Arizona Paper - The Water Problem at the Old Dominion Mine

The problem of handling the large quantities of water encountered in the Old Dominion mine presents many features of interest. In the present paper are discussed the probable sources of water, the pumping equipment, the increased flow into the mine in the early part of 1915, culminating in the flooding of the 18th and 16th levels in March of that year, and the difficulties that were met with during the high-water period. I. PRELIMINARY The Old Dominion mine, situated 1 mile north of the town of Globe, Ariz., has long been one of the prominent copper producers of the State, and until the opening up of the copper schist deposits in the neighboring mines of Miami, was responsible for the greater part of the copper output from the Globe district. As the gradual exhaustion of its orebodies near the surface led to the downward development of the mine, more water was encountered in the western portions directly underlying the dacite formation until the drainage problem became a serious factor in the operation of the mine and in the economical extraction of the ore. A heavy inrush of water on the 10th level of the mine in 1906, preceded by still earlier water difficulties, rendered imperative the immediate installation of a pumping equipment capable of handling large flows of water. While the Old Dominion has been recognized as a wet mine since its early days and one in which the complete control of the water situation was of paramount importance in the development of the lower levels, it is chiefly in the last nine years, since the installation of the increased pumping equipment, that the mine has developed and handled large quantities of water. Its maximum pumping record was reached in the first six months of 1915, during which time, following a prolonged period of abnormal precipitation, the pumps handled 1,624,740,000 gal. of water; while in the month of March alone, over 407,000,000 gal. of water were pumped from the mine.