in that district. The Guadalupe Mining and Milling Company operate a stamp mill at Wells, the supply camp of the new district.

The Harqua Hala mines, rich in gold production for many years, have again been operated during the year. Between Harrisburg and Harqua Hala the properties of the Rio Del Monte Company, twenty or more claims in number, are being extensively developed. The erection of a 40-stamp mill upon this property will begin during the fall months.

At Harrisburg the Socorro Gold Company is actively engaged in developing their mining properties. The Desert Dwarf is a new gold producer of Yuma County. It has been developed to a depth of 500 feet.

The Castle Dome lead mines in Yuma County are among the richest and most productive in the Territory. Since 1863 these mines have been worked almost constantly, first by the Indians and later by Americans. To-day these mines are producing quantities of lead and silver ore, and a large number of men are employed.

Among other prominent gold districts of Yuma County are Centennial, Paloma, Picacho, Pot Holes, and numerous placer mining districts along the course of the Colorado River.

Yuma County is essentially a gold-producing region, although there are some copper, silver, and lead mines there.

YAVAPAI COUNTY.

Congress Consolidated mines. These mines are famous as deep gold workings, and are perhaps the deepest mines in this section of the United States. The statement of Mr. W. F. Staunton, superintendent of the mines, appears below:

All the mines of the company have been actively and continuously worked during the year, the average number of men employed being 350. Miners' wages are $3 for hand work and $3.50 for machine. The amount of ore mined and milled was 50,947 tons of 2,000 pounds. There are five principal shafts, having depths as follows: 1,150, 1,700, 3,125, 700, and 1,200 feet. The amount of development work done during the year was about 10,000 linear feet, consisting mostly of drifts on the veins.

A new 40-stamp mill was started on May 22, 1901, and has since run continuously. It has 1,000-pound stamps, dropping 6 inches 100 times per minute. Twenty mesh No. 24 steel-wire screens are used, and new standard concentrating tables. The mortars have 7-ton cast iron anvil blocks under each, which rest on concrete. The mill engine is compound condensing, as is also the air compressor, which is placed in the mill engine room and furnishes compressed air at 100 pounds pressure throughout the mine for drilling and other power uses. Twenty 24-inch Sullivan drills are used. Crude oil is used for fuel. The works are lighted by electricity. The mill tailings are treated by cyanide process, after a preliminary roasting in a Brown mechanical furnace fired with crude oil.

Octave gold mines.-A new gold camp of great importance, known as the Octave, has sprung into existence in Yavapai County, 10 miles in a northeasterly direction from the Congress mine, in the foothills of the famous Rich Hill. A description of the development of the mines and the equipment of them is given below by Mr. A. E. Hurley, assistant superintendent of the Octave Gold Mining Company:

Our ledge runs in a northeast and southeast direction and dips about 26° from the horizontal; is worked by three tunnels, the lower of which taps the vein at about 600 feet in depth. We have five shafts, two of which are used as main working shafts, one being 1,010 feet, the other 1,028 feet in depth. The ledge at these depths is considerable larger than in the surface workings.

ore.

During the year ending June 30 we have mined and treated about 50,000 tons of Our method is wet crushing in a 40-stamp mill, amalgamation and concentration by 12 frue vanners and cyaniding the wet pulp direct from the vanners without either drying or roasting.

Our method of treatment is very economical, inasmuch as the ore is handled automatically from the time it enters the rock breaker until the tailings are sluiced from the leaching mats.

We have, during the past year, completed about 10,000 feet of development work, all of which has been confined to this property, as we have done no exploration work in this district aside from the Octave.

The company, however, is working quite extensively in the Prescott district, operating the Penn mine commonly known as the "Mudhole," also the Crooks

mine.

Oro Grande.-The Oro Grande mine has made its greatest development during the past year. From a mere prospect it has grown into a property of considerable importance. The report of the progress made during the year, furnished me by the manager of the Oro Grande Mines Company, is submitted herewith:

The property is located 4 miles in a northerly direction from the town of Wickenburg, and consists of nine claims situated in the Black Rock mining district, Yavapai County, and three mill sites on the Hassayampa River, on which there is a running stream of water, which during the dryest seasons has never been known to carry less than 400 miner's inches. All of these claims and mill sites have been surveyed, and final application has been made to the Government for patent.

The strike on the main vein, on which we own 7,500 feet, or five claims lengths, is a little to the east of the north, and it can be plainly traced on the surface for a distance of over 4,000 feet. Following it north from the present working shaft, which is situated on the Copperhead claim, as the higher slopes of the hill above are reached the vein is talus capped and covered in places, but in every instance where this capping has been removed the ore body is exposed beneath it and shows up the character strongly. At some points the vein crops out boldly and shows a width of over 100 feet. Lower down the hill, where the surface water has cut gulches in deeply, large croppings of the ledge matter is exposed which is identical with the material of the ore body as developed in the underground workings. On the Frenchman claim, which is about 1,600 feet north of the present working shaft and on the same vein, an adit has been run into the hill a distance of 25 feet and winze sunk 18 feet. This work is in ore and demonstrates that the vein is strong and continuous to that point. On the side claims there are numerous small veins running at angles to the main lode, notably on the Collosal Claim, which bears a ledge very similar to the main vein. On this a shaft has been sunk to 20 feet and exposes the vein to that depth, and it can be traced on the surface for fully 1,500 feet. Also on the Nigger Ben and Mountain Claims are ledges exposed, but possessory work only being done on them, nothing definite as to their value or extent can be stated.

The main ore body lies between a micaceous schist on the west and diorite and feldspathic granite on the east. It consists of a friable porphyry quartz, with numberless pockets of black and brown ferruginous oxides. The highest gold values are found in these oxide pockets.

Development work on the Oro Grande mine was commenced early in the year 1901. Since that time we have done 535 feet of sinking and raising, and 2,437 feet of drifting and crosscutting, all of the workings being large. All of the crosscuts, which we have run from wall to wall, show the average width of the ore body to be 120 feet.

7351-02- -4

At a point about 1,000 feet from the present working shaft we are now sinking a three-compartment shaft which will be used as a working shaft when completed. With this we will connect the different levels, which is the course of our work at present, and this will serve to develop the vein to that point, and from where further work will be carried on.

Jessie Mines Company. This company has grown out of the Little Jessie mines, situated in Yavapai County, and was organized for the purpose of interesting capital in putting a 200-ton cyanide mill upon the Little Jessie mines. The development work consists of several shafts, ranging in depth from 50 feet to 657 feet each, with six levels on the main shaft with an average of 500 feet each. The lower grade ores, being free from copper, are adapted for the operation of cyanide successfully. The mines are not working at present, the Jessie Mines Company being engaged in securing capital for future operations.

Mineral development. The past year has witnessed astonishing development in Yavapai County. In 1901 within its borders were 434 patented mines, valued, together with improvements, at $1,041,080.85. This year, 1902, shows 674 patented claims, which, together with improvements, are assessed for $1,810,069.41. This growth has not been confined to any one particular district but is scattered throughout the entire country. The first placer gold discovered in the Territory was found in Yapavai County, at Weaver and on Lynx Creek. These districts are still being worked and pay well at this late day, the ground in some places being worked over and over again with the dry washer process, while in other places water is being pumped for sluicing. With proper water storage one cannot state just what these rich beds will yield. The processes now employed pay fair wages to those who undertake the work.

In the past year quartz mining has seen its greatest activity in the history of the country. The principal mines now in operation and the ones that have made the greatest improvements in the past year are as follows:

At the United Verde, the greatest copper mine in the West, the capacity of the plant has been increased and the production of ore has been the largest in the history of the mine.

At Congress a new 40-stamp mill was erected and the plant further equipped for milling purposes.

Octave shows a large increase in the number of men employed and in the production of concentrates and gold bullion. At the Poland a tunnel running 8,500 feet is being driven for development of mineral veins and for traction. The Penn Gold Mining Company has increased the capacity of its plant. At Victor the development of ore has been pushed.

The Braganza Mining Company's mine is being systematically developed and is producing concentrates and bullion. The Catoctin mine is now being reopened.

The Oro Mining Company is building a new mill and opening the mine. The Iron Queen Company is building a smelter near Mayer and opening mines. The Yeager Canyon Copper Company have been pushing development work. The McCabe extension has sunk a new shaft and made other improvements.

The Model Gold Mining Company has been operating the McCabe mine and producing ore. At the South Poland development work is being pushed. At Crown Point bodies of ore have been developed. The Merchants' Mining Company is operating the First Horne mine.

a

The Val Verde smelter has been in operation, and has proven a boon to ore shippers and an important factor in the development of the mining industry of Yavapai County.

Reports have not been received from a large number of mining districts in Yavapai County; hence I am unable to present further particulars of the development made during the year.

TERRITORIAL GEOLOGIST.

Prof. William P. Blake, Territorial geologist and director of the school of mines, University of Arizona, has submitted an interesting report, from which I have the honor to submit the following excerpts, which will show the progress made in the development of various minerals during the year.

Mining in Arizona during the year ending June 30, 1902, has been characterized by great activity and a large influx of Eastern capital for exploration and development. The output of the old established properties has been steadily maintained, and new discoveries give bright promises for the future.

The more noted gold mines, especially the Fortuna and the King of Arizona, in Yuma County, the Congress and other mines in Yavapai County, and the Commonwealth at Pearce, in Cochise County, have been steadily worked. The Crowned King, in Yavapai, has been closed, for a part of the time at least, by litigation. The Mammoth mine, in Pinal County, for a long time a large producer, has been worked down to the water level and is closed for the present, pending a reorganization of the company and a probable combination of the different properties preparatory to draining and deeper working.

A notable and important example of the need of consolidation of many adjacent mining claims for the purpose of deep mining below the general water level of the region is found in the Tombstone mining district, which was a large producer of gold and silver from 1878 to 1883, until the presence of underground water prevented deeper working. This celebrated district of Tombstone is now being resuscitated and brought into prominence by a consolidation of the more important of the productive claims under one management. After lying practically dormant for nearly twenty years, since the destruction of two pumping plants by fire, more powerful pumps have been placed at the bottom of a new four-compartment shaft sunk 500 feet, or to the water level. This shaft is fully equipped with the most powerful hoisting engines and will be the central shaft for all the mines on the ContentionGrand Central lode. It has been found that pumping in one mine lowers the water level in the other surrounding mines, hence one central pumping plant of large capacity will suffice to unwater the chief mines of the district.

The large piles of old tailings at the Contention mill, on the San Pedro River, are being worked over by the cyanide process.

Amongst numerous gold-mining properties in the Bradshaw district the veins near the Senator mine have been brought to notice under the title of the Storm Cloud mines. They comprise eight full-size claims and six fractional claims. The veins extend in a general northeast and southwest direction. They have been prospected to a depth of about 200 feet. These claims are in a high and timbered belt and are about 12 miles south of Prescott.

The mines of the Poland Mining Company are situated in Yavapai County, 18 miles from the city of Prescott, and connect with it by rail. This ridge or mountain is being pierced from side to side by a double-track crosscut tunnel from the upper waters of Lynx Creek on one side to the valley of Big Bug Creek on the other, a distance of 8,000 feet, and to these connect a branch of the Prescott and Eastern Railway, which give an all-rail outlet to the products of the mines. This tunnel is known as the Poland-Lynx Creek Tunnel.

A 20-stamp concentrating mill has been erected at the Poland mine, and is supplied with eight Wilfley concentrating tables.

The discovery of a gold-bearing vein on stratum in the heart of the Galiuro Mountains, nearly east of the Mammoth, on the San Pedro, caused considerable excitement, being a region but little explored and not known to be gold bearing. The formations are massive rhyolites, with the planes of structure standing nearly vertical, and on their older vertically disposed beds there are later nearly horizontal outflows of rhyolite and of tufaceous beds, as well as hard lava beds filling ancient hollows and channels now high above the modern drainage.

The gold occurs free in visible grains and particles in quartzite rock not readily distinguishable from the rhyolite walls. The chief mineralization has a breadth of some 50 feet, and there are other, but narrower, parallel seams. While rich hand samples can easily be secured, the general average is low, and can be ascertained satisfactorily and conclusively by mill tests only. It is probable that it will not exceed $5 per ton, and may be as low as $3. There is much red hematite, showing the former presence of pyrite, and the little cavities left by the decomposed pyrite often show free gold. The value of this interesting gold deposit or vein can not be shown without free crosscutting and milling of the rock as extracted. The water supply for a great portion of the year is ample for milling or for cyaniding. There is an extensive area of fine timber, in which the cypress is abundant.

There have been some promising discoveries of free gold in quartz near Patagonia, in Santa Cruz County, and they are now under development.

The Arizona Gold and Copper Company is working a group of silver mines from 3 to 10 miles west and north from Patagonia, about 20 miles north of Nogales. The ores are largely argentiferous gray copper and are found in quartz veins traversing diorite, the Trenton being one of the principal claims. The same company has been putting the smelter at Patagonia in repair with the intention of running it when the production of the camp reaches 75 tons of ore a day. New sampling works have been erected in connection with the smelter where lots of ore can be sampled and purchased, and shippers can avoid the cost of transportation to the smelting works at El Paso.

The Salero Mines Company is now developing the Eureka-Mabel group near the Trenton by a crosscut tunnel which gives access to the lode at a low point and at the same time taps a supply of much-needed water. The same association is developing the old Darwin lode by a deeper shaft with a steam hoist and pump.

There has been great activity at Harshaw and Washington Camp. The World's Fair mine, reported sold for $500,000, remains in the possession of the owners who have worked it at intervals for several years past.