16A MONTAAA 19U 



Counting all the production of all years from 1862 to 1912, and we have 

 Startling the sum total of $1.^41. =;8o,o87. Then add to that the 1912 

 Figures production of $64,754,613, together Avith the estimated 1913 



That Show production of $65,000,000, and we have the value of Montana's 

 Montana's ore production to date— $1,671,334,700. 



Mineral As before stated, the latest authentic fiofures cov^rino- min- 



Wealth. ing in Montana do not include the results of 1913. As tlii^ is 



wTitten there are still a number of weeks of 1913 left on the calendar and 

 so the only figures for this year we can bring forward are estimated. 



Time was when gold was the eagerly sought metal beneath the surface 

 of Montana's soil. Today coooer is the major mininsf industry. The prin- 

 cipal increase in metal values of 1912 over 191 1 is shown in copper. The 

 value of the copper increase was $17,000,951. 



The first copper produced in this .State for the market that we have 

 any record of was in 1868. In 1881 there was some more copper mined, and 

 yet the output was less than a million and a half pounds. It was in 1887 

 that the Treasure State came to the froint as the premier copper 

 Copper Fills producing state. For two decades Montana held this dis- 

 the Banks tinction. In 1907 Arizona came to the front with a leap and 

 With Coin, displaced Montana as first in copper production. As an illus- 

 tration of what Montana's copper mining industry' means to 

 the country, the Treasure State, since 1880, has produced one third as much 

 copper as ha 5 the entire United States since 1845. 



In pounds, Montana produced 309,738,873 last year, which was a gain 

 of 36,891,168 pounds over 191 1. • 



And when the copper mining industry of Montana is spoken of the 

 Butte district is spoken of, for t'le bulk of Montana's copper is produced in 

 Buitte. A good idea of the proportion can be gained when it is known that, 

 of the 1912 output, Butte contributed all but 1,516,326 pounds of the total. 

 Jefiferson county comes next with 776,072 pounds and Broadwater was 

 third. 



A sumtai.1 ry sun^ey of the records show that the sulphide copper ores 

 of smelting grade predominate and average 5.57 per cent of copper, while 

 the oxidized copper ores contained only 4.42 per cent of copper. The copper- 

 lead sulphide and oxidized ores contained respectively 3.08 and 3.50 per cent 

 of copper. Included in this crude ore sent to smelters were copper precipi- 

 tates contairJng 6,333,918 pounds of copper recovered from mine waters and 

 the washings from oil tailings by the use of scrap iron as a precipitant. Con- 

 centrates produced at milling plants contained 218,708,512 pounds of copper, 

 nearly all of which was from copper concentrates, which averaged 7.30 per 

 cent of copper. 



While there are several minino^ companies operating successfully in 

 Butte — companies that have no connection with the Anaconda company — 



— There's always a bright future for the good farmer in Montana. 



