Show bj 4 4 4 14 44 11 F D 44 story stary of the cho chief ef consolidated d 0 operations e 0 lis in gintic tintic c iron ore one of the mining publications of the great copper dis brict of michigan in its issue of aug 3rd has a most interesting front page story of the mining oper allons of walter fitch who keen foresight and splendid business abil ity gave our district its larg largest st min ing enterprise mr fitch Is as well nell known in the lake superior country as he Is here in utah and it Is but natural that his old time michigan friends should be interested in the work which he Is doing here in tintic gintic the article in iron ore is from the pen ot of edi tor george A newett and we are pleased to be able to reproduce it in this issue of the reporter iron ore has often given it as its opinion that a good place to prospect for mines is near where profitable producers have been developed or where they had at least flourished for a time it Is apparent that in such localities occur formations in which ores are held and this Is one of the elements that must be possess ed nature having so planned it chief consolidated another proof chief consolidated of which iron ore has made frequent mention Is another illustration of the wisdom of looking close to proved territory when searching for new mines and tor for the reason that it was brought into its own through the efforts of well known lake superior country mining men its history will surely be interesting in this field as well as in others where its shareholders and well wishers reside the chief belongs to the class of smaller mines such as we were all well acquainted with in the earlier days of lake superior and is inter esting from more than one point of view from that of the stockholders because it has proved to be one of the most useful and profitable in its class and as demonstrating that even in an old mining district there may exist undeveloped opportunities which een eien a tenderfoot with not too much knowledge knowledge may take ad vantage of at least the tenderfoot may not be burdened with the local traditions based on half knowledge and thus escape that deadly mental bias which now and then handicaps the regular operators in a district who otherwise may be superior in ability and experience how the chief VI as born the idea of the enterprise was started by a trip made over the mountain in eureka utah by J R finlay and walter fitch in 1906 this following the time when mr fitch had given up his mining at af fairs in the michigan iron and cop per districts to take a look through the great west they had made an inspection of the mammoth and grand central mines lying in the southern part of the district and concluded to walk back following the lime beds on their strike to the north these lime beds finlay rec as of the same character as those enclosing the ore in those mines these beds were followed over to the north slope of the moun tain until on that side they were lost to view by the covering of ahyo lite the eruptive at this point pro pre its thin edge gradually grow ing thicker until in the gorge where eureka city is it Is estimated it has a thickness of approximately six or seven hundred feet the chief shaft occupies a position about mid way between the large moun tain and the town and there this rhyolite is about three hundred feet thick the complete covering of lime stone measures in that section accounts for the failure for so many years of a realization of the pros and miners of the ore pos there and led to its being dubbed Pr tv flat was ivas small shaft that 11 as abandoned the shaft referred to was at the time fitch and finlay made their trip of inquiry about eight hun dred feet deep and was owned by a company known as the little chief this company had been op aerating twelve years and enjoyed the distinction of having levied 43 assessments and of finding no ore fitch and finlay wanted to go into the mine and were told this was against the rules found 1 A bake lake superior friend proceeding to eureka the pros discovered that the secretary of the company was jim driscoll a brother of con driscoll of ing and negaunee Neg aunee whom they knew and liked up in the old mining re glon gion jim who appreciated that nothing was to be gained by a policy of secrecy and who also wanted to assist his old friends told them about the workings of the little chief from which they learned that all of its openings laid to the west of the shaft and were of sufficient lateral extent to prove that there was no hope of finding the ore yone one in that direction mr fitch then asked jim how much they had explored the ground to the east of the shaft to which he replied that nothing had been done there as the company did not own any of the claims on that side of the shaft whereupon mr fitch said jim it looks like a good gamble to me and the gamble would be limited to putting a crosscut east for one or t vo thousand feet it if no ore zone Is then found it would be clear that none exists in that part of the camp but on the other hand it if one were found pur surrounded rounded as is this section with mines that paid large dividends then the ore might reasonably be expected to be rich and in good quantity biant t think of going into it then at this particular time mr fitch had no idea of going into the thing or of doing this work because he then had something else in view but jim s brother john driscoll went to salt lake the following week to see mr fitch with an urgent indita tion that he should join with them in the enterprise they being minority shareholders buying enough stock to control no management and carry out the plans mr fitch had suggest ed when at the mine mr air fitch finally decided that the opportunity was just as good as he had expressed himself concerning it and he went in and carried out the plan finding the ore zo zon neland eind ore in it of commercial grade and quantity the good results the chief consolidated company was then organized and on febra ary 16 1909 took over all the pro perty of the little chief since that time the company has mined tons of ore chich has yielded min eral as follows ounces gold 45 silver 8 pounds lead 52 copper zinc 2 in addition to the foregoing sev eral tons of manganese has been pro deuced for the sale of all these pro ducts the company received 5 and has expend ed for opening the mine equipping it making better than nineteen miles of workings mining the ore enlarge ing and sinking the shaft to the eighteen hundred level enlarging the stations putting in a pumping system together with pump stations and reservoirs and all the electric appliance connected with the pumps also tor for exploring for ore in the dif terent ferent parts of the district and the unsuccessful trying out of one mine outside of the district the total of these cost about 3 there has been expended in acquiring new mineral lands about 1 the additions give the company an own enship of about 5 acres a as against about 50 acres with which it started business tl TI ere has been paid out in dividends 1 12 and there are still on hand in cash and in I 1 liberty bonds ire forking for the fluture while the mine now being ed may be said to be easily good for the next twenty five years judged by the history of its neighbors yet the great hope of the company Is to find other ore zones and open up other mines on these and thus give added life to its operations these ore zones extend from their source in the south end of the dis brict and course north at intervals throughout the district and several should be found crossing the corn com pany s property in its four and a quarter miles of width east and west there are therefore wonderful pos ties in the way of opening new and additional mines with the con multiplied returns sinking a new shift the company s second shaft Is go ing down on the second line of min one half mile to the east of the present mine the exploration conducted there justifying the belief in a new mine being found there belie believes tes in plenty of territory mr fitch has always believed in plenty of territory well located and he has followed out the idea here As has been stated the original tract of falty acres has been increased five hundred times and as the se sections have been carefully made within the probable mineralized zone it can plainly be seen that the fu ture development here Is liable to be attended with highly gratifying results these there additional lands were obtained at a time when they could be had at reasonable prices and be tore fore the company had demonstrated its ore measure to any great extent the lands were bought on the theory that they ought to hold mineral has ed on indications in the openings be ing made in the workings of the inal shaft and subsequent develop ments have shown the wisdom of the additions that have been made to former reality it is carrying out the idea of getting plenty of ground near locations that have proved to be valuable as producing mineral changed views of many mining men the developments of chief con soli dated have brought about a great change with respect to this lar mining camp or district whose early glories faded so fast because developments were not properly dl dt reeled isow NOR that new ore zones have been found at greater depth and at considerable distance laterally ate rally from former openings min I 1 ing men have been attracted but find fl n d the best located claims are now all in the ownership of the chief through the enterprise and tar far sightedness of its management vio ause mise the directors believe in the pro lection of infant industries that good old republican doctrine that has always worked out so wal for those who practiced it they there tore fore propose to maintain a liberal treasury and have regularly set aside from the earnings of the corn com pany a liberal allowance each year and this reserve has now reached a figure not far from the amount of its capital liability this they deem necessary to insure proper krotec tion to the enterprise possibly to in sure or to help to maintain regular ity of the dividend disbursements to meet the contingencies resulting from the irregularity of its ore de positions and the contained values to meet the increasing exactions of war and to prepare for the extend ing working capital demands of an expanding business same conditions there Is I 1 ei yu here all the conditions surrounding mining at the chief consolidated as elsewhere have been growing worse all the time miners rates have been advanced from 3 75 to 5 25 and the supply lessened at that not only supplies and all other costs but smelting rates have nearly doubled they are further handicapped by the inability of the smelters to take as much of the licious sl ores as form erly things looked so bad with the commencement of the year that it appeared the operation would be conducted without any profit but all these difficulties were offset when the work rork underground reached the sulphide ores below the permanent water level iw ne ores are anted by Smelt eis these new sulphide ores found be low the permanent water leel are attractive to smelters not only by reason of their favorable chemical character but because they hate haie turned out to be singularly rich in silver it was really very fortunate and exceedingly opportune that all of the necessary development work had been planned together with many other things such as the shaft enlargement from one and a half to three full sized compartments to per mit of the installation of the pumps and all that went with them should have been completed and the work reached this ore just in the nick of time to save things and not only this but to make the largest earn ings thus far realized it is a very happy change from conditions so re bently prevailing and that threaten ed the activity of the mine in nor mal times the property could have been operated at a fine profit wita such ores as were being mined and with the ordinary costs but with the great change when practically only bonanza mines can return divi bends to their shareholders the pros hect was anything than encouraging during this period many mines have closed the west being credited with many that had to suspend until con dillons again become normal which means some time after the ending of the war now raging in europe so chief through the foresightedness of its management in keeping prospect ing and development work far ahead of the sloping areas and in provid ing equipment with the idea that sometime there would be need for it has been velry very fortunate it not only has found rich ore but is in po through its equipment to take lull advantage of them seeming these fine results A considerable part of these thes quite satisfactory results are said by those who are familiar with them to be largely attributable to the concen grated efforts of the fitch family which was not only contented to leave salt I 1 ake city and live in eu reka but has confined itself with slight exception exclusively to th this is particular enterprise in doing this it has commandeered all outside necessary technical skill to help the work along and this included expert mechanical electrical metallurgical geological and accounting men the geology of the district has been in ten studied and plotted all the time and tor for the last tour four years has had mr G W crane a special geo logist devoting his undivided atten tion to that special department to the sons of mr fitch credit is given for having had direct charge of the work and of building up the fine organization now possessed they opened the mine and establish ed it as it Is today cecil fitch has always been the superintendent tak ing that place on his graduation from the michigan college of mines at houghton michigan his ills broth er walter graduated a little later and worked as his assistant tor for six and a halt half years and then went into the business of doing mining devel work having a couple of hundred expert shaft and drift men and is conducting operations in three states his records for rapid roch rock bork it Is generally understood that walter fitch jr has discovered some methods that the miners of the old school may not have known about or did not work out to their fullest development at any rate he has the record for rapid shaft shafta sinking and also tor for rapid drifting arvina kheir country countr the other son howard has gone to the war as has mr fitch s en cn in law fred J johnson rut but ot of the achievements of his children creditable as all have been mr 1 fitch undoubtedly looks upon those of his daughter maud as e the veryl very greatest miss maud has has been in france for some time and was ras at the front at Com in june and was in the thick of it and with the other members of the ambulance i 1 nit was recently decorated with the croix de guerre and the bronze star unquestionably this pleased the fitch family more than their possession of a large part ot of the chief consolidated in a recent talk with mr fitch he told us he cheerfully give all he has or ever hopes to win to have the huns pro perly finished and set where they belong the fitcha are naturally LS lg gres sive born with a real fighting spirit indea independent adent and tearley te in their ideas 01 ot the things that const itule justice and right ii al wa was s in denunciation of those things they belle belice e to be wrong and in an it was the appreciation ot of duty that de decided c aided them to reside at the mine instead of in the city to br bp on oil the job night and day that the en ter prise might have the benefit of the closest attention and win if it were a physical possibility mr fitch in his talk with us kindly gave all credit for the operation of the property to his sons fine boys that they are but we have known walter fitch sr a long time and we are familiar with his character isales and his devotion to any cause he |