Comparatively little fine copper was im..rted to the United States after 1860. In 1:r' the Lake Superior region furnished about 83 per cent of the total quantity of copper produced here, but after 1880 the opening of the copper mining regions of Arizona and Montana in creased the output largely beyond the quantity required for domestic use. A heavy exportation at once followed, and this country became one of the world's great sources of supply.
The Lake Superior district includes the first notable deposits of copper discovered on the American continent. This district was the greatest producer for half a century; the prod uct is still very large, the Michigan output in 1915 being 158,000,000 pounds. The copper found there is remarkably pure, and is called Lake copper, being marketed without electro lytic refining, as is necessary. with most other coppers. The Rocky Mountain copper deposits became of commercial importance about 1868, when the Butte development got under way. Three great fields have opened up in the Rockies, outdistancing the great Lake deposits. In 1913 the Arizona production was 404,000,000 pounds, or the equivalent of the entire world's production in 1890. The same year Montana produced 286,000,000, or more than the United States total of 1890. The other large producing States in 1913 were Michigan, 158,000,000; Utah, 132,000,000; Nevada, 85,000,000; New Mexico, 50,000,000; California, 32,000,000; the year's total for the United States being 1,224,484,098 pounds. In 1917 Arizona produced about 710,000,000 pounds ; Montana, 370,000,000 pounds; Michigan, 272,000,000 pounds; Utah, 24(1,000,000; Alaska, 145,000,000; Nevada, 103, 000,000; New Mexico, 100,000,000; Caliornia, 65,000,000; Tennessee, 21,000,000.
As measured by districts, the Butte smelters, which began in 1868, have been the world's largest producers of copper, the entire product to 1915 being 6,177,800,000 pounds; the Lake Superior district, which has produced since 1845, yielded a total to 1915 of 5,360,995,000; next comes the Bisbee, Ariz., district, opened in 1880, with 1,710,300,000i and the Morenci-Met calf district, also of Anzona, with 1,104,200,00D. These are the four greatest copper districts of the world.
The quantity of copper produced in the United States is reported by the United States Geological Survey to be as follows; Refined copper produced by the regular re fining companies from the smelters of the Pounds, United States 1,387,705.532
Of foreign origin 246,498,925 cents per pound. From 1859 to 1876 the yearly average pnce of copper varied from 20y, cents to 32 cents per pound, with the exception that in the years 1864 and 1865 the price was ad vanced, so that in 1864 the average price of Lake Superior copper was 4674 cents per pound and in 1865 36y$ cents. After 1876 there was a gradual decline in the yearly average price, which was 180 cents in 1877 and 11% cents in 1::7. In 1894 the price touched 9 cents per pound, which is the lowest point recorded.
In 1899 the increased demand for copper in the United States and abroad was the cause of a rapid advance in the price of the metal, which sold as high as 18 cents per pound. The large exports (159,000 tons in the year 1900), and the steady tncrease in the demand for home consumption, kept the price between 16 and 17 cents until December 1901.
In the fall of 1901 it became known that a considerable stock of unsold copPer had ac cumulated in the hands of one of the largest of the producing mining companies. Mean while, owing to decreased consumption abroad, the exports of copper had fallen off at the rate of about 65,000 tons per annum (the total quantity exported in 1901 being about 95,366 tons). Toward the end of the year there was a sharp decline in the London market, followed by a series of reductions in the price of copper in New York, which, emanating from one source, brought the price, within a period of 30 days, from 1634 cents dowq to 11.cents per pound. The first effect of this action was to check consumption, but when it was known that copper could be bought for forward delivery at 11 cents per pound, the demand for manu factured copper increased to such an extent that large buying of the raw material followed and the price of copper quicldy advanced to 12TA cents. The average pnce of Lake copper during 1902 was 1174 cents, and in 1903 about 13%. The average price obtained by the Lake Superior mines for copper during 30 years previous to 1903 was about 1214 cents. From 1903 to 1913 the average price of electrolytic copper was about 15 cents per pound. In 1916 and 1917 it was slightly above 27 cents per pound.