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<h2>COPPER-MINING</h2> There is a city hidden away in a narrow cañon in the extreme southern portion of Arizona which is supported solely by a copper-mine. The cañon lies upon the southern slope of a range of mountains, and from its mouth one can look far off to the south across the desert plains and mountains of Mexico. The city has an elevation of more than a mile above the sea, and the cañon in which it is situated is so narrow and steep-walled that you can almost jump down from one street upon the roofs of the houses along the street below. Stairways, instead of walks, lead up the hillsides from the main street in the bottom of the cañon. You might well wonder at the position of the city, and think that out of all the waste land in this region a better place might have been selected for its location. But cities grow where people gather, and people do not come to live in the desert unless there is important work to be done there. A party of prospectors who were searching carefully over the mountains found several mineral veins with green copper stains crossing this cañon and outcropping in the adjacent hills. Claims were staked out and recorded at the nearest land office. Then shafts and tunnels were opened, and the miners became confident from the rich character of the ore that an important copper-mine might be developed. Supplies were brought across the desert with teams, and cabins were built in the lonely cañon. Then an enterprising man started a store. As the mine was opened farther, its importance was better understood. There was a call for more miners and the town grew larger. The houses clustered about the mine, the centre of all the activities. At last a railroad was built, and the town became a city, with narrow, winding streets occupying the winding cañon, while tier upon tier of houses crept up the sides of the cañon, which formerly had been covered only by growths of cactus and other plants of the desert. If the mine should close, there would be no inducement to keep people in the locality, and the city would become merely a group of deserted buildings. Water is so scarce that only a small amount is allowed to each family, and it is delivered in barrels instead of by pipes. Provisions of all kinds are very expensive, for they have to be brought a long distance. The great mine supports the thousands of inhabitants. The varied industries represented there are dependent upon it alone. As long as it pays to mine the copper, the people are as contented as if they were not tucked away in a cañon in a remote corner of the world. The most interesting things to be seen about the city are the mine and the smelter. In the former the ore is obtained; in the latter the ore goes through various processes until it comes out in the form of shining, metallic copper. The copper ore, we must understand, is not metallic or "native copper," as it is called when found pure, but a combination of copper with other substances which change its appearance entirely. <div class="img_ctr" style="width: 752px;"> <ANTIMG src="images/fig_105.jpg" width-obs="752" height-obs="507" alt="Fig. 105"> FIG. 105.—COPPER SMELTER AND CITY OF BISBEE, ARIZONA The pipe leading up the hill carries away sulphur fumes from the smelter </div> The mine is opened by a shaft, that is, a square hole sunk in the ground. The shaft of this mine is a thousand feet deep, and is being continually extended downward. If we wish to go down into the mine, we must put on some old clothes and get the foreman to act as guide. The cage in which we are to descend stands at the mouth of the shaft, suspended by a steel rope. It looks much like the elevators found in city buildings. At different levels horizontal passages, called drifts, extend to the right and left upon the vein of copper ore. We step out of the car at one of these levels and with lighted candles start to walk through a portion of the mine. There are so many miles of tunnels that it would take us days to go through them all. Overhead, under our feet, and upon the sides of the drift, lies the vein of copper are, presenting a different appearance at different places. The various ores sparkle in the light and we gather specimens of each. The common are is chalcopyrite, a copper sulphide; that is, it is composed of copper and sulphur. It has a brass-yellow color, but is often stained with beautiful iridescent tints. In places the chalcopyrite has been changed to the delicate green carbonate of copper called malachite. In other places it has given place to the oxide of copper. The little crimson crystals of this mineral give bright metallic reflections. The deposit of copper ore is apparently inexhaustible, for in places the vein widens so that chambers one hundred feet wide and several hundred feet long and high have been made in taking it out. In going through the mine we have to be very careful not to step into openings in the floor of the passages, or drop rock fragments into them, for far below miners may be working. The places where the men are taking out the ore are called "stopes," and to reach them we have to crawl and creep through all sorts of winding passages, now through a "manhole," and now down a long ladder which descends into black depths. From the stopes the ore, as it is blasted out, is shovelled into chutes running down to some drift where there are men with cars. Each car holds about a ton of ore, and after being filled it is pushed along the drift and upon a cage which raises it to the surface. <div class="img_rgt" style="width: 277px;"> <ANTIMG src="images/fig_106.jpg" width-obs="277" height-obs="364" alt="Fig. 106"> FIG. 106.—HOMES OF MINERS, BISBEE, ARIZONA</div> The mine is not wet, for there is so little rain in this region that there are few underground streams. In places, however, it is warm, for when the oxygen of the air reaches the fresh sulphide it begins to oxidize the ore; that is, it begins to burn it, and change it into a different compound, just as fire changes wood or coal. Wherever oxidation is going on, heat is produced. Fresh air is constantly needed in these workings far underground. A supply is forced down in pipes, and then allowed to flow back to the surface. In this way a thorough circulation is kept up. Underground one loses all thought of the changes between night and day, for it is always dark there. Consequently we are surprised on coming up from the mine to find that night has settled over the town. Lights are twinkling everywhere, and miners with their pails of luncheon are coming for the night shift. Another interesting experience now awaits us in the form of a visit to the smelter. Here the bright copper is extracted from the rough-looking ores. How different the two substances appear! They look as if they had scarcely anything in common. The interior of the smelter seems like a bit of the infernal regions set upon the earth. While watching what goes on, we might imagine that we were far down in the earth, where Vulcan, the fire god, was at work. At night the scene is particularly weird and impressive, for the shadows and general indistinctness make everything appear strange. The glowing furnaces, the showers of sparks, the roar of the blast furnaces, the suffocating fumes of sulphur, and the half-naked figures of the Mexican workmen, passing to and fro with cloths over their mouths, form all together a bewildering scene. The ore is first pulverized, and then placed in large revolving cylinders, where it is roasted. A fire is started in the cylinder at first, but after the ore becomes so much heated that the sulphur in it begins to burn, no further artificial aid is necessary. Little by little the ore is added in quantities sufficient to keep the fire going. The object of the roasting is to drive off as much sulphur as possible. After being raked from the roasting furnace, the ore is wheeled in barrows to the huge upright furnaces and is thrown in. Here such materials as limestone and iron are also added to aid in the formation of a perfectly fused or molten mass. These substances are known as fluxes. With the melting of the ore the copper begins to separate from the impurities. The melted ore, in the form of a glowing liquid, gathers at the bottom of the furnace and runs out into a large kettle-like receptacle. When ore of these vessels is full it is tipped up and the molten copper which has collected at the bottom, because it is heavier than the slag, is allowed to run into another large kettle, supported by chains from a rolling truck above. <div class="img_ctr" style="width: 513px;"> <ANTIMG src="images/fig_107.jpg" width-obs="513" height-obs="357" alt="Fig. 107"> FIG. 107.—SHIPPING COPPER MATTE</div> The slag is dumped into a car and is carried outside, while the huge dish containing the copper and some slag is swung to the opposite side of the building, where its contents are cast into another furnace. A very strong blast of air is forced up through the molten mass in this furnace, and the remaining portion of slag is blown out at the top in a shower of glowing particles. From the bottom of the furnace the liquid copper is drawn out and allowed to run into moulds where it finally cools. It is then known as copper matte. The copper still contains some impurities, and retains in addition whatever gold and silver may have been present in the ore. Most copper ores carry a small amount of these precious metals. The heavy bars of copper matte are now ready for shipment to some manufacturing point, where they are refined still further and made into the various copper utensils, copper wire, etc. Copper is valuable for many purposes, as it does not rust easily, is highly malleable and ductile, and is a good conductor of electricity. In the great copper-mines upon Lake Superior, copper is found in the native state mixed with the rock, and does not have to be smelted; but in most mines the ore must go through a process very like the one described before metallic copper can be obtained. It does not matter how remote a region may be, how intense the heat or cold, or how desert-like the surrounding country, men will go to it if minerals of value are discovered; and there they will perhaps spend the whole of their lives, mining these substances which are of such importance to the industries of the world. <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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