Bisbee daily review., 1918-05-05
Bisbee
From the El Paso Herald)

strange contradictions. For instance, big mining town in northeastern France IS de stroved by war and its mines temporarily ruined. At the same time, Bisbee, Arizona, thousands of miles from the battle zone but affected by the war nevertheless, is being virtually made over Incidentally, one ot the big mine operators of Bisbee is now in the town in France, not making over that town but restoring its mines to disability.
 Transformations near home hold great local interest over and above their national and even international significance. Bis bee Is being made a great new copper camp. It Is being made over to mine and treat at profit copper of such low grade as never before was handled in the Warren district.
 Heretofore, Bisbee mines never have given attention to copper ore running less than four per cent. Only when the mar ket reached the very top was ore of less than five per cent grade mined Since the government fixed the price at Z3T2 cents, notwithstanding mounting costs of'produc- ton and treatment, the companies have been obliged to mine only their high grade ores in order to make profit Obviously this could not continue. The mines would strip themselves of all their high grade and medium grade ore and then fail. Even the medium grade ores could not pay profit under general methods of treatment. Most of the small mines of Pima and Cochise counties have been forced to discontinue mining copper ores because they could make no profit and in some instances only the presence of silver-lead ores Is keeing them open.
 So the Copper Queen and the Shattuck- Arizona companies at Bisbee, both well equipped with capital, have turned to the task of making low grade ores pay. To do that required an investment of millions in new plants, new machinery and new de- velopment work both above ground and be- low. Much of this work has been accom- plished and all the capital involved in mak ing the change remains tied up until the low grade ore actually Is mined, treated and sold.
 Even as recently as 1913, the average Bisbee resident would have scoffed the idea that his camp ever would be low grade producer. He would have believed 1t al- ways would be turning out the high grade and medium grades of ore. Not so the mine manager, however. He could see the day when the low grade must be handled along with the high grade, but this war has hastened decisions long ago reached. Not only will the Bisbee mines handle ore run ming below 5%o, but considerable part of it will run down as low as .06 per cent.
 The Copper Queen plans to take out of Sacramento hill about 100000 pounds of copper by the steam shovel process. A few years ago Sacramento hill was just hill and nothing more, little more consid- cred than any other mass of rock and earth. Now it is field of mining operations. It has been drilled through and blown up and now is being torn away. Eighty feet of over burden are being removed before the steam shovels can get at the low grade cop per underneath. Then the treatment of, low grade by this big company will com mence.
 At the same time, in its underground workings the Copper Queen is preparing to mine some 100000 tons of low grade silver-lead ore This same kind of ore will also be mined by the Shattuck company, that company having proved silver-lead low grade amenable of treatment at profit.
 The Shattuck company has more than 100000 tons of low grade ore to handle at a profit of about $4 ton. This com pany has been delayed, however, by freight embargoes which have held back the ar rival of new equipment. The mill build ing Is completed and concrete bases have