Show mi mining 0 o ni 0 o ng i in 0 n washl washington V T agton in in 1915 BY EGBERT S PHILLIPS the highlight in washington mining for 1915 is furnished by the rehabilitation of the northport North port smelter by the day interests of wallace idaho A force of about men has been employed in the construction work and it is believed the lead furnaces will be ready to blow in about february 1st ast if the management desires to begin operations then of the plants four lead furnaces and two copper furnaces only two of the lead furnaces will be operated at the outset it is not anticipated that copper will be handled at the start because the smelter people have not arranged for any of this product the copper from the districts north of spokane is all under contract to the british columbia smelters shelters sm elters but it is reported that the day interests are negotiating for the control of a large washington copper producer an interesting feature of the operations at northport North port has been the driving of a foot tunnel through the mountain just above the smelter this will carry water to the smelter from deep creek supplying not only the plant but the town of northport North port thus far the policy of the smelter has not been announced so it is not known whether the days will handle the products of any properties aside from their own mines in the coeur calenes dA lenes secretary spokane news bureau spokane wash the northport North port district considerable attention has been directed this year to the mining properties of the northport North port district one of the biggest lead deposits in the west was uncovered this year in the electric point twenty three miles east of northport North port the ore occurs in a chimney forty six feet across where opened the ore being a carbonate containing boulders of clear galena varying in size up to several tons in weight between and tons of galena already have been taken out averaging around 75 per cent lead no shipments will be made until 1916 electric point is owned by ray young and associates of northport North port and five or six men are now working the last chance seven miles southeast of northport North port owned by the jupiter lead company is now under option and it is expected operations will be resumed ned in the next few months half a million dollars worth of ore has been shipped from about the foot level of this property great western mine another northport North port property which is attracting tr attention is the great western mine which has been operated by the norman mines company of spokane the last four months with a force of about ten men A carload of lead ore was shipped to trail december and a contract has been secured from the edgar zinc company of donora pennsylvania for 1000 tons of zinc car bonate ore the product runs about 30 pe cent zinc which will net around 30 a toz to paragon mining co 0 the paragon mining company which 0 owned the paragon mine eight miles east of 0 northport North port has been reorganized as the colossus mining company I 1 and is preparing sa s1 to renew development at the property idl edip for several years the mine is credited with ia d shipments of seven cars of ore under form 5 i er managements and returns from the i are said to have been as high as S a ton principally in silver the raine mine is extensively developed and the main tunnel un iniel in feet is said to have exposed a tour four foot vein of high grade lead silver at a vertical depth of feet the greater part of the work was done in pioneer days by the late F august heinze who had the property under lease and bond which was i allowed to lapse officials of the new corn com pany state that they have immediately available to finance equips equi equipment Pm ant and further development and they propose to in install S tall a compressor and repair the camp buildings at once A small crew under 0 W matthews is to be employed during the t winter next spring the force will be increased and shipments to the northport North port smelter begun several prospects in the northport North port district have been worked in a desultory fashion during the year and there are some promising zinc properties that probably will be operated soon red top mountain northwest of northport North port lies the red top mountain district this camp is twenty years old and is coming back to claim public attention due largely to the elferts of H H Sc and associates who are getting the vindicator mine ready for operation they are preparing to drive still further the foot tunnel already in hi the property this is a lead silver camp among the other properties in the district are the copper king anaconda lucille evergreen olympic jack and whitecap all have been worked in a small way during the year chewelah Chew elah copper camp the chewelah Chew elah copper camp is probably the best known mining district in washington the camp has had a good year has forged ahead rapidly and undoubtedly will have a much better record next year the principal property in the camp is that of the united copper mining company which owns and operates the united copper mill the company spent in 1915 more than building a new ton mill and for other equipment the old 75 ton mill was al torn down to make way for the new one the company is using horsepower and early in 1916 will have enough additional power for all purposes while the improvements were under way the property was wag closed for about six months conrad wolfe president of the united 1311 te d copper reports that eleven cars of concen rates ates and five cars of crude ore were dipped in november these figures providing g an indication of the progress at the mine ine december shipments will be much larger arger as the crude ore shipments alone will ill be from ten to fifteen cars mining operations erat ions are being confined to the on the e 1000 foot level where the is showing up splendidly about january the company intends to begin sinking to the foot level from a point about feet north of the intersection of the long lower funnel tunnel with the vein mr wolfe states that Z the united copper will pay dividends in 1 1916 I 1 hecla and security among the developing properties in the chewelah Chew elah camp are the hecla and the se carity the hecla of which john C argall I 1 is a large owner has been working a force of men and recently exposed six feet of clean copper ore in the lower workings fred E poster foster manager states that most of the vein is shipping quality and that work will be prosecuted rapidly the principal development at the security copper is the sinking of a shaft which is proceeding under the direction of L K armstrong a spokane mining engineer who is one of the principal owners of the property around republic the principal topic under discussion this year in the republic camp is the prospect of at least one and possibly two cyanide mills being erected there in 1916 theton the tonnage of the camp is sufficient to supply easily a 1000 ton mill and there is so much I 1 low grade ore that men interested in the camp believe two or three mills can be handled plans for the mill now projected contemplate one of tons capacity at present the camp is not supplied with power and dissel engines are utilized the following republic properties are forking working tom thumb knob hill hope surprise group new republic group and the san poll poil by leasers leaders lea sers these properties f have been shipping at regular or irregular 11 intervals with profit the te low freight and smelter rates have been beneficial to the camp the properties are all in fairly good 1 shape and in their search for a shipping grade of ore have uncovered large quantifies t of milling ore which a cyanide mill awill will make profitable the knob hill the knob hill at republic has had an interesting experience this year january 1 L 1915 the property had nine dollars in the bank and owed nearly with no ore in sight october the company purchased the alpine claim adjoining for 20 00 down and every twelve months with interest at 5 per cent today ithe e company has seven cars of ore en route to the smelters shelters sm elters at greenwood and trail and acas s in the bank A years ore sup ily 17 sufficient to ship twelve cars a month isnow is now blocked out and the company is waiting for electric power the orient gold and silver camp in northern washington is looking up but needs development the first 1 bought owned by pat burns the calgary meat king has been idle for about five years the beecher which is developed by a hundred foot shaft and a foot tunnel is a promising prospect the white elephant and first thought extensions have been developed during the year and have good surface showings activity in oroville district there has been considerable activity this year in the oroville district northwest of spokane the war has created a demand for epsom salts of that district about 2500 tons of which has been shipped to date A plant is now being installed to artificially evaporate the water and it is likely that shipments will be resumed in the near future during the warm months the salts rapidly form and are shipped direct from the lakes that carry them the product is over 98 per cent pure the lucky knock antimony mine is being developed and will doubtless be ready for shipments by spring the curtis tungsten mine is is making some small shipments and soon will be in shape to increase its output there are two big copper disseminations around oroville that were discovered last summer and are now being prospected and put in shape to be made attractive to big capital what is believed to be one of the largest gold disseminations on the continent was also discovered last summer and steps will be taken during the coming season to explore them and find the commercial sections 0 K property operating the 0 K mine is being operated under lease and shipping about two cars of ore to the smelters shelters sm elters per month the arlington under direction of H S is also operating and has a fine grade of copper ore the forty ninth parallel also in the oroville district has shipped some the past year and is likely to begin again soon after first of the year valley and Deer trail districts the valley and Deer trail mining districts north of spokane are claiming considerable sid erable attention and are the subjects of present development and plans for future operations I 1 the valley copper district was formerly known as the west chewelah Chew elah camp and is nine and one half miles northwest of the town of valley last march the owners of vulcan copper started driving a foot tunnel which is now in feet if the companas comp anys expectations are realized they plan to build a mill next year or ship to the smelter the surface ore vein is said to be fourteen feet wide and one third of it is good ore the alie chief stockholders adeall are all spokane men they are J richard brown frank weatherwax R A hutchinson dr robert bell and A L hooper the admiral which is on the same vein as the vulcan copper has installed a two drill compressor and started recently the mine is developed by three tunnels the lowest of which is in feet and is on a vein of copper ore seven feet in width they expect to start shipping to the trail smelter immediately double eagle mine the double eagle west af of the vulcan has driven a foot tunnel and is sinking a foot shaft on four feet of good ore the edna on the same vein was operated until december 1 1915 and will resume early in 1916 the property is developed by a shaft feet deep and 1000 feet of drifts all on the ore the vein averages about two feet and the ore carries nine per cent copper the Deer trail trall camp is divided into two zones one copper the other silver lead A number of years ago the silver lead district was very active producing about this was principally from the seal and queen Deer trail no 1 and Deer trail no 2 the camp is about to come back and all signs indicate a resumption of activity during the coming twelve months alex robinson and associates who have a bond and lease on the Deer trail mine will build a 75 ton mill and plan to start operations early in 1916 they propose to handle all the old dumps and to open up new ground in the Deer trail mine new mill planned the bimetallic milling company of which E 0 weston of spokane is president is now financing a project to build a ton custom mill to treat the silver a and nd copper ores of the Deer trail trall camp the company also has some claims known as the Pla tafina mining companas Comp anys group which are developed by feet of tunnels and three shafts of seventy five feet each consolidated copper the consolidated copper owning the togo mine at Deer trail is preparing to operate very shortly the mine is connected with railroad transportation by a good wagon road and permission has been granted to haul over the private logging railroad of the phoenix lumber company two carloads shipped to the smelter in 1907 and in 1914 had good showings of copper and silver but the principal values are copper smelter rates on carload shipments showed eight per cent copper three and one half ounces of silver and a trace of gold W H stowell is president of the company and V W brasch is secretary and manager in the way of machinery the company has a gasoline engine air fan ore cars and an up to date camp this property has about 2000 feet of development work accomplished plis shed lied comprising shafts drifts and tunnels the company believes that the opening of the smelter at northport North port will have an important bearing on oil the future of the deer trail district the keller smelter I 1 the recent acquisition by t the lie northwestern mines development company of the old smelter at keller taken over from the indiana company together with the manila and rebecca groups of copper gold silver zinc claims promises a renewal of activity in the keller nespelem district dormant for years provided the plans of the corporation are consummated s the smelter erected several years ago cost bost approximately and the dam on oil the san poll poil river and the foot flume to the plant cost in addition fuel and ore were constructed together with power house machine shops blower plant automatic sampler and laboratory the copper stack is of loo tons daily capacity and the lead stack is of fifty tons both still are in excellent condition and ready to operate at any time the fuel bunkers contain about tons of pennsylvania coke brought in at the lie time the smelter was built and there are tons tolls of ore in the bins the water wheel is directly connected to the electric generator while the transmission wires are strung to the different buildings and the belted ready to switch motors are set and on tho the current at any moment turned ailed riled a wheel however the plant never has tu discovered that it was impossible as it was to get coke delivered at a price that would justify beginning operations and idle ever since the the equipment has lain to obviate this difficulty new company proposes electrochemical chemical process by installing an electro and later when railway transportation is provided as it is believed it will be the blast furnaces also before many years may be placed in commission the chesaw district there has been some activity in the chesaw district during the year A wagon road is being built to the copper queen mine on copper mountain from which ore will be shipped shipping from the gold ax has been resumed since sleighing came and E S campbell has sold his lease on the mine to william plunkett who will increase the shipments charles galvert and charles davidson who were interested with plunkett in the western star lease also are interested te in this deal lind morgan keithley mccauley are dealing with the british columbia copper company of greenwood for the sale of their and caribou claims in the chesaw district to the |