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Show Where Barren Rock ' -Becomes Fighting Metal I v . . . ' -""V-,x '.-'': ; rV.j ''7f, -V '.;., 1 I v 'it? ; ;,!f Inside the Utah Copper pit at Bingham where new production records have satisfied war needs. Hitler and Hirohito 'will not be exactly cheered by what has been done and what is being done at Bingham. Coming at a time when this country coun-try has reached peak production in all needed war materials is the announcement an-nouncement that copper is no longer long-er a critical metal; that certain substitutes are no longer necessary. This means that production has exceeded consumption, an accomplishment accom-plishment that looked hopeless shortly after Pearl Harbor, when demands for the war metal were swollen tar beyond all previous production limits of the nation's copper mines. At Bingham copper mining is really big business, business done on a large scale, as the Utah Copper mine produces approximately one-third one-third of the nation's, copper. This one mine alone produces more copper cop-per than Japan and Germany, the so-called super empires; together. Sweeping all obstacles aside this mine has increased production far' in excess of even the most fantastic fantas-tic peace-time records. Prior to the war a yearly production of 350,000,-000 350,000,-000 pounds of copper per year was considered large for the Bingham porphyry. Npw it is nearly twice that figure. Getting back to the "bigness" angle of Utah Copper, it must be pointed out that a huge mountain of low-grade copper ore was known to exist at Bingham by early pioneers. But for nearly 40 years it was considered valueless and early prospectors tunnelled into Bingham Mountain in search of other metals. The great copper deposit, averaging 1 per cent copper, cop-per, was of no economic value then. Not until men of broad vision, capable capa-ble of organizing and financing a company to maintain production on a large scale, did Bingham mountain moun-tain become a resource of great value. Thus, a mineral deposit, unworkable unworka-ble for economis reasons by individuals indi-viduals and small operating companies, com-panies, became the source of a working industry when operations were consolidated into large operating operat-ing units, thereby resulting in mass production and the low cost necessary neces-sary to meet the low grade character charac-ter of the ore. It would not and could not have been developed by the expensive and spasmodic campaign cam-paign of prospecting within the scope and power of a small operating operat-ing company of limited capital. Before the low-grade copper mountain was brought into successful success-ful production, several million dollars dol-lars had been expended in development, develop-ment, testing and in the construction construc-tion of large milling plants. Millions of dollars are spent each year in their maintenance. All of which leads to the conclusion conclu-sion that it is great to have big industry. |
