OCR Text |
Show Before - After In Mining One could hardly believe that the above two pictures were taken of ihe same mountainous hills. Both are of Bingham Canyon, Utah, and serve to indicate how mining transforms barren wasteland waste-land into industry. The top picture was taken at Bingham prior to 1900 when the camp was yielding small quantities of gold, silver, and lead. Below is a 1939 view of the same hills after science, engineering and Industry has taken a hand. What a contrast! Little did the pioneers who roamed that area in the early days realize that it was to become one of the wonders of the earth. The early-day miners knew that there existed a great stock of porphyry that contained less than 2 per cent copper, but they believed the deposit worthless. worth-less. If the hills had remained in their original state, Utah would be minus one of its greatest assets today, and its greatest revenue producer for the past- quarter -of a century. Normally the Utah Copper which operates the great mine employs 4,000 men at the mine, mills, and railroads, representing an annual payroll of over $7,500,000. Up to the end of 1937, the mine had paid $123,000,000 in wages; spent $151,-000,000 $151,-000,000 for power, supplies, services, serv-ices, etc., paid $41,000,000 in federal state, county and city taxes, and paid $137,000,000 for freight, smelting, smelt-ing, refining, etc. Most of this money remained within the state. In 1938, the assessed as-sessed valuation on which the company com-pany paid taxes was equivalent to 55 per cent of the valuation of Salt Lake City, and it was 13 per cent of the valuation of the entire state. It was Colonel Daniel C. Jack-ling Jack-ling who visulized the possibilities of this great enterprise and made it possible. Colonel Jackling made his original report in 1899 and launched the project in 1903. It took millions of dollars to prove his theory, which revolutionized copper mining and has been a benefit bene-fit to humanity ever since. The mine is now treating ore averaging less than 1 per cent copper with small amounts of gold, silver and molybdenum. This is a thin thread upon which to base such a great industry, which is the very heart of the business and industrial in-dustrial life of the state. |