GREAT COPPER MINE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17439, 10 April 1931, Page 12

GREAT COPPER MINE

RESULT OF HUNTER’S SHOT

42 YEARS’ OUTPUT

DISCOVERV BY MERE CHANCE

VANCOUVER, Feb. 18.

An Englishman, Dr. Forbes, roaming over the mountains within 20 miles of Vancouver in 1888. shot a. buck. As he was drugging! the carcase down the slope tlie bonis uncovered a green-stained rock amt resulted in the discovery of Britannia, largest copper mine in the British Empire. In the succeeding 42 years Britannia has continuously been in production - the longest span of production of any contemporary mine. During the pro vailing depression, when the price of ‘■oppev has glissaded to a point far be low (lie normal cost of production, and when copper mines all over the world have heeli closing down. Britannia has not retrenched. The astonishing fact is oMicia lly recorded that ‘‘Britannia lias rut production costs without de creasing output and without reducing workers or wnojes.”

The property comprises 25,020 acres, extending from- Ilowe Sound, an estuary of the Gulf of Georgia, oVer precipitous cliffs lo Britannia Mountain, two and a-half miles-above the-beach. The mountain reaches to a height of 4400 ft. in the I riel' space. WOR.KEILS AND THEIR CAMPS. The number of employees ranges from T2CO to 1300, divided ‘into six camps. Those employed in the mill, foundry' and shops reside at the beach settlement At the head of the incline railway, a mile east and 1600 ft. above the beach, train crews and ear-shop mechanics live near I lie portal of the main haulage unnel on the 2700 ft. level. Supplies and passengers are. carried over an decline switchback railway three and a-hnlf miles long, which connects Incline Camp with Tunnel Camp. About 1000 people live in the mountain village at Tunnel Camp, 220Cft. above lie beat’ll, cut off from the outside world except for the narrow-gauge track leading to the. waterfront. Continuing lirougli the tunnel for a distance of two miles, thence mounting! by a shaft, one reaches Victoria Camp. At other levels, and equally inaccessible, are the Empress and Barbara '’amps. During summer a logging camp is maintained three miles from Vic‘oria Camp From all these giddy oerehes tho miners and their families look down spruce and pine-clad slopes m seascape views, comparable with the v orwe‘ ian fjords, Milford Pound or Table Alountain.

The mill is in the shape, of a main moth staircase ascending 3Coft. above 'm lea'll. At the wharf are the m-n----ral stores, a co-operative concern, which mv*’ tin l consumer a dividend from 10 o 17 per cent. At the grinding machine " tons of steel balls, made trom

■wrapped rails, are worn out monthly. Fleet rieitv is provided from a 7500 h.p. ■ilnnt. The pipe line from storage lakes In South Valley is four miles long, haling cost about £200,000. FEW SPECKS TO THE GALLON. The copper-precipitation plant, is an ingenious structure, consisting of 26 water-tight tanks built of wood, eon iaining not a single nail. The water drained from the mine contains a small percentage of copper, a few specks to the •.alinn. When the water flow reaehe« 10.00') gallons per hour, the amount of copper recovered is considerable, Britannia has mined rock containing I per rent, copper, which means that of every ton mined, 19 4-Scwt. is useless ■n k\ This nr k lias to be drilled, blasted, drawn to the 2700 ft. level, haulid io the incline, dumped, crushed, 'oaded into trucks at the 4100 ft. level, 'ended to the mill, ground as fine ns sand, passed through tho flotation process and the concentrates shipped to the