Copper mining

“ Sweden 2,000, Hungary 2,000, East Germany 443; making a total, out of America, of 30,820 tons. The single District of Ontonagon can produce as much copper as the entire Kingdom of Great Britain. The copper mines of the United States, are doing their part as effectually in adding to the solid wealth of the country, as the gold mines of California, or the silver mines of the Arizonia. The copper mining countries are another illustration of the principle upon which success is based, namely, that concentrated talent, effort and capital are necessary to a development of the resources of a country. ”

“ Though from 1840 onward, the British copper mining industry commenced to decline, still for 20 years longer the Swansea smelting works prospered more and more as new mines were being opened abroad and thus furnished a constantly increasing supply of rich copper ore, cheap to purchase and easy to smelt. ”

“ Lack of labor, inability of new properties to obtain railroad connections, and absence of government encouragement to prospecting, have retarded the copper industry since August, 1914. Aside from former German control based on selling and refining contracts, all Australian copper mining is and has been under British control. The properties are owned by British and Australian capital and present refining and selling arrangements will prevent the German metal companies from again getting any foothold in the field. ”

“ The conditions of copper mining are exactly opposite from those of silver. The Indians used almost no metal except copper, and for three hundred years white men used the old Indian mines and refined the copper by Indian methods. Better methods of mining copper and extracting it from the ores have been employed for the last fifty years, but within a dozen years the refining of copper has been revolutionized by electric methods. An enormous amount has been produced, but production has been kept down on account of the high prices. ”

“ We must look elsewhere for gold-mining from the rock on a large scale; though this is increasing in New South Wales in connexion with the development of mining for other minerals, especially copper.
Well out in the plains, and south of Bourke, at the end of a branch line of railway, is the town of Cobar; it stands just where the old rocks are disappearing underneath the recent deposits. Here is one of the chief centres of copper mining; and, once the work was started, mining for other ores naturally followed. It is a desolate country, rendered more so by the nature of the industry. ”

“ Copper mining, smelting and refining companies seem to be entirely Japanese in ownership and policy. The number of mines is considerable, but their ownership is concentrated into a few hands and the smelting and refining industry is still more concentrated. Japanese producers sell their own copper, all foreign selling agencies being strictly Japanese. The mines in Japan are not generally worked as joint-stock enterprises, but are mostly family properties inherited by the present owners. A table showing the 1917 copper production of Japan indicates these facts. ”

“ In fact, it was not until a considerable time after copper-mining was properly pursued in Cornwall, that the minerals could be turned to a profitable account. It became apparent at length, however, both from the large quantity of coal necessary for the reduction of copper-ores, and the great expense of the transport, that instead of carrying coal to Cornwall to smelt the ores—the greater quantity to the less—an opposite course must be pursued, and the ores carried to the coal districts, and there smelted. ”

“ The best opinion of mining men in this country is that our mineral resources have not yet been "skimmed" and that the mining ground of the Western country has not yet been well "scratched."
Therefore, the statement made in a newspaper which is supposedly devoted to the interests of investors, that it need not be expected that more copper mines are going to be discovered, is a snare calculated to trap the unwary. ”

“ After Chili no country has made such rapid strides in copper-mining as the United States. The primeval forests of Northern Michigan and Wisconsin would probably still be the undisputed domain of the Indian hunter if the mineral treasures of the soil had not been a prize too valuable to escape the notice of our wealth-seeking age. Soon after the first settlement of the French in Canada some bold adventurers had indeed penetrated as far as the distant shores of Lake Superior, and given wonderful accounts of 327the large masses of copper which they had seen scattered over the country ”

“ Unsuccessful copper-mining.Very considerable beds of copper ore occur in Mancayán, in the district of Lepanto, and in the central mountain-range of Luzon between Cagayán and Ilocos, which have been worked by a mining company in Manila since 1850; but the operations seem to have been most unsuccessful. In 1867 the society expended a considerable capital in the erection of smelting furnaces and hydraulic machinery ”

“ In Ancash, Ica, and Arequipa, in the coast zone, these copper deposits are also found, and new smelting establishments have been installed in these departments which are contributing to increase the output of copper ore. New copper mines have been explored in the provinces of Jauja, Pasco, and elsewhere, and prove to be rich in ores. The industry is in a more promising condition than it has ever been. Petitions for concessions of mining property are constantly reaching the government, a favorable augury for the future development of this valuable resource. ”

“ If these refineries control the sale of all the production of copper several objectionable features develop. The few sales agencies handle so much copper that there is a tendency to co-operate with representatives of foreign consumers who can buy in large quantities, and it is not difficult to manipulate the market temporarily, in disregard of actual conditions of demand and supply. Thus the entire output of copper, one of our great natural resources, is placed in the hands of groups who, while interested in mining, are more interested in refining. ”

“ We want the admission merely under proper and safe regulations, of foreign copper for refining, to draw to this country [338] the whole supply of copper for the world, by which prices would be regulated and maintained, and our copper-mining interests put beyond the reach of successful rivalry.
This country did not furnish any supply of unwrought copper to the continent of Europe, or to the United States of America, which was worthy of notice, before the year 1830; in fact, previous to that time, we imported considerable quantities of foreign copper for re-exportation to India. ”

“ Moreover, with the exception of Spain and Chili, the United States has no serious rivals in copper production,—Montana and Michigan, producing the greater part of the output. The famous Calumet and Hecla mine, in Michigan, is now down 4,000 feet and still yields ore. The most copper ores are not difficult to distinguish. Every one is familiar with the ruddy hue of pure copper, the color of the native metal. ”

“ The mining of copper with profit depends on the price of the metal in the market and on the cost of extracting and transporting the ore to the smelter. This, of course, is true with all metals, hence it frequently happens that mines containing abundant ore are not worked, owing to the fact that the cost of production, when taken into consideration with the market price, eliminates the possibility of profit. ”

“ On the other hand, increased usage of electrical energy compared with energy generated from combustion of petroleum and its derivatives is likely to greatly increase demand for copper.
The environmental considerations in both the mining and manufacture of copper are formidable. The mining operation scars the land and surface restoration presents a major ecological problem. Because one ton of water is required per ton of ore processed, adequate water supplies must be available. ”

“ Like others of the less important mining industries, copper mining in the United Kingdom has declined. In 1881 the output of ore amounted to 52,556 tons, in 1891 to 9158 tons, in 1893 to 5576 tons, in 1905 to 7153 tons, valued at £32,696 and yielding 716 tons of metal by smelting. ”

“ The first location of a copper claim was made by Frank McAllister who, with a man named Cooper and Arthur Kunzie, may be credited with one of the West’s most spectacular mining booms.
In 1905 Phil Creaser and Fred Birney took samples of the Copper Blue Ledge and sent them to Patsy Clark, who was so impressed that he dispatched Joseph P. Harvey, a prominent mining engineer to look at the property. Harvey started from Daggett and had reached Cave Spring in the Avawatz Mountains when he was caught in a cloudburst and lost all his equipment. ”

“ The copper was, no doubt, recognised as a malleable rock, differing from all others in its ductility, so that it could be fashioned, with the aid of a hammer-stone, to any desired form. By this means the ancient miners of Lake Superior provided themselves with the most suitable tools for their mining operations, and were probably the manufacturers of most of the widely diffused copper implements. But for general purposes, both of industry and war, American man had to be content with the more abundant chert, hornstone, and quartzite. ”

“ The United States, producing a major part of the world’s copper, has also been responsible for financing and developing more successful copper mines abroad than any other country. Success has been facilitated by the presence in the Western Hemisphere of the world’s chief copper deposits and also by the advances in mining, milling and metallurgy that have been in great measure the work of United States engineers. ”

“ Furthermore the mound builder used metal tools, and was probably a metal worker. It is true the copper implements mentioned, as having been found were brought to Rainy and Red Rivers. I have, however, pointed out the intimate connection judging by the line of transport subsisting between Rainy River and Lake Superior, the mining locality for copper. To sink a mine in the unyielding Huronian rock of Lake Superior, with mallet and hammer and wedge and fire, take out the native copper, work it into the desired tools, and then temper these requires skill and adaptation unpossessed by the Indians. ”

“ The common ore is native copper, often associated with native silver, the two remaining, chemically, quite distinct. Some masses of copper occur that are too large to handle and must be cut by cold chisels, a method that costs more for labor than the value of the metal. The Lake Superior mines produce 140,000,000 pounds of copper a year, while those of Montana made the gigantic output of 228,000,000 pounds in 1896. ”

“ I think the smelting apparatus is in reasonably good order, but I doubt if any of the other appurtenances of the mine are of much value. Now, having gone into the mining business, I intend to work this property for all it’s worth, and I propose that you spend a day or two getting a suitable manager, rigging up windlasses, and that sort of thing, so that we will see whether there is more money in copper to-day than was the case when the mine was abandoned, years and years ago. I suppose that modern processes may enable us to extract more copper out of the ore than our fathers found possible. ”

“ A variety of copper ornaments are worn by the Kafirs of the northern parts of the Transvaal who have known how to extract the metal from the mineral and to smelt it into pure ore. No mining operations in search of copper have, as I believe, yet been carried on by white men in the country. At an Agricultural Show which was held in 1876 at Potchefstroom, the chief town in the southern part of the Transvaal, prizes were awarded for specimens of the following minerals found in the country itself. Gold-bearing quartz, alluvial gold, copper, tin, lead, iron, plumbago, cobalt, and coal. ”

“ As in the case of iron the northern peninsula of Michigan is the most important center of copper production, with Montana a close second and Arizona contributing most of the remainder. Like petroleum, copper production is controlled by a small number of operators, five mining companies alone furnishing one-half of the American supply. It is far from being monopolized, however, as petroleum is, for new and rich supplies lie just on the margin of profitable working and will always be brought into the market whenever the price is artificially raised. ”

“ One very hopeful fact can be deduced for the comfort of the base metal mining industry as a whole. If the growth of demand continues through the next thirty years in the ratio of the past three decades, the annual demand for copper will be over 3,000,000 tons, of lead over 1,800,000 tons, of spelter 2,800,000 tons, of tin 250,000 tons. Where such stupendous amounts of these metals are to come from at the present range of prices, and even with reduced costs of production, is far beyond any apparent source of supply. The outlook for silver prices is in the long run not bright. ”

“ Because of labor conditions, abundant fuel near the mines and water transportation, Japanese copper production has increased rapidly in recent years. High prices and the adoption of modern methods of mining and smelting have been important contributing factors. There seems no reason to expect that Japan’s production will decrease, but not enough is known of geological conditions to enable one to discuss the future outlook. The only mine whose reserves are known is the Beshi, which has reserves adequate for 100 years of production at the present rate, which is 10 per cent. ”