Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1939-12-16

railroad point. from which IT wa
of these was the Boston & Colorado
Smelling Co. at Blackhawk, in
Colorado. To Nathaniel p. Hill and
Richard Pearce. directors of Hills
R,arkhawk Smelling Co. Clark sug-
gested the building of custom
smelter at Butte. This was in 1878
and soon the smelter was completed.
Becomes Big Bonanza
DAILY. convinced of the favorable
prospects of mining al Butte, per
suaded Haggin Tevis and Hearst
San Francisco mining group, TO
purchase the Anaconda mine in
1881. It was a small silver mine
only 60 feet deep. and the price
was 100000 In 1895 the Ana
conda company was reorganiZed as
the Anaconda Copper Mining Co,
with a capital of 100000 shares
of par value of S25 a piece To-
day the Anaconda Copper Mining
Co. is a worldwide operating com
many. with its greatest mines at
Butte. The company has CAPT
talization of 100000. 12,0OO,-
600 shares of $50 par. The com
pany has paid close to 100000
900 in dividends.
The history of copper mining IN
Montana practically centers in the
Butte district Some copper ore
also has been mined at Copperopo-
lis and other places. said Samuel
Barker. Jr., consulting mining en-
gineer of Butte, in a recent address
Continuing he said: In 1880 Marcus
Daily bought the Anaconda claim
from the Hickey boys for $780,
600
Heretofore copper ore had only
been found in comparatively small
quantities, but with development
in the Butte district. reserves OF
copper glance and other copper
minerals were figured in millions
Of tons.
Metallurgical Advance
With all of the wonderful mining
and metallurgical works now around |
us. it is hard to realize that slightly !
more than SO years ago the nearest I
copper smelter was on the Atlantic !.
seaboard, and that copper ores were |
shipped from the Anaconda and |
Colusa mines to Swansea. Wales.
Because the ore was high grade. !
carrying a liberal amount of silver,
it was but a short time until the
new metal was given a great deal
Of attention.
Besides the Parrot and Anaconda
Companies, the Boston & Montana
Co., the Colorado Smelling & Min
ing Co. William A. Clark. and the
Butte & Boston Co owned or ac-
CURED groups Of claims Smelling
plants were built by all of the
above-named, so that by 1888 these
smelters were turning out copper
at the rate of 1O0,O0O,O00 pounds
a year
About 1898, a new magnate ap-
peared on the copper horizon of
Butte Mr.. F. A. Heinze, a graduate
of a noted technical school in the
East His early work here was sur
veying underground for the Boston
& Montana Co That work soon
proved too tame for him. so he
branched out for himself Carney & 4
Hand, oId-time prominent assayers /
had made a profit of 100000 leas- 7
ing the Glengarry north of Walk I
erville Then they transferred their '
activities to a lease just south of :
the Silver Bow mine They sank (
the $4,000 and some more. but /
finally had to quit Mr.. Heinze
took over the lease and struck i
high grade copper One success q
led to others. a
Royalty Proves Tricky n
About that time a lease that Jim t
Murray had given to some miners f
On his Estella mine in Centerville
was expiring These lessees paid G
$50 royalty on first class and 5 II
on second class Heinze proposed i
to pay 500 on first and 10 on s
second class, so Jim gave him the
lease. Thereafter no first class ore i
was mined. Jim sued for an ac L
counting, lost the case, and smil-
ingly said: "If l had had that young 4
man as my partner 10 years ago, +
we would own all of Butte now.
Mr.. Heinze was on the high road T
to success. He leased the Minnie '
Healy, bought the Rarus and other 1
claims, and built a smelter to t
treat his ores Difficulties arising G
out of the mining laws caused con- S
litigation, so that finally S
the Amalgamated Co bought Mr.
Heinze's interests for a reported I
$1O,OOO,OOO. r
few years ago a noted eastern
geologist was asked by a Butte r
Standard reporter: How long will c
the mines of Butte last?" The &
answer was Longer than you or 6
! will live"
With the tremendous production {
of commercial ore in this district I
the wonder of mining men visiting
here is the small amount of de-
velopment work done outside the '
main producing area. Some time
that development work will be un- I