Mining prospectors

“ Although the scope of this work does not include the very complex problem involved in the working of a great mine, prospecting and the simpler mining operations are so intimately connected that it would not be desirable to make mention of the one and ignore the other, because the prospector must perforce become a miner as soon as he discovers mineral, even though his operations should not go beyond a shallow trial shaft. ”

“ It may be taken as a safe axiom that to make gold mining in the mine as distinct from mining on the Stock Exchange really profitable the same system of economy, of practical supervision, and scientific knowledge which is now adopted in all other businesses must be applied to the raising and extraction of the metal. Then, and not till then, will genuine mining take the place to which it is entitled amongst our industries. ”

“ But let us ask, would any other business, even such as are less subject to unforeseen vicissitudes than mining, succeed under similar circumstances?
It is now very generally agreed that to the profitable development of mining new countries, at all events, must look mainly for prosperity, while other industries are growing. Therefore, we cannot too seriously consider how we may soonest make our mines successful. ”

“ There is, therefore, plenty of time for intending prospectors and miners to inform themselves thoroughly regarding everything necessary to know about the mines, routes of travel, outfit, etc., and for investors, who are not going to the mines, to satisfy themselves regarding the reliability of the mining companies that are and will be advertising their alluring and seductive money-making schemes. ”

“ Many gold mines have been abandoned as unprofitable that could have been mined at a profit had their owners been wealthy and enterprising enough to do a great deal of expensive prospecting by diamond drill, cross cuts, drifts and rises. In one instance that came to the writer's knowledge a clever mining engineer cleared nearly $200,000 profit by leasing for a term of years a gold mine that was supposed to be exhausted. A drill hole sunk less than 50 feet below the old workings revealed a pocket of ore in the vein, and paying quartz was found for many hundred feet below. ”

“ The more money a prospector can invest in the development of a good mine the better price he is likely to get when he sells. Business men dearly like to see great masses of ore in the shafts and cuts, and are always more willing to pay a handsome price when they know something distinctly promising about the purchase. ”

“ He says, speaking of the German treatment of ores and the mode of procedure in Australia, "It is high time that Government stepped in and endeavoured by prompt and decisive action to bring the mining industry upon a sound and legitimate basis. Though our ranges abound in all kinds of minerals that might give employment to hundreds of thousands of people, mining is carried on in a desultory, haphazard fashion. ”

“ All engineers must wish to have the industry under them in high repute. The writer knows of several mines paying 20% on their stocks which yet stand lower in price on account of short ore-reserves than mines paying less annual returns. The speculator, who is an element not to be wholly disregarded, wishes a rise in his mining stock, and if development proceeds at a pace in advance of production, he will gain a legitimate rise through the increase in ore-reserves. ”

“ Due consideration must always be given to the selection of some method of opening up what might be supposed will never amount to a great mine, so that, should subsequent disclosures exceed expectations, enlargement of the scale of operations can be advantageously effected. Always bear in mind that legitimate mining is just as much a commercial enterprise as is any other kind of business. The utmost concern for financial showings must be constantly borne in mind. Select a scale of operations consistent with the known—not the hoped-for—bodies of coal or ore ”

“ Under ordinary working conditions, it should be considered just as essential for a mine to take an occasional inventory as it is for a mercantile establishment. In truth, there is far more need in mining operations of the knowledge thus derived than in any other business. In mining, as already suggested, the business is one of selling off the stock in trade without replenishing it. The opening of more reserves of ore is not bringing more goods into the stock, but it may be likened to simply unpacking more goods in the storehouse. ”

“ The ore as taken from the mine concentrates four tons into one, which has a gross value of one hundred dollars, and with the first concentrator, whose capacity was one hundred and twenty tons daily, returned three thousand dollars per day to the owners. The company employ one hundred and fifty men, and are well equipped for profitable mining. ”

“ There is an amount of uncertainty about any mine or prospect that appeals to the speculative proclivities in humans and it is hard for most persons to resist the notion that greater or richer bodies of ore may, at any time, be discovered in their particular mining properties. ”

“ Mining business, from an investment view, is of two sorts,—prospecting ventures and developed mines; that is, mines where little or no ore is exposed, and mines where a definite quantity of ore is measurable or can be reasonably anticipated. The great hazards and likewise the Aladdin caves of mining are mainly confined to the first class. Although all mines must pass through the prospecting stage, the great industry of metal production is based on developed mines, and it is these which should come into the purview of the non-professional investor. ”

“ There are the usual paraphernalia of the mining industry, which we have already described in other places. In every direction there are mining-shafts and reduction-works, and for miles and miles around the country is full of prospecting holes, where gold has been sought but not found, at least in paying quantities. ”

“ After a mine is once opened and preparations have all been perfected to operate [106] upon a certain scale of output, it is quite essential that exploitation and production be maintained without material fluctuations, if the greatest economy is to be attained. Exploitation, i.e., development work, must be kept well in advance of actual mining operations to assure plenty of working space for the extraction of the normal output. ”

“ Given that the project has been determined upon, and that the enterprise has entered upon the second stage, that of determination of method of attack, the immediate commercial result limits the mining engineer's every plan and design to a greater degree than it does the other engineering specialists. The question of capital and profit dogs his every footstep, for all mines are ephemeral; the life of any given mine is short. Page 189 Metal mines have indeed the shortest lives of any. ”

“ One means of providing against an extinction of a mining company's activity with the exhaustion of the ore bodies in the mines is to provide new mining territory to which operations may be transferred at the proper time. This plan has been very successfully carried out by a number of large mining companies. When a mining company has been maintaining its identity for a considerable period, it has reached a very desirable stage of economy in the make-up of its various lists of officials, superintendents and engineers. ”

“ Mines are very seldom priced at a sum so moderate as that represented by the profit to be won from the ore in sight, and what value should be assigned to this unknown portion of the deposit admits of no certainty. No engineer can approach the prospective value of a mine with optimism, yet the mining industry would be non-existent to-day were it approached with pessimism. ”

“ But, while there are many mining companies—and successful ones, too—that hold upon their directorates men who probably never saw a mine prior to their present ventures, it may still be stated that it is obviously advisable to select for such places men who have knowledge and sound ideas concerning the industry of mining. ”

“ Mining, altogether, is an extraordinary industry. But almost more extraordinary than the ignorance of London Boards, and the recklessness of British investors, is the haphazard way in which engineers and managers are selected. ”

“ I am told that in America all mining is done by individuals or private companies, and that four-fifths of all mining companies have no mines at all—merely samples of ores, blueprints, photographs and prospects. The genus promoter is a very modern production, and is a creation Humboldt never knew ”

“ It is becoming more and more important for the active mining man to post himself upon the methods and economies of this latter-day mining practice. The development of this open or surface mining has introduced entirely new economic ideas. With no costs for timbering of mine passages, for ventilation, or for hoisting, and with a very material decrease in manual labor per ton mined, immense masses of rocks are now really ore, although a few years ago they were nothing but lean, country rock. ”

“ Mining may be said to begin whenever there is produced an output upon which there is some profit. Exploitation may be in valuable ground. If so, we may say that mining is in progress during the exploitation. The driving of levels or drifts in an ore body—or of entries in a bed of coal—produces the valuable products of the mine, and we may, therefore, consider that mining is taking place.
The driving of a crosscut through barren rock to reach an ore body is dead work; but the driving of a drift or level in a vein is either exploitation or mining. Dead work produces no ore. ”

“ It is true that much fraud has been prevented in the practice of taking up Government lands and it is also quite true that the Forest Service is endeavoring to uplift the mining industry in the western portions of the United States.
Mining is bound to become a still stronger factor in civilization as metallurgical processes multiply and there are discovered means of more economically extracting the valuable contents of ores. ”

“ They made haste too quickly, as the Americans say, and they were not expert economists. Then there is another favourable element in lead mining—it can be conducted with only a shaft and a winch—and as soon{299} as the lode is reached, the mine commences to pay. ”

“ Since the extension of the railway systems and the establishment of a stable government, mining is again attracting a great deal of attention. The government encourages foreign investments in the mines. Many of the old bonanzas have been taken over by new companies with both good and bad results for the investors. The introduction of modern machinery has so reduced the cost of mining that lower grade ores can be profitably worked. ”

“ These deposits are naturally the first to fail in productiveness, but the neighboring hills are formed of a gold-bearing quartz which is being crushed, night and day, by hundreds of powerful machines; and the works still pay ten thousand miners fair day-wages, besides giving the organized companies who employ them satisfactory dividends. Thus mining has been largely robbed of its adventurous character in this neighborhood, and perhaps also of most of its alluring charm, having become a sort of regular industry, like coal-mining, or even brick-making. ”

“ Not so with silver and gold mines. They are most unreliable in both quality and quantity. Costly buildings and machinery are often erected to economize the mining of the ore, only to find no mine to operate by the time the buildings are completed and the machinery is working. ”

“ The output in normal years approaches 800,000 carats. No attempt should be made to obtain a possible concession without thorough investigation and ample capital. The same may well be said of any mining venture. A concession for emerald mining has been secured by an American company. ”

“ A deep old mine which has been abandoned, is undertaken with a chance of less profit and a certainty of greater risk, than a new and promising discovery. In the first case encouragement is often held out, by fixing very moderate dues, while in the other, so much is too frequently demanded and given, as to prevent that share of profit accruing to the adventurers which is due to the great risk constantly attendant on all mining pursuits. ”

“ In many other instances the big mining men gobbled up the smaller ones, especially at a later period, when most of the big mines were grouped under a few large managements, with consequent great advantage over their smaller competitors. ”

“ There are men still trying to succeed in the mining business while thinking it is essential in mining that a complete plant be the first thing given attention. Upon the showing in a ten-foot hole, such men will induce capital to take interests enough to provide the wherewithal for purchasing and installing an equipment capable of handling and treating the output of a big mine. ”

“ The system has produced an increasing class of mining speculators and investors who are finding and supplying the enormous sums required to work our mines,—sums beyond the reach of the old-class single-handed mining men. Every year the mining investors of the new order are coming more and more to the engineer for advice, and they should be encouraged, because such counsel can be given within limits, and these limits tend to place the industry upon a sounder footing of ownership. ”