Detroit Copper Mining Company of Arizona

The Detroit Copper Mining Company of Arizona was an American company headquartered in Morenci, which dealt with the copper recovery. The company was founded in 1874 and was independent until 1881. Then the Phelps Dodge Corporation won a controlling majority. The Company continued to exist as a subsidiary of Phelps Dodge until 1917, all activities of Phelps Dodge in the field in the new Phelps Dodge, Morenci Branch were consolidated.

History

Although the company was founded in 1874 jointly by Captain EB Ward, a wealthy steamboat owner from Detroit in Michigan and William Church, a mining speculator from Denver, Colorado, the actual mining activity did not begin until 1875. The company had mining rights for 145 locations in the vicinity of Morenci claimed. At the time the Detroit Copper Mining Company of Arizona had a large store, a hotel and other possessions in the town of Morenci, which added up to a considerable sum. They also built a water plant at the San Francisco River, eleven kilometers away.

The quality of the veins amounted to 140 pounds of copper per ton of ore mined. The conventional methods of mechanical concentration was not sufficient to process the ore; a blast furnace had to be used, thereby reducing the cost and increased the company's profits were limited until it had generated enough finances to expand its iron and steel works. Beneficial for Detroit Copper Mining was the fact that she was the only company to 1900, which operated the mining of copper ore in the area of Arizona.

Church founded the town of Morenci, to provide the workers of the new mining houses and services. The company deal largely Mexican workers, which was only half that was paid what U.S. workers earned. When widened to mining activities, the nearby town of Clifton was established to ensure the accommodation of the workers.

1881 acquired the Phelps Dodge Corporation, a controlling interest in the company.

In May 1882 the company agreed to the "Detroit lode" with the Longfellow Copper Mining Company ( later acquired by the Arizona Copper Company ) break down. Both the federal and the federal state laws stipulated that a company that veins degraded in a lesser depth, had the right to exploit the entire occurrence. Detroit Copper but did not have enough capital to do so and therefore allowed Longfellow Copper mitzunutzen the mineralized rock.

How many mining companies in Arizona and New Mexico at that time, the Detroit Copper Mining Company found itself with several waves of unionization and, confronted after 1900, with strikes. Detroit Mining used covert informants in order to prevent the formation of trade unions and their organization.

The Phelps Dodge Corporation paid the remaining minority partner in 1897. Following a restructuring in 1917, the company ceased to exist, and the operation was incorporated into the " Phelps Dodge Corporation, Morenci Branch ".