Show M 1 mining ining ov operations ai erat ions i in n montana by W B OREM total value of the mineral prodoc the e for the year 1913 was montana tana of nf Alon a decrease of from that the decrease noted was in gold of f 1912 production while the value of a copper the tte silver lead and zinc was largely in the production of copper silver creased ased and aad gold for 1913 was as follows copper pounds valued at silver fine ounces 4 valued rallied at gold fine ounces valued at the value of the lead produced during 1913 was and the zinc was valued at importance of mining industry the mining industry of this section is one of the most important of this count rys industries sixty five per cent of the freight traffic of the railroads come from the mineral products the total production of our mines and metallurgical plants is about per annum and the number of laborers engaged in its production is about making a contribution of about 2000 per man employed per annum to the wealth of the country it is interesting to note that in the strong vaults of montana are stored countless millions of wealth from 1904 to 1913 the metal products of this state were an average of over 1000 for every man woman and child within its borders and the work has only just begun there are some wonderful showings in the different mining districts and when con editions right themselves there is no doubt but that capital will be invested in the different properties that are now idle and have been during the past year if more money was used in the development of mines before the erection of large mills and concentrators there would be fewer mures failures to record and furthermore if the money oney raised was used for legitimate min ing instead of stock jobbing there would be more ore encouragement for people willing to ilk sk their money in mining prospects the law passed by the last legislature pertain ng to conditions editions under which mining stocks ill can be marketed rk eted will result in interesting a better class of men and the properties wl IQ merit and these will be the only kind that cart can be handled there are a great many mines in the state and especially among the silver iles that have been practically worked out above water level and it will be feces bary aj to install install plants able to handle the ir er either steam or electric power being used and lid this means time and capital luelelia li elelia III tedo montana tana state mine in inspector r bar pr SO 1914 co v cring fiscal year ending novem there is no reason why some of these mines should not become valuable prod pro dubers and it seems more than likely that within the next year or so electric powei powe will be available in nearly all the mining districts affording a power cheaper and more efficient than any other dredging operations there seems to be quite an amount of 0 work on in the state in the way of dreda ing they have been working for the last three or four years below virginia city ancl have produced a great amount of gold at the present time they are prospecting the old gulch just below the town I 1 am informed by the people owning the ground that their tests have been very satisfactory and there seems to be no doubt but that the company making the inspection will take the ground over senator oleary of libby is constructing a large bluming plant to be used in placer work and several other companies are figuring on dredges in the early spring in the libby district zinc ore production prom from the strides taken by the state in the way of zinc production it will not de be long before we will be one of the largest zinc producing states in the union there has been wonderful showings made in the mining of zinc esp especially in silver bow county as it at present has one of the largest mines of its kind operating in this country and as far as the zinc development is concerned it has only begun in the butte district there are other large mines in the state that have large deposits of ore of this character that are not working at the present and I 1 look for a large amount of work being done in the way of mining this ore in the next year or so I 1 think that the mills now installed by the butte and the clark people are not in the experimental stages but that they know exactly what their savings will be the butte su perlor has developed into the largest zinc mine in the world employing 1000 men daily it is hoisting about 1100 tons per day and is on a paying basis the increase in zinc for 1913 was pounds over the year 1912 the principal smelters shelters Sm elters the principal smelters shelters sm elters in the state are at great falls anaconda east butte and east helena the amalgamated companas Comp anys expenditures in the state are about 4 per year or nearly one hundred dollars for every man woman and child I 1 in n the state the butte duluth mining alining company and the have a large amount of oxidized ore lying east of east butte near the foothills where a large leaching plant has been installed the ore consists of granite stained and enriched by different differ eni copper minerals chiefly and halla chite and is in a large body without any well defined walls they have been experimenting peri with two leaching plants for some time the process is not familiar to many mining men mr fields at maxwell was one of the first to put such a plant in operation the ore is crushed to about a number ten mesh and run into tanks where a week solution of sulphuric acid is applied which readily leaches the copper out of the ore it then turns into tanks in a solution the copper is deposited in the form of cathodes measuring 24 by 36 inches weighing when put in the tank about two and one half pounds and when taken out about sixty five pounds each which product ore is pure and ready for the market when these leaching plants are beyond the experimental stage it is going to mean a great deal for the state one of the principal things to overcome is to find some material that will withstand the action of the sulphuric acid it seems to destroy everything it comes into contact with except wood captain Wol veren has done a great deal for the butte district being the man that made the butte superior and he is now building a 1000 ton leaching plant at the butte duluth mine telephones installed the installing of a telephone system in all of the large mines in butte is one of the most convenient improvements for men operating in all lines pertaining to the mines it saves unnecessary trips to the surface and one can order anything in the way of supplies asi ksevery every department has its own connection the phones are in constant use during working hours and on the 1200 foot level of the leonard mine a a booth is installed so that a person can secure connection with any point in the state this is considered one of the most convenient improvements prove ments for mines in this district one of the principal improvements for the year 1914 is the install installing I 1 ng of ram water liner drills of which there are in use about 15 0 in the butte district having visited the leading mines in arizona during the past winter I 1 have had an opportunity to 10 investigate the merits of these drills they are used almost exclusively in the south their main advantage is that they do away with all dust that was caused by the use of the old piston drill and which it was claimed was the main cause of miners consumption under the new device the machine drills all holes wet doing away with all the dust caused by the told type of ma chine drilling dry holes the 2800 foot level the mines of the anaconda copper mining mini company have one general level wh which I 1 ch will be known as the 2800 foot level this will include the fol following lowing mines jit at these depths leonard 2400 west stewart 2500 original 2300 diamond 2800 tramway 2400 st lawrence 2600 anaconda 2600 this will be the drain level they have two general pumping plants one located at the high ore handling 1800 gallons per minute and one at the leonard handling 1200 gallons per minute it is wonderful when you realize that gallons per minute is all the water pumped by the anaconda copper mining company from nearly all of its properties utilization of electric power one of the most important moneysaving money saving improvements in the butte district is the utilization of electric power in all branches furnishing power for mining it is much cheaper than steam power and does away with the great amount of heat caused dy using steam engines in the following mines have all been changed from steam to air diamond high ore original west gray rock berkley tramway mountain view pennsylvania leonard and west colusa calusa it is now only a matter of a short time when all engines at the mines will be run by air anaconda doubles ore bin capacity the anaconda copper mining company has completed an improvement at its butte properties that will mean much to the chemin min ers of the district in the future and that is the practically doubling of the capacity of the ore bins at the mines when this work is completed it will be possible to place tons of ore in the bins to await shipment to the smelters shelters sm elters at great falls and anaconda ventilation of mines the high ore shaft 2580 feet three compartments is doing a great deal in the matter of ventilation this shaft shaf t n aa worked wonders in the high ore mine it is only a matter of a few months when this will be connected to the 2800 the mountain view air shaft 2 feet deep three compartment is also one of the shafts sunk for ventilation purposes in the last five or six years the belmont is sunk to the 2400 of which about 1200 feet has been sunk in the last two or three years and has done wonders ri in the way of ventilation for the anaconda properties the leonard mine has three shafts the main working shaft is 2200 feet deep and has been a great benefit to other properties of the mine the old shaft has reached the depth of 2200 feet and is connected on various levels with the new shaft an air shaft has also been sunk to the depth or 1800 feet and soon will be connected with the 2000 this gives this mine three shafts nearly to the bottom of the mine the tramway mine has just completed a new air shaft to the 1500 and intends taking it down to the lower levels this shaft is about the center of the ore body and when completed is going to be agrest a great benefit in the matter of ventilation the fan on the 1709 company also has a large 1 working shaft which is pulling down and distributing pure air through their mine T the he gagnon air shaft has reached the depth of 2500 feet three compartments being connected to the gagnon and original and will be of great benefit to those two mines in the matter of ventilation the mountain con mine is connected connecter ea to the buffalo also to the 2200 of the green mountain the west colusa calusa has the comanche shaft down to the 1800 and also has sunk the alex scott feet wh which ich is 1600 feet and connected it for the purpose of ventilation for the west colusa calusa mine the anaconda copper mining company for the year 1913 spent nt for ventilation the th law requiring sanitary care has given good f results in regard to air and conditions in general the high ore shaft the high ore shaft has a total depth ot feet being the deepest shaft in tho thea j state and with this is the question does doer the mine maintain values 1 I personally saw some samples of high grade ore that came from the proving that the limit of the ore deposit in the butte district is unknown many mining men have predicted 1 r various things for butte they have been taking out ore there for forty years S and if present indications count for anything they will be taking out ore for forty years and more most of the yukon and seward in burred cur during the mining season peninsula 1914 it la greatly gr batly camps favored placer operations of the chibana dis district brict is the only new developed in 1914 promising pr camp discoveries pl disco a cries are r reported in the healy river middle tanana and also a of the I 1 find creglon I bof of placer gold in m the upper To lovana j between fairbanks and rampart basin n about forty four gold dredges were operated in alaska for the whole or part of season of 1914 preliminary es the open that these dredges r indicate produced tin lates gold go worth between and in 1913 thirty nine dredges were operated ted in alaska with an output valued at the decreased output per dredge alredge in 1914 is accounted for by the facts that in 1913 several of the dredges were working in very rich ground and that several of the new machines were not completed in time to operate for more than a brief period in 1914 A further handicap to the dredges this year was the fact that the dredging season at nome opened later than usual in addition to the forty four dredges operated there were about half a dozen under construction lode mines about twenty six gold lode mines were operated in alaska in 1914 and produced gold to the value of about in 1913 thirty lode mines produced 4 worth of gold the decrease in the number of mines is due to the fact that several which were operated in the fairbanks district in 1913 were idle in 1914 juneau is sand and will continue to be by far the most important alaska lode camp important progress was made during the year in the willow creek district the port wells district was added to the gold lode producers copper the developments made up to midsummer gave promise that 1914 would be the most profitable year in the history of alaska copper mining the financial stringency and collapse of the copper market that followed allowed the breaking out of the european v IM not only closed down some of the pro dicing mines but also put a stop to some iery developments up to about tho 6 first of august seven copper mines were reh ill operation but at the close of the year only three were still working had it tot 0 been for r the war at least nine copper nes lles would have been ready to ship ore wore the end of the year probably the ant Por tant events of the year to the idaer industry of alaska were the re opening nag of the e mamie mine in the hetchl 11 district riot the installation ot of a shipping plant and nd the opening of the midas mine tear ear valdez tram z and the completion of aerial ira 8 att at the m jumbo and mother lode nes Is IQ ill the chitina chilina district aln tin the th 9 total lilies 1 production ot of alaskan tin I 1 since nce the industry started in 1902 is about tons of metallic tin valued at in 1914 one dredge was operated on the buck creek placer tin deposits throughout the open season two others were operated for a part of the season on Ani kovik river working on deposits car crying both gold and tin operations were also continued and some tin was produced at the lost river lode tin mine all these localities are in seward peninsula tin was also produced from several deep placer mines in the hot springs district operated chiefly for the recovery of gold it is estimated that nearly 50 tons of stream tin was recovered from these placers in 1914 this output could be considerably increased for only a few of the miners make a systematic attempt to recover the tin REVIEW BY DISTRICTS southeastern alaska the four mines of the treadwell group in the juneau district were operated throughout the year on the same scale as before in the ready bullion and seven hundred foot mines of this group ore is being developed on the 2200 foot level the alaska juneau is the only other mine in the district which has reached a productive stage at this property fifty stamps of the first unit were completed 1 in the spring and work on the installation of the rest of the stamp mill was continued the main adit tunnel and raise at this mine were completed in 1913 and the underground work in 1914 was therefore devoted to the opening of ground |