JOURNAL OF COPPER MINING OPERATIONS.

Ir is hardly possible to keep pace with the Copper Mining operations, during the month. The progress of the older companies, and the enterprises of the new, have been unusually extensive.

LAKE SUPERIOR COPPER REGION.

The operations on Lake Superior are more extended than elsewhere in the country. This mineral region, in a physical point of view, is one of much interest, not only on account of its volcanic character, but from the fact that of all the Copper Mines which history has made known to us, in none other has the native metal been found in masses of such magnitude and purity. This region as far as surveyed geologically extends to the southern shore of the Lake, from Chocolate River, about 87° 20' longitude, west from Greenwich, to 90° 40', on the Montreal River, the boundary on the Lake between the States of Michigan and Wisconsin. This includes the iron region of Carp River, or Marquette, which, in the richness and quality of its ores, rivals all that the world can show elsewhere.

The copper has been found disseminated throughout this region, but chiefly occurs in abundance on Keweenaw Point, the Ontonagon River and Isle Royal. The same general formation extends to the lake shore, and copper in the shape of boulders has been found abundantly at the boundary on the Montreal River.

Some very valuable particulars respecting the state of the operations at the Copper Falls Mine have been furnished to the Lake Superior Journal by the agent of the mine. They comprise, the number and depths of the shafts, expenses of work, &c.

On the East or Copper Falls vein seven shafts have been commenced, embracing a distance of 2,350 feet on its course.

They are numbered both ways from the east of the hill or No. 1, No. 5 being at the adit level, and No. 6 to the south of No 1, 750 feet.

Shaft No. 5 at the adit level is 66 feet deep.

Nos. 6 and 7 have just been commenced.

The adit level is 1,250 feet in length from shaft No. 5 to shaft No. 1.

The twenty fathom level in shaft No. 1 has been driven southward on the vein 280 feet, where masses of copper are met with. This level is 10 fathoms above the adit level. In this and in the 10 fathom level there are masses in view both ways from the shaft.

On the "Hill vein," which is half a mile west of the Copper Falls vein. there are five shafts along a line 1,555 feet in length.

Shaft No. 1 of this vein is near the adit level on the northern slope of the mountain, and is 150 feet down.

Shaft No. 2, 107 feet down, No. 3, 112 feet, No. 4, 130 feet, and No. 5, 80 feet in depth.

It is in shafts No. 4 and 5 that the large masses are found of which reports have been before the public.

In shaft No. 7 of the east vein a heavy sheet of copper is seen at the bottom of the ancient pits, which extend on both veins as far as they have been worked. Shaft No. 6 of this vein is near the intersection of our east and west vein or cross course on which the ancients have wrought extensively, and which promises to pay for working. It is a chloritic band parallel with the bedding of the rocks, and is well filled with sheet copper and lumps.

The masses that are visible in shaft No. 5 of the Hill vein are so compact that the shaft could not be sunk on the vein. In going down at the side of the mass it was found to be twenty-nine feet to the bottom, and extends each way on the vein out of the shaft.

We are permitted to give from the monthly and yearly accounts of work for 1851 and 1852 the following items of work and the cost:

Hill vein, 1851.-Drift 277 feet-Shaft 84 feet-total drift and shaft 1672 feet, at a cost of $11,740. This is for mine work only. The cost of surface work on the premises, including buildings, roads, etc., was $6,184.

We have reliable data for fixing the expense of shafts and drifts in this rock.

In the expense of shafts the above figures represent every thing chargeable to the work. In the drifts some of the earth or broken rock is carried out of the drift by surface men, but only in a few cases, so that the above sums embrace all the material cost of driving the adits and the galleries or levels.

The average of the levels is $496, four dollars and ninety-six hundreths per foot running measure.

For shafts the average is $11,45, eleven dollars forty-five hundredths per foot of depth.

The adits and levels are four and a half feet wide, by six and a half feet high. The shafts are six feet by ten.

On both veins the mining grounds towards the south in the main body of the mountain improve rapidly in richness. The beds of trap, penetrated by the levels, on these veins, are similar in composition, showing that the ground is, for the space between the veins, three-fourths of a mile, quite regular. The openings, during the past winter, on this location, have added much to our knowledge of the veins of Point Keweenaw.

We can now get the true bearing of the veins along a line more than 2,000 feet in length, and also determine their average width and thickness.

The results here show the value of a board of directors who take liberal and enlarged views of mining operations.

On the suggestion of the agent, they have expended money freely, not with a view to the quickest returns, but with a view to the best results for a long operation.

A recent letter from this location thus describes the prospects of this mine:

Several new buildings have been erected and others are in progress, all of a permanent character. The heaviest shipments will be in October, as we cannot get out some of the large masses till late in the season. A large amount of stoping must be done before they can be taken down.

The Waterbury Mining Company is at work on the location of the ancient miners, who a thousand years since wrought copper. At the depth of 50 and 60 feet, masses of 400 and 500 pounds are said to be found: at the depth of 110 feet, the miners struck a sheet of copper some 20 feet in width and at different points several inches in thickness. The prosecution of this work is due to Mr. Hill of the Copper Falls' mine, who expressed the belief a year since, that there was a vein or a cross course between the conglomerate and greenstone. The result has justified his judgment. From the extremity of Point Keweenaw to the Portage Lake, and even to the Ontonagon, a distance of 100 miles, there are bands of thin strata of conglomerate between the beds of trap. The foot wall of the Waterbury vein, or cross course, is this conglomerate, which dips northerly under the greenstone. In this respect it resembles the National Mine on the Ontonagon. It has long been observed that the surface of this conglomerate, and even its mass and the rock above it, is well charged with copper. The prospect now is that this extended belt of conglomerate is to be, or may be, the guide to more rich veins of the parallel kind, on Point Keweenaw. The location and the progress at some of the other mines is briefly stated by a correspondent to the New York Tribune:

The Norwich is situated on the west branch of the Ontonagon river, about eighteen miles from the mouth, and twelve miles from Collins' landing. It is a well-defined vein, and has been traced and partially opened for more than half a mile in extent. The lode is well charged with copper from good stamp ore to masses of 4000 lbs. One shaft has been sunk to the depth of 245 feet on the vein; another 80 feet, and two others to an inconsiderable depth. The ten fathom level has been extended about 240 feet; the 20 fathom level, 220 feet; the upper part of the mine has been partially stoped out, producing about 800 tons of stamp and barrel work and 30 tons of masses. They are driving a working adit level 440 feet in length, which will give a back of 250 feet, and enable the company to work the mine to greater advantage.

The Windsor is situated about a half mile east of the Norwich. One shaft has been sunk 105 feet; two others about 80 feet each. Levels have been extended 290 feet.

The Ohio Trap Rock Company are working on the north side of the Norwich bluff. They have sunk one shaft 260 feet, one 200 feet, and several others 10, 20, and 30 fathoms. Levels have been extended for 200 and 300 feet; an adit level driven 150 feet, and cross-cuts north and south.

The Derby is about five miles west of the Norwich. They have been working two veins on the south side of the bluff. One shaft is down about thirty feet; an adit is being driven on the course of the vein, which will give a back of 225 feet.

The Hudson is a half mile west of the Norwich, and has sunk a shaft forty feet, on what appears to be the same vein that the Ohio Trap Rock are working on the other side of the bluff.

The Lake Superior Journal also adds respecting the mines on the Ontonagon:

The Toltec Consolidated mine has three shafts, and is commencing a fourth; three of which are on the main vein, discovered last December.-The previous work has all been done on a feeder. This is one of the cases where no external signs of the main veins are visible, but only the branches which lead to it from the south. From the old shafts on the feeder, the vein has been cut in two places by cross-cuts. It is neither parallel nor perpendicular to the range, but oblique and crooked, or bent in its course to the northward, like a bow with its convexity lying southward. Its underlie is to the northward,

apparently about 65° with the horizon.

In level No. 2, between shafts No. 2 and 3, the vein is very heavy, and the mass and sheet copper exposed is very strong. The discovery of this vein has given new life to the adjacent mines; several of which had been hitherto operating on branches, epidote streaks and regular masses, without wall or a regular yield of copper. This discovery shows a well-defined vein, like the Minnesota, of a good average thickness and yield.

In all the work done on the Toltec, to May 1st, a shaft 365 feet-drifts 578 -and cross-cuts about 100. For the want of summer roads, no shipment can be made this season.

The President of the Ohio Mining Company, the location of which abuts on the Toltec, on the south, has recently discovered a heavy, and, as far as exposed, a very regular vein on the company's tract.

It is apparently like the Toltec, oblique to the uplift, bearing a little more to the east, and dips northerly. It is situated at the foot of the south bluff, and is to be wrought immediately.

The Adventure, which adjoins the Ohio on the west, is opening what some regard as the same vein, at the westerly termination of the south bluff. Hitherto this company has been at work on irregular masses, nests, and patches of native copper, in the east end of the west bluff. The metal is distributed through the entire mass of the mountain, without reference to vein-stone, and has been found in masses weigh ng 500 and 600 pounds.

This is the most remarkable deposit of copper on Lake Superior. It seems to be entirely without system, or by any of the laws of mineral deposits. The quantity of copper is such, that if concentrated in veins or stock works, the yield would be very heavy. The company has shipped about sixty tons, much of it taken from solid trap-rock, without any difference in its composition, from the bulk of the mountain. It has been wholly in masses and barrel-work, as they have no stamps.

The adits, galleries, and shafts are worked at random through the ground, crooking and curving, opening and contracting, as the show of copper increased or diminished. The bluff is penetrated here, and on the Ohio location in scores of places, by works of the ancients, most of them situated on the epidote and chlorite nests that abound in the works. The ancient miners have wrought out numerous caves, grottoes, holes, pits, trenches and cavities of every shape. They had not discovered the regular veins here, as they did at the Minnesota, but have taken out a large amount of copper.

The arrival and transhipment of copper at Saut St. Marie for the month of April is thus reported :

Cliff Mine, 361 tons in barrel work, and 130 tons in masses; Minnesota, 120 tons in barrel work, and 55 tons in masses; National, 3 tons in barrel work, and 17 tons in masses; North American, 64 tons in masses; Toltec, 3 tons in barrel work, and 2 tons in masses; Ridge, 94 tons in barrel work; Douglas Houton, 4 tons in barrel work; Bohemian, 2 tons in barrel work; New-York and Michigan, 1 tons in barrel work; also 90 tons Bloom Iron from Jackson County; North West, 43 tons in barrel work, and 13 tons in masses; Siskowit, 12 tons in barrel work; North American, 11 tons in barrel work, and 27 tons in masses; showing an aggregate of 821 tons of almost pure copper.

NORTH CAROLINA COPPER MINES.

The North Carolina Company's vein exhibits remarkable richness the deeper it is opened. The particulars of this mine will be found in the first number of this Magazine. Its results are wonderful.

The vein of the Vanderburg Mining Company is thus described by Prof. Emmons, State Geologist of North Carolina :

In pursuance of my duties, connected with the theological survey of the

State of North Carolina, I have examined the mine known as the Vanderburg mine. This vein is a continuation of the vein of the well-known Phoenix mine, which has been well known for many years, and which, if it has not paid a profit to the owners, the result is due to the unskilfulness of those under whose charge it has been worked. The Vanderburg property has not yet been worked so deep as the Phoenix, but it presents a much better prospect for copper than that does. It is located upon the western margin of the State belt, and is not likely to be cut off or injured by granite. Its width is from fourteen to twenty inches, and in the upper part is mixed and made up of brown ore. Its greatest depth is eighty-four feet, and in the progress of descent the copper has increased very perceptibly. It dips to the west, and has a strike of 75 degs. W., and may be traced upon the surface half a mile. It is, therefore, what miners call a strong vein or mine. My notes do not show what amount of gold this mine has furnished by the common process of working. My opinion is that it is a very valuable mine, and one in which money may be safely invested; as the copper has increased materially, there is a high degree of probability of its proving valuable for its copper mines.

An analysis of a sample of the ore by Dr. Chilton of New-York yielded 29 -27 per cent of copper.

The mine is distant from Charlotte, N. C., twenty-two miles, the terminus of the Charlotte and Columbia Railroad. The entire property of the company consists of 626 acres or one square mile of land—adjoining the property of the Phoenix Mining Company.

TENNESSEE COPPER MINES.

The copper mines of Polk county, Tennessee, are described by a correspondent of the Louisville Courier. We have extracted for the Mining Magazine one or two statements of interest:

The copper mines of Polk county are situated on the waters of Ocoee river, in a district of country known as Duck Town, near the corner of Georgia and North Carolina, within 35 miles of Cleveland, on the East Tennessee and Georgia Railroad up to the present time there have been but two companies engaged in the work of the mines (known as the Hiwassee Copper-mining Company, and Ocoee Mining Company,) with a force of about sixty men each, at a cost of about $1,200 each per month. This force gives regular employment to 25 or 30 wagons in the transportation of the ore to the railroad.

The ore is the black sulphuret of copper, with traces of the yellow sulphuret coming in below, and found in regular and well-defined veins under a heavy bed of iron, at the depth of from 12 to 90 feet from the surface, and ranging from 8 to 22 feet in width, so far as the two properties have been tested. The ore taken out by the miners is found immediately under the iron, and the quality shipped to New-York varies in richness from 14 to 70 per cent., the average being from 25 to 30 per cent.

The ore, up to the present, has to be taken through Georgia from the mines to Dalton, the southern terminus of the East Tennessee and Georgia Railroad, a distance of 72 miles, and will have to go the same way for the next three months, by which time a fine road will be completed down the bank of the Ocoee river to Cleveland, a distance of 25 miles, which will make a saving of 40 miles wagon transportation and a saving of $7,50 per ton on the freight.

In addition to the two companies now operating, eight others have been lately formed, and purchased as many separate and distinct properties in the same neighborhood, upon which ore of the same description has been found and equally rich. They are now preparing to commence operations, and will be under way in the next four or five months, thus making ten distinct companies. These mines are part of the country purchased from the Cherokee Indians under the treaty of 1835, and were bought from the State of Tennessee in 1842, a portion at 12 c., and another portion at one cent per acre, mostly at the last price.