Unknown Author (1904)

Description of the growing camp as seen by a representative of Mining and Engineering Journal

Nacozari, Sonora, Mexico is 78 miles south of Douglas, Arizona, and has recently been connected with the latter city by railroad, says the Engineering and Mining Journal. The Nacozari road has been building for three years past and for a year has its terminus at Cos, twenty-two miles north of Nacozari, necessitating freighting of copper out and fuel supplies in, and the discomforts of stage travel for passengers.

Phelps-Dodge Co. owns principal interests at Nacozari, under the name of Moctezuma Copper Co., and it is their capital which has constituted the railroad. They have a smelter and a concentrator there for the reduction of the ores of their Los Pilares copper mine, situated six miles southeast of the plant and connected with it by a narrow-gauge railroad. The operation of the mine and works has always been carried on under difficulties due to lack of transportation facilities. Fortunately, the mine required little lumber, there being stopes (the largest 150×125 and 80 feet high) without a stick of timber in them. Gas engines supply the motive power of the plant.

Simultaneously with the building of the road has been the erection of the Copper Queen smelter at Douglas and the construction of a mile-long tunnel through a mountain connecting with the Pilares shaft at the 600 level. This last piece of work is not almost completed and will facilitate the production and transportation of ore, for instead of hoisting by a shaft and dropping by a tramway to the railroad level, it will now be dumped down shoots to bins in the tunnel and drawn off directly into the cars.

This mile of tunnel cut a total of 600 feet of ore in different places which previously had been unknown and which will now be developed. The Los Pilares ore is chalcopyrite, and while of low grade is good concentrating ore. The concentrator has at present a capacity of about 300 tons per day. It is likely that a smelter will be discontinued and the concentrates sent to the Copper Queen smelter at Douglas when transportation runs smoothly, but this is not likely to be done for six months.

The company has a number of private houses for its employees, besides a general boarding house, and a hotel is now being erected.

The company operates two stores, one at the mine and one at Nacozari, where it also has an ice plant and a hospital. Apart from the town on a neighboring slope are the residences of manager James Douglas, superintendent Williams, and the company physician.

The greater part of labor employed is Mexican, which is largely dependent upon this country.

Northeast of Nacozari, a distance of six miles, is Huacal gold district, with El Globo on the eastern extremity, San Jose midway, and Churunibabi on the north. All of these properties, while now idle for various causes, have been extensively developed. El Globo is owned by the Romadkas, of Milwaukee, the San Jose by a French company with M. Clere in charge, and Churunibabi by the Moctezuma Copper Co.

Scattered along this strip are many prospects of more or less merit. Among them is the New York, owned by W. L. York and Ridgeman, which has been shipping sixty tons per month for development work, very little stopping having been done. There are now 800 feet of work done, which is said to have been more paid for by the ore taken out. It is a gold and silver ore. The property, consisting of twenty-six pertenencias, occupies the west spur of Huacal mountain. El Globo is on the east of the same mountain.

Another property is Providencia, which is developing under the direction of F. P. Thomas.

Edward E. Miller and Henry Eisenhart also own property in the neighborhood, while Spencer Shaw and H. G. McCulloch are doing development work on the Monterrey. The Sonora Land & Mines Co., F. M. Watts, manager, owns thousands of acres of land in the vicinity, they, with the Moctezuma Copper Co., being the most important land owners in the Moctezuma mining district.

At present, it is not proposed to extend the railroad to Moctezuma and Cumpas, 40 miles south of Nacozari, but when this is eventually done, it will open up one of the most promising districts of Sonora.

Ysabal station, on the Nacozari road, is the shipping point of El Tigre mine, which has come into prominence during the past two years and is now a steady producer of high-grade gold ore. It is 30 miles east of the railroad on the Yaqui river. At present, it is shipping five tons per day, which is said averages about $250 per ton. The original purchase was 311 acres, which comprises their most important holding, though the property has since been increased to 600 acres. The ledge is from 4 to 20 feet in width and is cut by canyons in four places. From these, it is worked by tunnel and upraise. The pay ore blocked out averages about ten feet wide and $30 per ton. Though some bodies of it are higher grade.

Present plans of the company, of which B. F. Graham, of Douglas, is president, are to put a 100-ton mill on the river connected by a 12-mile narrow-gauge road with the mine and concentrate the low-grade ore while continuing to sort and ship the high grade. A branch road from Ysabal is among the possibilities, as there are other producing properties in the neighborhood, among them, the Ray and the Cinco de Mayo.

A short distance south of Ysabal is Turicachi, shipping point of Picacho mine, 35 miles west in Bacoachi district on the Sonora river. This is a Phelps-Dodge gold property and has been undergoing development for about three years. For the past two years, it has been a shipper of high-grade ore.

In the Ceniza mountains, about 16 miles southeast of Douglas, the most important mine is the Santa Rosa. The district has been taken up by locations and there are several good prospects being developed.

The Copper Queen smelter is responsible for much activity throughout this section. It has four furnaces in operation and a fifth almost ready to be blown in. The probability is that the Bisbee, Globe, and Nacozari ores will be brought here for treatment in the course of time. Custom ores are bought to furnish proper combinations for fluxes.

The Calumet & Arizona smelter is operating two furnaces and turning out the customary amount of copper.

Published on Bisbee Daily Review
Bisbee, Arizona, July 01, 1904
Cover Photo: Nacozari concentrator (ca. 1904) | Arizona Historical Society

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