Douglas daily dispatch., 1927-08-28

August, 1927, marks the birth of
another new industry in Arizona, the
mining, concentration and smelling OF
lead. And if developed to the extent
hoped for, the lead mining industry
will take up the loss suffered by the
copper mining industry Tduring the
past nine years since the arnlstlce.
Not many years ago Michigan enjoyed
the position if premier copper pro-
ducer of the United States, only to be
displaced by Montana and Montana
soon surrendered the leadership to
Arizona. Not many years ago citizens
of Arizona thought the dreams of the
copper miner to be impossible of
realization and then lived to see Ari-
zona produce 40 per cent Of the
nations copper And now there are
people in Arizona who believe that
Arizona can never be a large lead
producer. but large sums of money
are being spent by the lead miners to
bring their dream of premier lead
production to realization.
Nine of the IL counties in Arizona
are known to have lead deposits, de-
velopment of which may open large
mines. Cochise, Graham, Mohave,
Yavapai, Santa Cruz, Pima, Pinal,
ella and Yuma counties have lead
prospects which will warrant further
development but Cochise has fur
nished almost the entire lead produc-
tion Of Arizona in former years,
though the Grand Reef mine Of Con-
gressman w. L. Douglas has been de-
veloped to point where it is known
that good mine can be brought in.
The development of lead mines in
any or all of these counties will mean
more population, more payrolls, the
opening of outlets for millions OF dol
lars of Arizona's agricultural products
and the adding of millions of dollars
to the taxrolls of the state. Another
Bisbee, Jerome, Miami, Morenci or
Aio is likely if any one of the many
lead prospects in any of the nine
counties develops into real producing
lead mine.
Arizona produced only 10,646 tons
of the primary lead smelted or refined
in the United States in 1926. During
that year the United States produced
695,3O tons, so it is shown that Ari-
zona produced only very little more
than IL per cent of the total
United States production, and the
Shattuck and Copper Queen mines in
Bisbee produced almost all of the Ari
zona production.
Sensing the possibilities of further
lead development in the state, the
Phelps Dodge corporation, owners OF
the Copper Queen mine, decided to
gamble with the future and erected a
sfnelter costing approximately 100000.
They utilized the buildings which were
abandoned at their copper sn1elter
when the new reverberatory furnaces
were blown in early in the year and
thus effected great savings over the
cost of an entirely new smelter con-
Struction This new lead smelter was
blown in at Douglas on Thursday,
August 18. It's erection means the
bringing of smelter much closer to
Arizona lead producers, closer per-
sonal contact between lead miner and
lead smelter, and the lowering of
transportation charges for long hauls
which have prevented development OF
most of the lead properties in the
state during the past years.
In addition to the new smelter the
Phelps Dodge corporation has erected
a new lead concentration at Bisbee and
has leased the concentrator of the
Southwest Metals company at Hum
boldt, intending to turn this plant
into concentrator for the handling
of lead-zinc ores The greatest prob
lem which must be overcome by
Arizona lead producers is the mining
of low grade ores, ores containing
lead in quantities too small to allow
transportation charges and direct
smelling charges with profit to the
mine owner When these ores are
concentrated, and a large portion of
the worthless gangue, or country rock,
is separated from the metal bearing
particles, the concentrates may then
be profitably snelted. Congressman
Douglas has erected such concen-
traitor at his Grand Reef property in
Aravaipa canyon, and a few small
lead mills are operated in other parts
of the state, but none of these are
handling custom ores-or ores from
other producers concentrated for a