LVII.

COPPER AND COPPER MINES.

ANTIQUITY OF COPPER.—USE OF IT AMONG THE ANCIENTS.—OLDEST COINS.—THE COLOSSUS OF RHODES.—COPPER MINES OF ENGLAND AND OTHER COUNTRIES.—NATIVE COPPER.—HOW IT IS WORKED.—OVERTHROWING A MASS.—A LUMP WEIGHING EIGHT HUNDRED TONS.—MALACHITE.

One of the first metals known to man was copper. It is related in Scripture that Tubal Cain was “an instructor of every artificer in brass and in iron.” In the book of Job we read that “copper is molten out of the stone.” It is recorded in Egyptian history that the Emperor Cheops worked a copper mine in Sinai. The ancient Egyptians were familiar with copper, and the Syrians, Phœnicians, and also the Greeks and Romans, used a great deal of it in the manufacture of monuments and statues of bronze. The Colossus of Rhodes, after lying in the sand for nine hundred years, is said to have required nearly a thousand camels to convey its pieces away. The ancients seem to have worked copper mines very extensively, and their facilities for making large castings were quite equal to those of modern times.

Copper was known in America to the races that inhabited this continent before the Indians had any knowledge of it, as appears from the various utensils of copper found in the ancient mounds of the Western country and the extensive mining works along the shores of Lake Superior. The Mexicans and Peruvians had many tools of copper, and it is a curious fact that these tools are almost identical in composition with the tools found at Thebes and other points along the Nile. A chisel found in a silver mine in Peru contained ninety-four per cent. copper, five per cent. tin, and one per cent. iron.

Copper was used for money at a very early period. Some coins are in existence supposed to be twenty-five hundred years old. They contain from sixty to seventy-five per cent. of copper, and the residue is made up of tin, lead, and zinc.

EXTENT OF COPPER MINES.

The mines which supply the copper of commerce are situated in almost all parts of the world. Many of them are worked by English companies, and made tributary to the great smelting establishments at Swansea, in Wales. It is easier to carry ores to the localities where coal is mined, than it is to carry the coal to the copper mines. The great value of many copper ores admits of their transportation from the interior of countries to the sea-coast, and their shipment thence by sea to the place where they can be reduced with the greatest economy.

In America there are many smelting works on various parts of the coast, and at some interior points, but none of them are as extensive as the English ones.

Many copper mines are worked on the Andes, particularly in Chili and Peru. Central America and Mexico contain many mines, some of them of great value. Copper deposits are scattered throughout the United States, all the way from New England to California, though comparatively few of them are valuable. There are copper mines of great value and world-wide celebrity in Cornwall, England. Other parts of the British Isles produce this metal. There are valuable copper mines in Germany, Sweden, and Norway, and the mines of the Ural Mountains of Russia are among the richest on the globe. In 1830 the copper production of Great Britain was more than half the entire copper production of the world. Copper mining in other parts of the world was not extensively prosecuted; but subsequently the industry increased so rapidly that twenty-five years later the amount of copper produced in Great Britain, though not less in quantity, was only one fourth of that of the entire globe.

Occasionally circumstances give a great impetus to copper mining. For instance, in 1866, the war between Chili and Spain cut off the copper supply from the former country, andgave a great impetus to copper mining elsewhere. In California several copper mines were opened, and were making an enormous profit for their owners, when suddenly the war between Spain and Chili came to an end, the Chilian mines were opened again, and the copper mines of California diminished greatly in value.

Copper is found in various forms; sometimes in sulphurets or oxides, and crystallized in various ways. In some parts of the world it is found in a pure state.

A HOLE IN THE GROUND.

Copper mines are very much like other mines, and do not require a special description. They may be tersely set down as holes in the ground; and one hole in the ground, so far as light and darkness go, is very much like another. I remember that on one occasion, while travelling in a distant part of the world, I endeavored to urge a friend to accompany me to visit a curious cave. He shook his head doubtfully, and said, “O, it’s nothing but a hole in the ground; what’s the use of going there?” A few days later, I had arranged an excursion into a silver mine, and urged him to join me. He declined, with the remark, “What’s the use of going into it? it’s nothing but a hole in the ground.” Again, when a mining excursion was in progress, he declined to be of the party because the place was in a hole in the ground, and he did not wish to get beneath the surface of the earth until he was dead.

A COPPER MINE OF THE LAKE SUPERIOR REGION.

It may be said of a copper mine, as of a coal mine, an iron mine, or anything else of the sort, “it’s nothing but a hole in the ground;” but if you should ask, as my friend did, “What’s the use of going there?” I think in many instances the owners could point to fine houses and heavy bank accounts, to show you, beyond a doubt, that there is a good deal of use in visiting the mine, or, at all events, in owning it.

HEAVY DIVIDENDS IN COPPER STOCK.

Copper mines, some of them at least, are very good things to own, while others are very good to let alone. Many a speculator has come to grief by dabbling in copper stocks, while many another speculator has made a great deal ofmoney by it. Copper mining is very much like a lottery; there are prizes, and very valuable ones, and there are also a great number of blanks. In Cornwall, the Great Consolidated Mines, as they are called, made a profit in twenty years of three millions of dollars, and their product in one year was half a million dollars. In the next eight years the dividends dwindled down to a very small figure, owing to the expense of working, and for six years afterwards no dividend was declared; then, immediately after, rich deposits were found, and enormous dividends paid. An idea of the extent of these mines may be formed when it is known that the aggregate length of the underground workings is more than seventy miles.

One company in Cornwall paid in five dollars on each share, and its stock consisted of one thousand shares. In the first three months of regular working the amount cleared was seventy-five thousand dollars. In the following year it cleared one hundred thousand dollars. Five years later the dividends amounted to seventeen hundred dollars a share, and each share was worth two thousand dollars. This was a very fair profit on an investment of five dollars.

In another mine the shares originally cost twenty-five dollars each, and a few years later they were worth five thousand one hundred and seventy-five dollars a share.

One copper mine in Australia was opened in 1845. The whole amount of capital paid in was sixty thousand dollars, and the dividends up to March, 1850, were nine hundred thousand dollars. None of the dividends were less than fifty per cent. on the capital, and some were at the rate of two hundred per cent. Half a million dollars remained undivided, so that in five years the total profits amounted to nineteen times the whole amount of capital invested.

The copper region of Lake Superior contains almost the only mines that produce this metal profitably worked in the United States. The existence of masses of native copper had been known for a long time, but nothing was done towards mining in that region until the Indian title was extinguished,in 1842. Immediately after this the country was rapidly taken up by adventurers from the Eastern States, and mining operations were begun. The state geologist, Dr. Houghton, had examined the country, and located the productive region on the range of the Trap Hills commencing on the south coast of Keweenaw Point. From Keweenaw Point the Trap Hills run in two or three parallel ranges, extending westward more than one hundred miles. There are other trap formations presenting some mineral indications, but most of the profitable mines are in this narrow belt. A great many mines have been opened, but comparatively few of them have been found profitable.

HOW COPPER ORES ARE FOUND.

Copper ores are found in various conditions, but there are no mines in the world where there is so much of it in the native state as in the Lake Superior region. The largest masses stand upon their edges in the vein. Sometimes they are many yards in length and several feet in breadth, and their thickness varies from an inch to more than a yard. Silver is associated with copper, sometimes in occasional lumps unattached to the copper, though generally the two metals are in contact, as if the silver had been deposited with the copper, without forming an alloy with it. I believe no alloy of the two metals is ever found there, and consequently they can never have been in a fused condition in contact. The lumps of silver vary in weight from a few grains to several pounds.

Masses of copper of great size have been found. One was discovered several years ago containing at least five hundred tons, and other masses are said to have contained more than eight hundred tons.

BLASTING COPPER MASSES.

The work of cutting out one of these masses sometimes occupies several weeks or months. The mass fills the entire vein, so that the rock must be removed on one side; the mass is thus left as a wall, its upper edge extending into the roof and its lower edge into the floor. When the side is laid bare, the mass is attacked at one end by introducing charges of powder, and as fast as room is obtained, and cracks areopened between the copper and the rock, the size of these charges is increased. The usual form of blasting under such circumstances is by what is known as the “sand blast.”

Powder is poured loosely into the openings in large quantities, and is then covered with dry sand. It is lighted by means of a safety fuse, which gives the men time to escape. The first blast will be in a small cavity, and as the cavities are enlarged more powder is introduced, until sometimes several hundred pounds are spread in the crevice and fired at once. In several instances one thousand pounds of powder have been burned at a single blast. When the mass has been thrown down in this way, the work of cutting it so that it can be removed begins.

Two miners strike in turn upon a long steel chisel held by a third, and thus gradually cut a groove across the copper. This work is repeated until the mass is cut through, and sometimes it requires an entire month to make a single cut. The mass is reduced into pieces weighing five or six tons each, which can be hoisted up the shaft, and it will then be cut into little morsels weighing not more than two or three tons each, so that it can be easily handled.

To give an idea of the extent of this kind of work, it may be stated that some years ago a mass of copper was uncovered on which nearly three thousand pounds of powder were expended before it was thrown over so that it could be cut. When it was thrown over it was forty-five feet long, and its greatest thickness was eight feet. Several months were required for cutting it up so that it could be removed, and it was estimated from its measurement to weigh more than five hundred tons. This mass copper usually yields more than ninety per cent. of pure metal.

INTERIOR OF A COPPER MINE.

DRILLING IN A COPPER MINE.

The copper mines of Lake Superior are generally very profitable, where they pay at all, but investments in them should be made with great caution. Many copper companies have been organized, and the stock has been put upon the market and sold, when the mine had no existence except in the brain of its originator.

MALACHITE AND ITS USES.

A very valuable substance found in copper mines is that known as malachite. Specimens of it are found in the Lake Superior district, in Australia, and sometimes in England. The greatest quantities of it—in fact the only quantities of any importance in the whole world—are in the Ural Mountains, in Russia. In the mine of Tagilsk, a pretty town of twenty-five thousand inhabitants, situated in the Ural Mountains, there is a valuable copper mine which produces immense quantities of malachite.

Malachite is a protocarbonate of copper, and by analysis yields seventy-one per cent. of protoxide of copper. It is distinguished for its beautiful green color, variegated in many ways, its fine texture, and its ability to receive high polish. It is used for jewelry, and is converted into tables, vases, and many articles of great beauty.

In the mine of Tagilsk, about thirty years ago, an enormous mass of malachite was discovered, and several years were required to remove it. If it could have been taken out in its natural state, it would have been the greatest curiosity of the known world. The whole weight of this mass was estimated at seven hundred and twenty thousand pounds. Sir Roderick Murchison examined this mass before it was touched by the wedge or hammer, and his description is quite interesting. He says,—

“The copper ground that we have been describing having been excavated by shafts, an enormous mass of malachite was detected at the depth of two hundred and eighty feet. These strings of green copper ore occurring at intervals were followed downward, when, increasing with width and value, they were found to terminate at the base of the present mine in an immense irregularly shaped mass of solid malachite. When we examined this mass, much of the surrounding matrix had been removed, and it presented an appearance of having been cast in a depression of the stone. We are disposed to view it as having resulted from copper solutions emanating from all the porous, loose, surrounding mass, and which, trickling through it to the lowest cavity in the subjacentrock, have in a series of ages produced this wonderful subterranean incrustation.”

SPLENDOR OF MALACHITE COLUMNS.

In the great Exhibition of 1851, and in the Paris Exposition of 1867, wonderful specimens of this curious production of nature were exhibited. There were large doors of solid malachite, polished to the smoothness of mirrors, and the material was exhibited cut in various shapes. It is used for the manufacture of vases of all sizes, and is frequently worn as jewelry. In the Paris Exposition one piece was exhibited nearly ten feet in length. It was in its rough state, with the exception of one side, where it was highly polished.

In some of the Russian churches, particularly in the Church of St. Isaacs, at St. Petersburg, there are pillars twenty, thirty, and fifty feet in height, apparently of solid malachite. I say apparently, for the reason that the pillars are really of granite, and have been veneered with malachite. Some years ago, a vase was sent as a present by the Emperor of Russia to His Holiness the Pope, and has since been on exhibition in the Vatican. The vase is large enough to enable His Holiness to use it, if he so desired, as a bath-tub, or an aquarium. To the untaught spectator it is apparently of pure malachite, but a close observer will discover the lines where its fragments, or more properly the fragments of its veneering, are joined, for the vase is of stone covered with malachite, just as the pillars in St. Isaacs Church are covered. It is very pretty and very valuable, and visitors often remain long around it to study its beauty.

The annual production of copper is about eighty thousand tons. Of this, Great Britain and Chili produce about one fourth each, Russia produces one eighth, and America about one tenth. The rest of the production is shared by various parts of South America, by Cuba, by Sweden and Norway, Australia, and various parts of Europe. Asia produces about one twentieth of the full amount, but from Africa and Southern Europe only a small quantity is obtained.

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