OCR Text |
Show m Spot In The Mountains f y That Became An Industry Him " Tl " ', ' "Jf.Ai-',. ":!.- , . ,S jf V- . , 111 S.T '' 4nV'" V ; fv. I . & f is? , is ' . $- o I'Vsr - - ' 1 1 New Air View of Utah Copper Pit at Bingham. a I j The metal resources of a state J I in often erroneously considered In Iriew of the sum total of the nietal I 'present. This mistake can readily , m 9een If we take the case of the I metal aluminum or magnesium those silicates and oxides in large quantities are present In Utah. Nevertheless, for economic reasons only an infltlslmal part of this " sital can be mined at a profit. Most of the other useful metals vi also present in quantities; but 1 mining, like any other industry, an only produce when the cost of - (reduction can be maintained be-' be-' ; low ths market value of the prod- VA. A huge mountain of low-gradu I copper bearing ore was known to ulit at Bingham by the early Plo-; Plo-; neers, yet for nearly forty years It was considered valueless. Early I,) prospectors tunnelled into the BIng-; BIng-; aim Mountain, through the low-I low-I pde copper, in search of other isitals. Like the aluminum deposit ' al today, this great deposit of cop-il'-per was of no economic value. 0 Not until men of broad vision, t .(tpatjle of organizing and financing a company to maintain production on a large scale did copper become a resource of great value to Utah. Thus a. mineral deposit, unworkable unwork-able for economic reasons by Individuals Indi-viduals and small operating companies, com-panies, became the source of a working industry of Utah when operations were consolidated Into large operating units and the cost of production reduced to a minimum. mini-mum. Only by large scale production cn this great porphyry continue to maintain its equilibrium. Its future life is dependent upon operating costs, because as costs rise, the grade of ore mlued must be raised and the low grade that Is passed up now will probably be left forever. for-ever. In the beginning, Utah Copper was started on an ore averagelng 2 per cent copper . Today the company com-pany Is mining copper ore containing contain-ing one-half of one per cent copper. You see the tonnage of one-half of one per cent copper is greatly more tlfan the tonnage of 2 per cent copper. Yes, lets continue to mine the lowest grade possible at tha great Bingham mine. |