SILVER. The yield of silver in Arizona in 1909 was 2,601,161 fine ounces, valued at $1,352,604, a decrease of 207,289 ounces. Silver is largely produced as the by-product from copper ores, and its increase in production largely depends on the increase of copper and lead ores. No very high-grade silver ores have been found in recent years since the surface ore deposits have been exhausted. In many instances at depth these ores have been replaced by copper ores carrying silver. The silver yield from siliceous ore in 1909 was 407,757 ounces, or about one-half the quantity produced from the same source in 1908. The greatest decrease was in Cochise County. Copper ores yielded 1,830,998 ounces of silver, half of which was from Cochise County mines, and lead ores yielded 234,709 ounces. The total silver from copper ores was 53,732 ounces greater and from lead ores 105,659 ounces greater than in 1908. The crude ore treated at smelters, 2,184,432 tons in quantity, yielded 2,204,069 ounces of silver, averaging 1.01 ounces per ton. Ore treated at amalgamation and cyanide mills aggregated 216,910 tons and yielded 258,029 ounces of silver, or an average of 1.19 ounces per ton. At concentration mills 248,969 tons of concentrates were made, containing 135,657 ounces of silver, or an average of 0.54 ounce per ton. Cochise County concentrate produced most of the silver, and Yavapai County was second in total yield. Source of silver production in Arizona, by kinds of ore, in 1909, by counties, in fine ounces. In 1909 the output of copper amounted to 303,899,461 pounds, valued at $39,506,930. As compared with figures of 1908 this showed an increase of 18,041,328 pounds, which is almost entirely credited to Cochise County mines, Pima County showing the next notable increase. Cochise, Graham, Gila, Yavapai, and Pima counties, named in order of their production, were credited with the greatest yield of copper. Only three counties, Graham, Mohave, and Coconino, had decreases recorded against them for 1909. Forty-six per cent of the production of copper, or 140,810,472 pounds, valued at $18,305,361, was produced from the mines in Cochise County. The crude shipping ores treated at smelters in 1909, aggregating 2,184,432 tons (including lead and zinc ores), yielded 244,040,367 pounds of copper, or an average of 111.72 pounds per ton. Included in this crude ore to smelters was the metallic content of 141,669 tons of old smelter slag and flue dust resmelted, from which were recovered 8,189,356 pounds of copper. There were also 169,008 pounds of copper recovered from tailings by leaching and the use of scrap iron as a precipitant. The total quantity of concentrates produced in Arizona was 248,969 tons, of which all but a small tonnage containing lead produced in Cochise, Yavapai, Pinal, and Mohave counties, yielded 59,859,094 pounds of copper, an average of 240.42 pounds per ton. Copper contained in concentrates was separated from 1,485,724 tons of ore, which yielded an average of 2.02 per cent of copper. The ore was mined in the following counties: Graham, Gila, Pinal, Cochise, Pima, and Yavapai, given in the order of importance. In the classification of the kinds of ore produced in 1909 the copper ores carried the bulk of the copper. Siliceous ores yielded 308,446 pounds, of which nine-tenths was from ores mined in Cochise County; the average content of copper was 0.06 per cent. Lead ores contained 64,785 pounds, averaging 0.11 per cent. Copper-lead ores contained 262,154 pounds, an average of 0.77 per cent. Copper was associated with the lead ores produced in Cochise, Pima, and Graham counties and averaged well with the copper-lead ores of Yavapai, Pima, and Pinal counties. LEAD. The output of lead increased from 3,008,583 pounds, valued at $126,360, in 1908 to 3,098,083 pounds, valued at $133,218, in 1909, the increase being from Pima, Yavapai, Cochise, Yuma, and Graham counties. The largest production was in Cochise County, which yielded 2,004,018 pounds, and Yavapai County ranked next with 409,890 pounds. Crude ore shipped to smelters contained 1,977,294 pounds, or nearly two-thirds of the total output. Concentrates containing lead aggregated 7,661 tons and contained 1,120,789 pounds of lead, averaging 146.29 pounds per ton, or 7.31 per cent. The concentrates were produced in Cochise, Yavapai, Pinal, Mohave, and Santa Cruz counties. Yavapai County was credited with the largest total output of lead. The average recovery was small in the county, and the average for Arizona was barely three-tenths of a pound per ton. The mines in this county were also productive of the largest total yield of copper-lead ore. This county, with Pima and Pinal counties, was credited with a total of 507,354 pounds of lead. ZINC. Zinc, reported according to its yield of spelter, aggregated 5,977,237 pounds, valued at $322,771, in 1909 as against a yield of 678,446 pounds, valued at $31,887, in 1908. In 1907 the output was 228,490 pounds. The Golconda mine, in Mohave County, produced zinc ores which averaged nearly 50 per cent of zinc. At Tombstone, in Cochise County, a zinc concentrate was shipped separately from the lead concentrate produced at the mill of the Tombstone mines. MINING INDUSTRY IN ARIZONA IN 1909. The figures of metal output in Arizona for 1909 suggest that the mining industry was, in general, in a progressive condition, especially since developments have been keeping pace with production. It is stated by the larger companies operating copper mines at Clifton and Bisbee that at greater depths the value and extent of ore bodies are well maintained. The most notable feature of Arizona's copper mining was the development of deposits of low-grade ores in porphyry and schists. The greatest activity has been in the Globe district. The country between Pinal Creek, which runs through the town of Globe, and the Pinal Mountains, which are 20 miles south of Globe, is more or less impregnated with copper, and it is within that district that the most vigorous operations are now being conducted. Some of the properties which are to be worked by large public corporations have been small producers for years, but nowhere have they been prospected at depth, and it is the deeper ores, under corporate management, that will unquestionably tell largely upon Arizona's future production. The large bodies of disseminated copper ores were mainly prospected by churn drills at the angles of 200-foot squares. The assays showed a wide distribution of low-grade ore. This was blocked out by crosscuts and raises at regular intervals, with the result that the estimated quantity of ore is expressed in millions of tons. At Courtland, in Cochise County, and near Mammoth, in Pinal County, large low-grade bodies of copper ore were opened. The opening of zinc sulphide deposits in the Union Basin district of Mohave County at the Golconda mine and in other parts of the same county by allied interests of the United States Mining Company has caused a renewal of activity in the development of the zinc-bearing ores. The reduction plants at Globe have been increased by the blowing in of the Arizona-Commercial Copper Company's 500-ton smelter, which is, however, treating only 125 tons of ore daily. A copper-matting furnace, with a capacity of 125 tons of ore daily, was blown in at Johnson, in Cochise County, and operated for a short period. The smelter of the Consolidated Arizona Company, at Humboldt, in Yavapai County, idle since the latter part of 1907, was being prepared for operation early in 1910. The Needles Mining and Smelting Company, controlled by the United States Smelting and Refining Company, bought the property of the Arizona Mexican Mining and Smelting Company. The purchase included the small smelting plant at Needles, Cal., and several small mines near Kingman, Ariz. By purchase and by bonding a large, though little developed, mining territory, the company is now equipping for exploration. It is making some improvements at the smelting plant and expects to begin smelting operations in the near future. It is also building, adjacent to the smelter, a 200-ton concentrator. The Needles smelter has tributary to it a large territory in California, Nevada, and Arizona which promises well from the mining point of view and whose growth has been retarded by lack of proper milling and smelting facilities. These the company proposes to provide and is confident of being able to build up a large and profitable industry of smelting custom ores augmented by ores from its own mines. Complete results, however, are not expected for at least two years. During 1909 the Southern Pacific Company extended its railroad to Courtland, in Cochise County, and from Globe to Miami, in Gila County. It is now extending its Phoenix-Kelvin line from Winkelman, in Pinal County. From Twin Buttes, in Pima County, the branch line operating from Tucson is being extended toward Calabasas, in Santa Cruz County. In November, 1909, connection was established with the Southern Pacific and Johnson, in Cochise County, by a new branch line known as the Johnson, Dragoon and Northern Railway. The Santa Fe Railway is connecting its branch railroad line, extended in 1908 to Parker, on the Colorado River, with the main line at Bengal, in San Bernardino County, Cal. The Shannon Railway, 10 miles long, from the Shannon mines at Metcalf to its smelter at Clifton, in Graham County, was nearly completed at the end of 1909. New electric-power plants were built and put in operation, notably at Kingman, in Mohave County, and on Fossil Creek, in Yavapai County. When this electric power is ready for distribution from the Government dams in Arizona to the surrounding camps, this will do much to cheapen the cost of mining. A large electricpower plant is under construction at Hayden, a point on the ArizonaEastern Railroad, about 15 miles southeast of Kelvin and about 20 miles from the Ray mines in Pinal County. This plant will supply the 8,000-ton mill and smelter and the mines of the Ray Consolidated Company with power. Mine production of gold, silver, copper, and lead in Arizona in 1909, by counties. Tonnage of milling and smelting ore and concentrates, and quantity of gold and silver contained in bullion, produced in Arizona in 1909, by counties. |