Copper Range Co. - 1960's dated Michigan Mining Stock Certificate

Mining Stock. Rare & distinctive vignette of 3 male allegorical figures with pick & shovels. Scarce & popular state!!! The Copper Range Company was a prominent entity in the copper mining sector of Michigan's Copper Country. Established in the late 1800s, it functioned as a holding company focused on investments in copper mines located south of Houghton, Michigan. In 1977, the company was acquired by Louisiana Land and Exploration. Through its share ownership, Copper Range had control over the Copper Range Railroad and the Baltic Mining Company. The Copper Range Railroad facilitated transportation across much of the southern Copper Country, while the Baltic Mining Company operated the copper mine situated in Baltic, Michigan. In 1901, due to restrictions imposed by Michigan law on the issuance of additional stock, the Copper Range Company established a new entity in New Jersey known as the Copper Range Consolidated Company.

Copper Range Consolidated utilized its newly issued shares to gain control over additional copper mining enterprises through stock exchanges. It acquired a 50% stake in the Champion mine and engaged in share swaps to obtain nearly all the shares of the Trimountain mine, which had been poorly managed by its owners, Thomas W. Lawson and Albert C. Burrage. Consequently, Copper Range came to dominate nearly all the copper mines located south of Portage Lake, mirroring the dominance of the Calumet and Hecla Mining Company over the mines to the north. The Copper Range properties extracted copper primarily in the form of native copper from strataform orebodies found in the flow tops of Precambrian basalt lava flows. Locally, these ore horizons are referred to as amygdaloids, named after the amygdaloidal-shaped gas bubbles in the lava that became filled with minerals. The Champion mine, the last operational native copper site of Copper Range, was closed in 1967.