain shaft has been driven, and the
bottom Of this, many feet below the sea
level. is still in ore. The great concen-
tratins plant at La Touche is not suf-
ficient to handle the output Of ore and
its capacity Is being doubled.
In the great Braden mines of South
America, Kennecott has fully 2Oo, 900, 600
tons of ore in sight, and the company
owns a quarter interest in, the Utah
copper mine. which has developed fully
340 1000 tons of ore, and an eighth in
terest in Nevada Consolidated, with some
50,OOO,OOo tons of porphry copper blocked
out.
Railroad in Alaska.
From the little town of Cordova, on the
Alaskan coast, runs the Copper River
and Northwestern Railroad, 1856 miles to
Kennecott. It is built on rugged noun
tain sides and across deep ravines, and
cost over so, 10000 Mile for mile It is
one of the most expensive railroads ever
constructed, yet bringing a revenue to-
day of over 100000 a year to the Ken
necott-
Within the next twelve months Ken
necott will probably surpass the 300, OO0,-
Ooo-pound annual output Of Anaconda, to-
day the worlds greatest copper mine.
Kennecott production is sold ahead for
months into 1917, and the properties are
earning many times the annual dividend
Of So a share. It is difficult in deep-vein
copper mining to put great quantities of
ore in sight Anaconda and other similar
properties seldom block out ore for more
than two years in advance, but Kenne-
colt in its miles OF underground work