Arizona state miner., 1925-09-05
Western Mining News
UNITED VERDE HAS BEEN ON
FIRE OVER 80 YEARS

FIRE OVER 80 YEARS
One of the largest and certainly
one of the most interesting mining
projects to be seen in any part of
the world is that of United Verde
Copper Co. at Jerome, Arizona, where
mountain is being whitfield away
to vertical depth of five hundred
feet.
On Fire Thirty Years
AS is generally known among min
ing men, the great ore-body of United
Verde, which is several hundred feet
wide where exposed in the pit work
has been on fire in places above the
600-foot level for nearly 80 years. All
efforts to smother or otherwise subdue
the smouldering conflagration prov
ing ineffective, it was decided to ex-
tract the major portion of the ores
by surface work and drop the balance
through to the 1000-foot level by mill
hole methods.
The work has been under way, with
some Interruptions, since 1919 and in
that time an immense pit has been
carved out of the mountain. High up
on the steep sides of the workings to
the south and east may be seen ex-
posed tunnel openings of the early
workings of the mine, with the old
timbers fantastically protruding.
There is no buster scene, even in
Arizona, home of great mining opera
tions. The screeching of locomotives
running back and forth on several
bench levels; the chugging and
| crunching of the giant steam shovels;
the rumbling of rock tumbling through
exposed shafts to the underground
| levels the roar of the blast siren
! signals, and, above all, the acrid, suf-
locating fumes of the burning ore-body
! beneath. make up a whole of absorb
| ing interest.
While this great surface work is
I being maintained at high pressure,
development and extraction of ore at
the lower levels of the mine is also
carried on at normal rate. From
the 1000-foot tunnel, known as the
Hopewell, a standard gauge railroad
equipped with electric locomotives
whisks the ore direct from the very
bowels of the earth to the Clarkdale
smelter, five miles down the Verde
Valley. The workings have now
reached total vertical depth of 2400
feet and it is said that the ore-body,
which has already produced $75,000,-
600 in dividends and several hundreds
of million dollars gross value, is there
as large and as rich as at any level
above.
Above the 170O-foot level great
/ stope of high-grade ore 80 feet wide
and at least 200 feet long was seen
one of the most inspiring underground
scenes in the West The immense,
high-vaulted concrete stations; the
mine cages handling 120 men at a
trip; the great hoist with rope speed
of 1000 feet minute; the wonderful
ventilating system and the automatic
train-loading facilities at the 1O0O-foot
level were all inspected by the writer.
This great mine, perhaps the great
est of it's kind in the world, supporting
and directly employing approximately
1000 men at high wages, stands as
monument to the foresight, optimism
and generous faith of the late Senator
W. A. Clark, one of the most success
full and by long odds the smartest in
dividual copper operator the world
has yet produced. Back in the sos,
when that part of Arizona was far
from civilization and spot to be
Stunned, Senator Clark, then one of
Montana's big mining figures, laid the
foundations for the enterprise that has
since become one of the most import
ant of it's kind in the world and will
undoubtedly continue to hold that po-
sition during the lives of most men
now living.