Up for consideration is an Azalia Mining Company stock certificate from 1916:

#685

Issued to H. Belle Whitcomb for 500 shares on May 1, 1916

Signed by F. W. Cole as president

Incorporated in Nevada

Capital stock of $1,000,000

Uncancelled

Certificate in good condition

The Azalia Mining Company, formed in 1913, owned mines near Goodsprings, Nevada in Clark County, about 7 miles northwest of the town of Jean and 25 miles southwest of Las Vegas. Goodsprings is in the southeastern foothills of the Spring Mountains, once the heart of the most productive mining districts in Clark County. Over the years, lead, silver, copper, zinc and gold have all been mined from this area. Before 1900, a small cluster of tent cabins and a mill were erected at Goodsprings, including a post office. In 1904, Salt Lake City mining interests platted the Goodsprings Township. Most early buildings in the town were constructed during the boom spurred by the railroad in 1910–1911.

In the 1850s, Mormon scouts were sent forth from Salt Lake City in search of raw materials for bullets reported finding rich lead ore on Mount Potosi. About 9,000 pounds of lead was smelted during this time, but the effort was abandoned due to the poor quality of the resulting metal. Some copper ore was shipped about 25 years later, but the nearest railroad in 1880 was 80 miles away, and shipping costs were very high. In 1882, rich gold ore at Keystone Mine proved profitable, and for the rest of that decade, many claims were staked, buildings were erected in Goodsprings, and over 30,000 ounces of gold hit the market.

Goodsprings largest riches, however, lay in the large amounts of less valuable minerals that could not be profitably mined until transportation costs came down. That happened in 1905, with the completion of the railroad between Los Angeles and Salt Lake City. In 1906, geologist T. C. Brown recognized that the low-grade lead ore that had been stacked up in favor of shipping out higher-grade ore was really zinc, and suddenly the district boomed. The largest mine (the Yellow Pine) completed a railroad spur from its property to the Los Angeles-Salt Lake City railroad in 1910, dropping shipping costs dramatically. Goodsprings population peaked at 1,000 in 1915, when WW I zinc demand drove prices to record highs.

During the first quarter of the twentieth century, as new mining districts were opened up in the Rocky Mountains, the technique for separating sulfide minerals from associated rock became the major mode of production. Demand for zinc during World War I led to great expansion of the U.S. zinc mining and smelting industry. It also spurred introduction of the electrolytic process in 1916, which used electrical energy as a substitute for coal and gas in freeing zinc from its mineral compounds. In the course of improving the process, it became possible to produce high-purity zinc. The uses for this zinc were vast, enabling mass production of intricate, precision shapes. The U.S. zinc industry built up during World War I was the largest in the world and remained so through the end of World War II.