Arizona republican., 1918-04-10

midst of the war and Of the dlScour- agements attending the low price fixed upon copper metal by the government and the attending high price prevail ing upon labor and all supplies, prac- tically a great new copper mining camp is being made within an estab- lished camp, Bisbee, the greatest of the individual Arizona districts.
 To Add Low Grade to Output
 This is true by reason of the fact that in the past Bisbee mines have never been called upon for an average of less than 4 per cent ore at the smelters. Only when the metal market has been at the very top has the aver age fallen below per cent. On low metal price these mines have been obliged to turn out average of above 5 Ter cent ore for the smelters in order to keep production costs down to where profit would be allowed on the mine operations. This Is true at the present time and has been true ever since the war industries board fixed a price of gaze for the metal, with pay for mine operatives and those of mills and smelters fixed on a 26-cent metal price basis. But now Bisbee is to produce lower grade ores as well as Inc higher grade and make few mill ion additional pounds of copper each month to add to the total made from .he high sEade ores, asgregating around seventeen million pounds the month. under normal conditions.
 Costs Millions to Do IL
 The cost of adding the low grade to the output of Bisbee copper ores mounts into the millions of dollars. There is also represented several years Of preparatory work underground and on the surface, together with the ap- plication 1f the best metallurGlcal thought and mechanical ingenuity in the country to the problems which have to be overcome before tho eX- peuditure of the millions of capital can be made certain of returning profit or, rather. as certain as the risks of mining will permit All of this ex- penditure comes about before a dollar in returns can be put in pocket. Every cent is tied up and standing idle until the day of production of the low grade ore is reached and the ore extraction and treatment processes devised are proved adequate to the work in hand. Then and then only does the money invested commence to come back.
 The New Bisbee
 As few as five years ago the Bisbee rqident would have scoffed the idea that his camp would ever be anything but the high grade producer it had always been. Today he sees not only the old Bisbee, as regards high grade mining and the constant extension oi deep development workings into more and more ore averaging well up to the standard, but also the new Bisbee which will mine and take care of ore averaging from per cent to COS per cent, recovering the copper from all of it.
 Justifiable Pride
 Plenty of pride is justified in this achievement worked out in the main during the four years of the war period under the handicap of constantly ad- vancing costs of materials of every kind and of the highest cost labor ir the history of Arizona mining, not tC mention the handicap imposed by pro- Germanism through strikes and low. erinS of efficiency, and that of large losses of engineers, technical men anC many skilled mechanics to the severa arms of the government service which have called them. Two companies both fortunately possessed of large capital with which to pursue theiI work, the Copper Queen branch oi Phelps Dodge corporation, and Shat tuck Arizona Copper Co. are responsi- ble for the achievement. Copper Queen has determined something more thar l2,OOO,00O tons of low grade in Sacra- mento hill and is now well advanced toward the point where the stean shovels it has put on top of the noun. tain will be taking out ore as well a! waste, the latter comprised in tho average of more than 80 feet of val ueless rock which covers the ore anC is known as overburden. At the sam, time in it's underground working Copper Queen is preparing to min some two million tons of low grad lead-silver ore which Shattuck ex periments on ore of the same kind il it's workings proved to be amenable {, profitable handling So it is that thes two companies have made practical, new camp within the old one, tn new one mining and handling ere o grade and in manner that will DC en tirely different and as opposite Us tn poles in contrast with the great higl grade mining activities of the past an, present in the district.
 Shattuek Mill Near eRady
 Were the equipment all here, tn, Shattucks mill for the handling O it's low grade silver-lead ore, iron which something like $4.00 the tor profit will be realized and of whicl there is something more than mil lion tons now determined, with more doubtless, to come. would soon be go ing. Freight embargoes of one kint and another however. have delayed the equipment, ordered long ago ant probably all somewhere on the roa, from the manufacturers at this time The mill building is up, and ha greatly changed the aspect of tn surface of Denn, near the shaft o which property the plant has beel erected. Everything within the build ing is ready to receive the full com plement of specially constructs Na I,a