Show GEOLOGY AND ORE DEPOSITS OF BISBEE the geology and ore deposits of the bisbee quadrangle arizona have been described by mr frederick leslie ransome in a recent publication of the united states geological survey listed as professional paper no 21 this quadrangle lies in cochise county arizona in the southeastern part of the territory it covers about square miles and includes the southeastern half of the mule mountains one of the smaller of the isolated ranges that characterize the southeastern half of arizona the town of bisbee which has an estimated I 1 population of about is crowded into a few narrow confluent ravines near the heart of the range seven and a half miles north of the mexican border the history of the district to the year 1900 is practically that of the copper queen mine which was discovered there in 1877 and first opened in 1880 the importance of the district to the copper industry of the country is indicated by the fact that the total recorded output for the bisbee quadrangle from 1880 to 1902 inclusive is pounds of copper very little work was required to reveal the existence of a large body of rich ore in the copper queen mine this was at first quarried from an open cut and afterwards worked by an incline that extended down to the foot level two 36 inch water jacket furnaces were erected in 1881 and with wood bodd as fuel the operators were able to turn out half a million pounds bounds of copper a month from ore averaging 23 per cent there were no sulphides sulp hides and the smelting smelling sm elting was direct the first wonderful ore body of the copper queen suddenly gave out in 1884 when a second large body was fortunately encountered count gred the average tenor of the ore at this time was about 12 per cent copper being then worth about 18 cents a pound the original smelting smelling sm elting plant became inadequate in 1886 and was replaced by three SG 36 inch furnaces jo to which an 80 inch furnace was soon added the small furnaces were gradually abandoned during succeeding years and replaced by larger ones in the early nineties it became evident that the sulphide ores would soon be an important factor in the development of the mine and as the working of such ores was commonly supposed at that ti eato be commonly supposed at that time to be impracticable m in arizona the situation looked grave the bessemer process had however already been successfully applied to copper at butte montana and the matte process for the reduction of mixed sulphide and oxide ores was accordingly according ly tried at bisbee and has since been used there down to the present day up to about 1900 the copper quee que which maintained a steadily increasing oui out put continued to be the only important mine in the bisbee quadrangle within the th last four years however the calumet and a lid arizona company has opened extensive workings in neighboring claims and has shown that large bodies of high grade cop con per ore are by no means confined to th the ground quietly developed for over twenty years by the copper queen company the opening of a second large mine has in creased the activity of an already flourish ing district and hundreds of thousands of dollars are being expended in prospecting and development what mr ransome has to say about the value of the ores and the future of the district is especially interesting As deve development lol progresses it has been found economical to reduce ores of lower grade the ore arst worked in the copper queen mine averaged 23 per cent of copper but the present average is about 7 per cent the range being from 4 to 20 per cent mr ransome believes that important ore bodies probably await discovery in the faulted limestone syncline about sacramento hill an extensive area of unknown but promising ground he points out that bisbee is less likely to suffer from a lack of ore than from too rapid exhaustion of those high grade oxidized ores which are necessary for the economical smelting smelling sm elting by present processes of low grade sulphides sulp hides in view of the facts that there are very few publications treating of the geology and ora ore deposits of the bisbee district and that in many any people are interested in the mines and prospects of the region mr Ran somes report sh should find a lar large lare t e number of readers it fills over pages and contains 29 illustrations including two geological maps the report maybe obtained on application to the director of the united states geological survey washington A C |