A Copper Strike Four Miles North of Newport
Spokane investors return enthusiastic from the Bornite claims as crews push an 800-foot tunnel through the winter.
A party of Spokane stockholders of the Bornite Mining Co., whose claims are located about four miles north of Newport, on the east bank of the Pend Oreille River, visited the claims Monday and returned very enthusiastic over the recent strike made. They were very reticent concerning the matter, but it is reported that they have struck a well-defined ledge of ore, which runs 29 per cent copper. An increase has been made in the number of men at work on the tunnel, which is in about 800 feet, and work will be pushed all winter.
“They were very reticent concerning the matter, but it is reported that they have struck a well defined ledge of ore, which runs 29 per cent copper.”
Newport's early economy was built on extracting resources from the surrounding hills; a high-grade copper find could turn a quiet river town into a mining camp. The boom-and-bust rhythm of resource extraction still shapes rural Washington, where a single discovery can promise jobs and then vanish.
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