Comeback

Generations of mining men knew Butte, Mont, as an "island of easy money surrounded by oceans of whiskey." For 70 years, the Butte district--a mile high and almost five miles square--supplied the U.S. with one-third of its copper. But in recent years Butte (pop. 40,000) has seen little easy money. Though Butte still has much high-grade ore left, it is getting harder to mine. Since 1940, 8,000 had left Butte for better paying jobs.

Anaconda Copper Mining Co., which had grown into the world's biggest copper producer from the "richest hill on earth," had no such intentions. Cornelius Francis Kelley, Anaconda's board chairman, knew that there was plenty of low-grade ore to bolster the company's high-grade operations ; the trick was to find a way of digging it cheaply enough to make it pay.

The trick was a more intensive method of mining the ore. Last week Kelley was busy spending $20,000,000 to turn the trick. At the head of Butte's "Dublin Gulch," workers hoisted a sign that read "Kelley's Shaft." They started to sink a rectangular shaft big enough (38 ft. by 9 ft.) to accommodate the machinery needed for the Kelley plan. It will be driven down to 3,400 ft., cutting straight through the old galleries where the best of the rich ore has been mined. To get out the low-grade ore, miners will work out from Kelley's shaft into abandoned levels, blast off huge blocks of ore--the first time for such a method at such depths. Oversize buckets and mine cars will haul out the ore for the smelters.

After the shaft begins operating, 30 months from now, Kelley expects to get out another 2,500,000,000 pounds of copper. Getting the ore, at one-fifth the cost of conventional methods, Kelley hopes to do it cheaply enough to keep going in Butte for at least 35 years, no matter what the ups & downs of the market.

Butte was already responding to Kelley's faith in the town's mining future. Workers were flocking back. A citizens' group which had started a housing project was expanding it; others were plugging a new $2,000,000 hospital and recreation center. The first $100 housing contribution came from Local No. 1, International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers. Said Union President Oscar Hill, whose local had fought many a bitter fight against Anaconda: "The future of Butte and the security of its working people is established . . ."

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