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Show 1 Arizona Commercial Seems ! to Be Proving Its Merits; Company Makes Record Output in September; Production Cost Is Held as Low; Influenza Interferes. The policy of the management of the Arizona Commercial Mining company, in prosecuting an intensive underground development de-velopment campaign, rather than trying for production records, Is .today bearing fruit in plenty, says the Boston News Bureau. President Charles S. Smith, who practically tingle handed nursed the company com-pany along when it was in deplorable physical and financial condition, has just returned from an inspection trip and reports re-ports the mine in better condition and with greater ore values uncovered than ever in its history. On the fifteenth level, where basic ore was encountered during the late sumrn r. the vein has been opened in good width and the ore body is believed to extend farther west than on any level ;ibove indeed, it is estimated it extends westward west-ward at least Kr feet beyond the fourteenth four-teenth level, which up to now has been the farthest west of any level worked. Operations are now being proseeut-d on the sixteenth level with a view to draining drain-ing this ground and further opening up Ihe drift. Reduction of the water flow on the sixteenth level will automaticallv drain the fifteenth, and it i.s believed within a month at the latest active mining min-ing will be in progress on this latter level. All levels from the surface to the twelfth are being worked. The ore is averaging nearly 6 per cent copper. Including In-cluding both concentrating and direct smelting product. "Water has been drained from these levels, but operations are restricted re-stricted to the labor available. To the east of the Budget fault ore has been encountered above the seventh level, whereas previous to now it was nut thought ore would he found eastward east-ward above the eighth level. This latest strike was discovered in upraising from the eighth level to meet the new No. 2 shaft and pive-s the company almost a continuous ore body from tho seventh dawn to the fifteenth level, S00 feel, with oniy two levels, the thirteenth and fourteenth four-teenth west, having been mined out to any extent. 1'pniising is also in progress from the twi-lfth, where a connection in to he driven to the eighth, operations from that point upward meeting ih new shatt. This shaft is now down 130 feet and is of modern construction with three compartments. Kull opening from ihe surface to the twelfth level is expected inside of six months and the total cost I it is estimated will not exceed $75,000. 1 The company's output In October j showed a severe shrinkage due lo the prostration of nearly 3Ti per cent of its employees with Spanish influenza. Jn September it produced 032. OoO pounds of copper, the largest monthly output In the company's historv, bringing production tor ten months lo October 1 up to 4,-500.000 4,-500.000 pounds. "While it will be some weeks before convalescing workers are , back to their former efficiency, the company com-pany should finish 191S with over 5.&00,-000 5.&00,-000 pounds of the red metal produced. Arizona Commercial's per pound costp are as low as any of the representative American copper companies today and compared with many arc much lower, according ac-cording to President Smith. So long as there is no drastic, turnover In the copper cop-per metal situation, the company can continue to pay its present dividend of $2 I per annum and pay for present new con- 1 struction from earnings. |