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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Business of Mining, by Arthur J. Hoskin
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Business of Mining
+       A brief non-technical exposition of the principles involved
+       in the profitable operation of mines
+
+Author: Arthur J. Hoskin
+
+Release Date: February 16, 2012 [EBook #38903]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BUSINESS OF MINING ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Eric Skeet and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes :
+(1) Obvious misspellings, punctuation faults and misprints
+    have been corrected.
+(2) Italic text is denoted by _underscores_
+(3) Subscripts are denoted by an _underscore followed by the symbol in {braces}
+(4) "Par/Share" = Par Value per Share, in the table of share values
+
+
+[Illustration: UTAH COPPER COMPANY'S OPEN PIT MINE, BINGHAM, UTAH.
+This Mountain is Copper Ore.]
+
+
+                THE BUSINESS
+                  OF MINING
+
+        A BRIEF, NON-TECHNICAL EXPOSITION
+        OF THE PRINCIPLES INVOLVED IN THE
+        PROFITABLE OPERATION OF MINES
+
+                    BY
+
+            ARTHUR J. HOSKIN, M.E.,
+
+    CONSULTING AND GENERAL MINING ENGINEER; WESTERN EDITOR, "MINES
+    AND MINERALS"; FORMERLY PROFESSOR OF MINING, COLORADO SCHOOL
+    OF MINES; MEMBER, AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF MINING ENGINEERS;
+    MEMBER, COLORADO SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY
+
+    _WITH 16 FULL PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS AND ONE CHART_
+
+          [Illustration: Publisher's Logo]
+
+                PHILADELPHIA & LONDON
+
+              J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
+
+                       1912
+
+
+
+
+    COPYRIGHT, 1912, BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
+
+              PUBLISHED JULY, 1912
+
+      PRINTED BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
+
+        AT THE WASHINGTON SQUARE PRESS
+
+            PHILADELPHIA, U.S.A.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+
+       CHAPTER                                          PAGE
+
+         INTRODUCTION                                     1
+
+      I. WHAT IS A MINE?                                  4
+
+     II. WHAT IS MINING?                                 12
+
+    III. THE ANTIQUITY OF MINING                         22
+
+     IV. MINING'S PLACE IN COMMERCE                      28
+
+      V. THE FINDING OF MINES                            39
+
+     VI. MINING CLAIMS                                   46
+
+    VII. PLACERING                                       60
+
+   VIII. OPEN MINING                                     72
+
+     IX. CONSIDERATIONS PRECEDING THE OPENING OF MINES   78
+
+      X. MINE OPENINGS                                   93
+
+     XI. TYPES OF ORE BODIES                            107
+
+    XII. THE QUESTIONS OF DEPTH AND GRADES OF ORE       115
+
+   XIII. VALUATION OF MINING PROPERTY                   129
+
+    XIV. THE MINE PROMOTER                              134
+
+     XV. INCORPORATION AND CAPITALIZATION               140
+
+    XVI. MINING INVESTMENTS                             148
+
+   XVII. MINE EQUIPMENTS                                154
+
+  XVIII. MINE MANAGEMENT                                162
+
+    XIX. PRICES OF METALS                               170
+
+     XX. MINE ACCOUNTING                                179
+
+    XXI. INVESTMENT IN MINING STOCKS                    185
+
+   XXII. THE MEN OF THE FUTURE IN MINING                202
+
+  XXIII. MISCELLANEOUS CONSIDERATIONS                   210
+
+         CAPITALIZATION AND DIVIDENDS OF NORTH
+            AMERICAN METAL MINES                        216
+
+         INDEX                                          221
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+                                                           PAGE
+    UTAH COPPER COMPANY'S OPEN PIT MINE, BINGHAM, UTAH _Frontispiece_
+
+    HACKETT MINE AND MILL, JOPLIN, MO.                     12
+
+    COAL WASHING PLANT, PANA, ILLINOIS                     16
+
+    UNIVERSAL MINE, CLINTON, IND.                          20
+
+    KENNEDY MINE, JACKSON, CAL.                            30
+
+    A GILPIN COUNTY, COL., SCENE                           52
+
+    DREDGES OF YUBA CONSOLIDATED GOLDFIELDS, HAMMONTON,
+    CAL.                                                   66
+
+    THE SNOWSTORM PLACER, FAIRPLAY, COL.                   70
+
+    STEAM SHOVELS AND CHURN DRILLS, COPPER FLAT, ELY,
+    NEV.                                                   74
+
+    MILL OF THE PITTSBURG-SILVER PEAK GOLD MINING
+    CO., BLAIR, NEV.                                       88
+
+    MILLS AND SHAFT HOUSE OF DALY WEST MINE, PARK
+    CITY, UTAH                                            100
+
+    SHAFT NO. 3, TAMARACK MINING CO., CALUMET, MICH.      114
+
+    SMELTERY OF THE BALAKLALA CONSOLIDATED COPPER
+    CO., CORAM, CAL.                                      114
+
+    WASHOE REDUCTION WORKS OF THE ANACONDA COPPER
+    MINING CO., ANACONDA, MONT.                           118
+
+    MILL OF THE ROODEPOORT-UNITED MINES, TRANSVAAL,
+    SOUTH AFRICA                                          148
+
+    SPRAY SHAFT HOUSE OF COPPER QUEEN CONSOLIDATED
+    MINING CO., BISBEE, ARIZ.                             160
+
+    DIAGRAM OF METAL MARKET FOR ONE-THIRD OF A CENTURY    178
+
+    FLORENCE MINE AND MILL, GOLDFIELD, NEV.               200
+
+
+
+
+THE BUSINESS OF MINING
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+There is probably no line of human activity that is not beset with
+malicious and ignorant intruders. The fact that any occupation or
+business is really legitimate seems often to stimulate the operations of
+these disreputable persons.
+
+Mining does not escape the application of this postulate. For ages, the
+industry has afforded most fertile opportunities for the machinations of
+the unscrupulous and the erring. Somehow, there weaves throughout the
+history of mining a sort of magnetism rendering us unduly susceptible to
+the allurements which are presented with every mining proposition.
+
+It is not, however, always intentional deceit that is perpetrated upon
+the unwary. Often, mining failures result from actual ignorance of the
+business upon the part of those entrusted with its conduct, or if not
+from actual lack of knowledge, then from erroneous conceptions with the
+consequent misapplication of honest endeavor. A victim of such misplaced
+faith is perhaps more leniently inclined than is the person who has been
+duped by a "shark," but the effect upon the great industry is hurtful in
+either case.
+
+The purpose of this short monograph will be served if the author can
+feel assured that his readers will finish its perusal with the belief
+that mining may be followed as a business with just as much assurance of
+success as attaches to any one of the many lines of industrial activity.
+Many persons who have sustained losses in mining ventures deserve no
+sympathy whatever, since they have not exercised even the simplest
+precautions. So long as men--or women--will take as fact the word of any
+untrained or inexperienced individual concerning investments, just so
+long will there be resultant financial losses, no matter what the line
+of business. Because there have been elements of chance observed in the
+records of mining, this business appeals to the speculative side of our
+human natures, with the result that untold numbers of individuals have
+had ample reason to regret their ventures. But, as will be found in the
+text matter, mining can be relied upon with precisely as much assurance
+as can any other business.
+
+Nothing of a technical or engineering sort has been attempted herein,
+the sole aim of the writer being to establish the reliability and the
+credit of the mining industry as a whole by pointing out the lines of
+conduct which should be followed by those who enter its precincts as
+business people. When investors of small or large means will put their
+money into mining projects with the same precautions that they would
+exercise in placing their cash in other enterprises, they will be
+rewarded with corresponding remuneration. In this firm conviction, then,
+this little work is dedicated to the intelligence of American laymen in
+mining matters.
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+WHAT IS A MINE?
+
+
+Before entering into a discussion of the economic features of the mining
+industry, it will be well to be sure that we understand, definitely,
+what is meant by mining. As one investigates the question, he is bound
+to run across varying shades of meaning for the words _Mine_ and
+_Mining_, and so we must pause long enough to define these words
+according to the best usages.
+
+A search through works on mining written at various periods reveals
+differing ideas that have prevailed among authors. Less than a hundred
+years ago, it was said that a mine "consists of subterranean workings
+from which valuable minerals are extracted." One early writer said that
+a mine is one only when the operations are conducted in the absence of
+daylight. As time has created new fields for the industry, we find that
+ideas concerning the meaning of the word mine have necessarily altered,
+until now (according to The Coal and Metal Miners' Pocketbook), we may
+think of a mine as "any excavation made for the extraction of minerals."
+Under this definition, we properly think of the rather unusual
+operations of marketing coal right from the surface of the earth, in
+eastern Kansas, as mining. There is, in this case, no covering of earth
+above the workmen; neither are the operations necessarily carried on at
+night to avoid the illumination of the sun.
+
+So, also, placers are now correctly spoken of as mines, although but a
+few years ago there was drawn a strict line, eliminating such worked
+deposits from the category of mines. One may still run across a few men
+who are sticklers upon the point that a placer is not a mine. Throughout
+the world, at the present time, there are many places where immense
+deposits of valuable minerals are being excavated from open pits by
+out-of-doors methods, and our common term for these places is mines.
+Thus, in Minnesota, in that wonderful Lake Superior country, that is
+famous as the world's greatest known producer of iron ore, tremendous
+tonnages are handled every year by the modern steam shovel, which works
+in natural light by day and by electric lamps at night. In Utah and
+Nevada we find similar operations conducted in the excavation of copper
+ores. In Australia, the famous Mount Morgan mine is using open air
+methods in the mining of precious metal ore.
+
+But what about quarries from which are taken building stone, salt,
+kaolin or clay? Are not such substances of the mineral kingdom? Here we
+run across a hitch in the definition quoted above; for while we hear of
+"salt mines" (not "salted mines"), our parlance has not, as yet,
+warranted this term except for such excavations of salt as are carried
+on in subterranean deposits; and it is quite out of place to speak of
+stone or clay mines.
+
+Evidently we must pass through another transition in our conceptions
+about mines, or we must permit quarries and pits to be included within
+our realm of mines. At the present time, the prevailing practice of the
+men best qualified in such matters is to designate as mines those
+workings from which only coal, metallic ores, or gems are extracted.
+Hence, we should not speak of a slate, sulphur, mica, clay or phosphate
+mine.
+
+And yet, with all the above restriction in our nomenclature, we have not
+reached one very important consideration, one which we have been
+approaching for a number of years and which, of late, has been met and
+forcibly applied by the best men in the profession of mining
+engineering.
+
+An excavation that will produce coal, metals or gems is not necessarily
+a mine. The simple fact that a man can get some gold-bearing dirt from a
+hole in the ground does not mean that he has a mine. The occasional
+finding of a diamond on the sidewalks of a great city does not give
+anybody the impression that city sidewalks are diamond mines. There are
+many places in which small amounts of combustible coal can be scratched
+from its natural depository, but no company appears to think highly
+enough of these seams to install machinery and to carry on operations.
+In the eastern part of Kentucky there are well-defined deposits of
+lead-bearing baryta, though, up to date, their development has not
+proved successful. In Brazil there are known to be very rich areas of
+placer ground, and still the deposits are not worked. A friend of the
+writer discovered some very good gold-bearing gravels in Alaska, but he
+was unable to mine.
+
+There is something besides the presence of valuable minerals and the
+ability to win them from their natural matrices that is essential to a
+mine. It is here, in our considerations of the mining industry, that we
+come into real economic notions for the first time. Yes, according to
+the latest ideas, we are wrong in stating that any worked or workable
+mineral deposit is a mine, _if it does not contain possibilities of
+profitable working_. This is now the prime thought of every up-to-date
+mining manager or engineer. It is this notion that will distinguish a
+mine from a prospect. The prospect may become a mine by proving itself
+profitably workable: if it simply carries values which cannot be
+realized to advantage, then it must continue as a mere prospect. There
+are cases of properties which possess rich deposits and which are
+loosely called mines. These properties may be observed to be erratic in
+their productiveness, owing to the very pockety nature of the deposits;
+and the owners, although they do, indeed, strike occasional handsome
+bonanzas, expend all the profits of such finds--or even greater
+amounts--in searching for other pockets. Is such work profitable? Is it
+mining?
+
+The trouble with the cited placers of South America is that climatic,
+hygienic and political conditions have been antagonistic to successful
+working: the ground is rich, but it cannot be handled to make money. In
+the case of the Alaska gravels, there was no available, though
+essential, water supply. The Kentucky galena cannot be economically
+separated from the containing heavy spar. Coal, which is sold at
+comparatively low figures per ton, must be handled at the mines in
+large quantities to pay, so that a thin seam or a scattered deposit is
+not suitable for mining.
+
+Under these restrictions of our new definitions, we run across many
+interesting points. For instance, one may ask the question about the old
+abandoned hole in the ground which is occasionally found by prospectors,
+"Is it a mine?" The answer can be simply another query as to whether the
+hole was abandoned because it contained no value, or because, containing
+value, it could not be profitably worked. As we think of mines nowadays,
+we can conceive several reasons why, before the advent of transportation
+lines and the invention of modern metallurgical processes and many forms
+of labor-saving machinery now so common in and about mines, many very
+rich deposits may have been necessarily forsaken by their discoverers.
+But such a property would, if now worked, probably prove highly
+profitable. We thus note that there exists some elasticity in the
+meaning of the word mine. An unprofitable project at one time may
+develop into a mine at a later period. Many gold mines have become
+worthless propositions merely through changes in the ore that have
+rendered further work unremunerative.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+WHAT IS MINING?
+
+
+Having considered the accepted definition of a mine, let us now extend
+our reasoning a little and inquire just what is meant by mining. At
+first thought, one would say that mining is, in a broad sense, the art
+or practice of excavating, at a profit, the ores of metals, the beds of
+coal, the gravels of placers and the deposits containing precious
+stones. Are we justified in letting this definition stand as it is? If
+we do not make any change, we must exclude all quarries, sand banks,
+clay pits, and the numerous sorts of works that are producing the
+non-metallic minerals of commerce. Very well, since we find good usage
+will warrant us, we will do so.
+
+[Illustration: HACKETT MINE AND MILL, JOPLIN, MISSOURI.]
+
+Still, there are other pertinent questions arising. Does the practice of
+mining cover the treatment of the excavated products? Here we run across
+a mooted point. The British and the American uses of the word mining
+seem to be a bit different in this regard. Upon the Rand, South Africa,
+a territory dominated by Englishmen, every mine is equipped with its own
+mill, and all notions of mining cover the inseparable idea of local ore
+treatment. Here, in our country, there are many, many mines which have
+absolutely no means of treating their own products and the managers give
+no thought whatever to metallurgical or milling lines. There are, on the
+other hand, many companies that have erected private plants at their
+mines for the extraction of metallic contents from the ores. Here it
+may, or it may not, happen that the operations of mining are considered
+as distinct from those of treatment. In some instances, as at the
+Tonopah Mining Company's plants, there is separate superintendence of
+the milling and the mining; but in the Joplin, Missouri, zinc region one
+superintendent looks after the running of a mine and its omnipresent
+mill.
+
+There may be drawn a sharp distinction between what is really mining and
+what is the subsequent treatment of the ores for the extraction of
+values. The latter field is denoted _Metallurgy_ when the operations are
+of such a nature as to actually recover or extract metallic products or
+metals. If the treatment process has for its object merely the rejection
+of some of the worthless materials in the original ore, thus causing a
+concentration of the valuable minerals, but without actually obtaining
+any metal, then the term _Ore Dressing_ is warranted. At some mines,
+there is maintained a practice of culling out, often by hand, a certain
+percentage of the obviously worthless ingredients of the ore before
+shipping the products to treatment plants. This is neither milling,
+metallurgy, nor ore dressing, but is more properly called _Sorting_. It
+is one of the operations connected with mining. Milling may be either
+ore dressing or metallurgy.
+
+In the operations of placering, there is a simultaneous _excavation_ of
+a deposit and an _extraction_ of the valuable contents. In this case,
+shall we call the process mining or metallurgy? If it is a gold placer,
+one may see the recovery of the metallic values. Here, the usage of the
+majority of practical mining men will uphold us in always speaking of
+the work as mining.
+
+In its original significance and use, metallurgy involved the use of
+fire for the concentration and recovery of metals. With recent advances
+in chemistry, there have been numerous discoveries of wet or fireless
+methods for arriving at equivalent results, so that it is now perfectly
+proper to allow the word metallurgy to cover such processes as
+cyanidation, chlorination, electrolysis, and the host of new inventions
+that are continually appearing.
+
+The writer has consulted a number of authorities on mining lines to
+ascertain just what sort of a position to give to the practice of ore
+dressing. Prof. Robert H. Richards, the head of the mining department in
+the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the inventor of machines
+which have made him famous among mining men, says, "Ore dressing is an
+essential part of mining. The whole object of ore dressing is to remove
+gangue before shipment and so save in freight and treatment charges."
+Mr. A. G. Charleton, the eminent English mining engineer and author of
+numerous books, in discussing this question, writes, "Personally, I am
+of the opinion that ore dressing should be included in mining." One has
+but to look through the catalogues of most of the American and foreign
+mining schools to find that little or no line is drawn between the
+courses in mining and metallurgy, and almost universally the dressing of
+a mine's product is taken up as an inseparable part of mining. In a very
+few exceptions, the courses of study are so planned as to draw an
+imaginary line between mining and metallurgy, and in these instances,
+ore dressing is placed with metallurgy only for convenience in the use
+and arrangement of college laboratories. But, since it is a common
+practice for mining companies to install plants right at the mines for
+the purpose of diminishing the bulk of ore shipped and to thus save in
+freight and custom treatment charges, mine superintendents and even the
+common miners have become accustomed to thinking of such plants as
+but units of the "mining" plants. At bituminous and anthracite mines
+whose products contain objectionable amounts of impurities, it is a
+common practice to subject the output to a _Washing_ to remove the
+deleterious substances before shipment to the market.
+
+[Illustration: COAL WASHING PLANT, PANA, ILLINOIS.]
+
+In view, then, of these reasons, it is proper to decide that mining is a
+term broad enough to cover the operations of extracting coal and
+metallic ores from the ground and of preparing them for shipment or
+metallurgical treatment.
+
+Coal is always coal, no matter in what thickness of deposit it is found.
+It may not be minable coal because in thin seams or because so
+intercalated with layers of slate or "bone," that the mine's mixture, or
+so-called "run of mine," is not salable. But with metallic ores, we run
+across an idea that is occupying the attention of many prominent
+geologists and mining men.
+
+What is ore? This is a question to which there have been many attempted
+answers. There has been an evolution of ideas, with a corresponding
+gradation of definition. To set a uniform standard of thought upon this
+point, officers of the United States Geological Survey, a few years ago,
+proposed the following definition. It must be conceded that this
+definition, while embodying many splendid features, is not altogether
+exempt from criticism; but in the absence of anything better, we shall
+not be very far in error if we use it:
+
+_Ore_ is a _natural_ aggregation of one or more _minerals_ from which
+useful _metal_ may be _profitably_ extracted.
+
+There is, then, no such thing as "pay ore" or "non-pay ore," expressions
+still quite common among miners and prospectors of the uneducated types.
+Prof. James F. Kemp, probably America's best-posted writer upon the
+subject, in an attempt to formulate one acceptable and unchangeable
+meaning for the word ore, says, "In its technical sense, an ore is a
+metalliferous mineral or an aggregate of such minerals, more or less
+mixed with gangue, and capable of being won and treated at a profit.
+The test of _yielding the metal or metals at a profit_ seems to me, in
+the last analysis, the only feasible one to employ." This definition
+eliminates one of the weak points in the first definition, namely, that
+an ore must be an association of minerals: there are some common ores
+(as for example, magnetite) which are not associations, but single
+minerals.
+
+We now reach certain fundamental concepts which must be accepted by the
+mining man who desires to be recognized as abreast of modern ideas.
+Following the publication of Kemp's definition of ore, there was much
+comment--as was anticipated--with the result that there has been noted a
+vacancy in scientific matters and it has been thought proper to permit
+another definition for purely scientific uses. This other definition of
+ore will cover the materials or aggregates of minerals from which gem
+stones and other valuable, but not metallic, substances are recovered.
+
+Let us recapitulate. An _ore_ must be an aggregate or association of
+natural minerals, or a single mineral, from which metal may be
+profitably recovered. _Mines_ are excavations in the earth from which
+ore, coal or gems are taken. _Mining_ is the art or practice of
+operating mines.
+
+Throughout the subject, we see the inseparable idea of _profit_. The
+work of carrying on operations in a railroad tunnel is not mining; the
+driving of adits through barren rocks to reach ore bodies is not mining;
+the sinking of shafts through worthless "wash" or rocks with a view of
+opening avenues for the removal of ore is not mining. Mining is carried
+on only when ore is being produced. The wildcat practice of erecting
+small, temporary plants and digging prospect holes can be condemned as
+not being real mining.
+
+[Illustration: UNIVERSAL MINE (BITUMINOUS), CLINTON, INDIANA.]
+
+There is usually little question about the validity of a coal mining
+proposition, since "the goods show for themselves." Comparatively few
+cases of fraudulent ventures in coal properties are of record. The
+product of a coal mine is ready for market just as soon as it is loaded
+into railroad cars, the mining company receiving its pay, commonly,
+upon its own recorded weights. There is no freight to pay, no waiting
+for assays or analyses, and no settlements with mills or smelteries.
+There are not the allurements for getting rich quickly in coal mining
+that are so beguiling to the class of investors generally approached by
+the promoters of mines(?). This must not be construed as stating that
+nobody has ever been deceived in a coal mine proposition, for, indeed,
+there have been many failures; however, they have been due, chiefly, to
+auto-deception as to area, thickness or quality of the coal measures.
+
+
+
+III
+
+THE ANTIQUITY OF MINING.
+
+
+Mining is believed to have been one of man's earliest occupations. In
+historical writings, many of which date back into antiquity, there are
+allusions, as well as direct statements, concerning the art and tasks of
+obtaining valuable metals from Mother Earth. We are told that the very
+ancient Egyptians made common use of metals and that they possessed
+knowledge of certain metallurgical and metal-working processes (as for
+example, the tempering of copper) which we, of today, cannot claim. Six
+thousand years ago Egypt became a world power through her mining of
+copper in the Sinai Peninsula. Iron implements found in the great Gizeh
+Pyramid are supposed to date back to 4,000 B.C. Copper tools have been
+found in the ruins of ancient Troy. In Assyria, a very good steel saw,
+44 inches long, was taken from the ruins of Nimrod. Iron was utilized by
+the Chinese some 2,000 years B.C. Near Delhi, India, there exists an
+iron pillar, 22 feet long and weighing six tons, dating back to 400 B.C.
+It is chiefly interesting in exhibiting an ancient knowledge of welding
+which is the envy of our modern iron workers. If we accept the Hebrew
+Scriptures, we must believe that mining was carried on in the time of
+Tubalcain, spoken of in Genesis. The Old Testament contains numerous
+verses referring to the mining of metals, the land of perfect abundance
+being paraphrased in Deuteronomy thus: "Where the stones are of iron and
+out of its hills are digged mines of brass." Coal was mined and used in
+Greece in 1330 B.C.
+
+It is quite probable that gold was the earliest metal to be worked.
+There are two good reasons for this assumption: First, gold was to be
+found in the native state or as nuggets, thus requiring no reduction
+process. Second, the ores of gold are usually less refractory than are
+the ores of other metals. This is especially true of the oxidized ores
+such as would naturally be discovered by primitive man. These facts,
+together with the further properties of gold, _viz._, that its color is
+attractive, that it resists corrosion or tarnish, and that it is easily
+worked into ornaments or coin merely by hammering, make it highly
+probable that humans early made use of this yellow material.
+
+We read in Job 28:1, that "gold is refined;" and modern investigations
+tend to prove that the Ophir of Biblical reference is the southern
+portion of Matabeleland or the Rhodesia of present fame among mining
+regions. It is possible and quite probable that the great quantities of
+gold used in the building and furnishing of King Solomon's Temple came
+from the vicinity of the present city of Johannesburg. The "golden
+fleece" of literature has been explained as a figure of speech for the
+skins of sheep which were laid in troughs to catch gold upon the
+principle of the riffle in a modern sluice-box.
+
+Copper was perhaps the second metal to be worked by man. As a rule, it,
+also, is easily smelted from its ores; and, as above mentioned, we have
+relics that give evidence of wonderful skill in working this metal in
+times of remote antiquity.
+
+However, other metals are believed to have been mined, upon commercial
+scales, before the Christian era. Silver and lead were handled in large
+quantities from the mines of Laurium, Greece, in the sixth century B.C.,
+and the same mines are being worked to this day, the principal values
+now being in the lead rather than, as formerly, in the white metal. The
+Phoenicians, about 500 B.C., invaded Spain for gold, copper and
+mercury, and Cornwall for tin and copper. The Almaden quicksilver mines
+of Spain have been operated, almost incessantly, since 415 B.C., and in
+the 16th century, A.D., the wealth of Europe's greatest family of
+financiers, the Fügers, was based upon the operation of this remarkable
+deposit.
+
+Del Mar, in his _History of the Precious Metals_, says, "Desire for the
+precious metals, rather than geographical researches or military
+conquest, is the principal motive which has led to the dominion of the
+earth by civilized races. Gold has invariably invited commerce,
+invasion has followed commerce, and permanent occupation has completed
+the process. It is the history of the past as well as of the present.
+Scipio went to Africa, Cćsar to Gaul, Columbus to America, Cortez to
+Mexico, Pizarro to Peru, Clive to the conquest and Hastings to plunder
+Bengal."
+
+Our own day has witnessed the subjugation of the Boer. Because of
+Mexico's mineral wealth, many optimistic Americans are beginning to
+prophesy the annexation of our sister republic. For gold, Englishmen
+populated Australia in 1850, about the same time (1849) that we
+witnessed the rush to California gold fields. Spaniards settled Central
+and South American countries merely to gain the precious metals. It is
+mining which has been responsible for the population of the arid,
+southwestern portion of our own domain.
+
+In this, as in every other age of the world's development, we shall find
+that the mining industry lies at the heart of all commerce. It is well
+for the student of mining economics to fully appreciate this fact, for
+it will whet his interest in this great world industry.
+
+"Truly, it has been a great seeking and finding. The story of mining may
+have been staled by commonplace, and the romance of it dulled, often
+enough, by greed; yet, in the main, it has linked the generations of
+earth as with a golden thread--and if not golden only, then there has
+been the red glint of copper or the white sheen of silver. Mining
+districts may come and go, but mining remains."--(Editorial,
+_Engineering and Mining Journal_).
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+MINING'S PLACE IN COMMERCE.
+
+
+It is said that upon two of the world's commercial industries, every
+other form of activity depends. These two fundamental industries are
+agriculture and mining. Statisticians prove the above statement and the
+further fact that these two dissimilar branches of civilization's
+business are so closely related as to be quite inter-dependent. Strides
+are made by one of these industries only when advance is noted in the
+other. While it may not be possible to explain just why this is so, it
+is worth our attention to consider some brief figures that show this
+condition of affairs.
+
+The agitation conducted during the past few years, leading to the
+establishment of a Bureau of Mines in the Department of the Interior,
+attracted the thoughts of many students of economics who had not
+previously or seriously considered the industry of mining. The delivery
+of brilliant addresses showed that mining had been unjustly retarded.
+While agriculture has for years been fostered by the government and with
+remarkably satisfactory results, the great sister industry has been
+required, until recently, to struggle along without any governmental
+recognition in the matter of support. Yet it has forged its way in
+unmistakable terms of progress and there was an insistent demand, among
+those men particularly interested in the welfare of mining, for the
+protection and the assistance which would and has now come through the
+establishment of a governmental department. Various states have long
+recognized the importance of the mining industry by the establishment of
+departments. The Canadian and Mexican governments maintain very
+creditable Departments of Mines. It was but a question of time until the
+shortsightedness of our politicians (not our statesmen) was revealed,
+and the mining industry has now come under the auspices of a federal
+department.
+
+Taking the world as a whole, it would be hard to conceive the sum total
+of annual mineral productions. The middle of the past century seems to
+have been a critical period in the mining industry of the earth. There
+was a great impetus given to mining by the greed for gold which caused
+the settlement of our western states and the Australian states, as
+already mentioned. But there gradually followed the opening up of mining
+in many other and hitherto unpopulated and uncivilized portions of the
+globe. The search for gold was successful.
+
+Prior to 1850, the production of gold had not kept pace with the
+increase in population. Soon, however, it began to take leaps, in almost
+geometrical ratios, until, by 1900, the annual production of gold
+throughout the world was some 2,200 per cent. of the production for 1800
+(as nearly as may be ascertained). The 1900 gold production was of a
+weight of about 400 tons, in round figures. During 1911, the world
+produced approximately $470,000,000 (about 779 tons) in new gold
+bullion. It is estimated that with a continuance of the remarkable
+progress, the next 20 years will duplicate _the amount of gold now
+known in the world_. _This means that the amount of gold which has been
+accumulating from mining during the world's ages will be doubled during
+a fraction of our lifetime._ This is significant of the world's
+progress, in gold mining, at least.
+
+[Illustration: KENNEDY MINE, JACKSON, CALIFORNIA.]
+
+It seems coincidental that the rush for gold in 1849-50 should have been
+almost simultaneous with the remarkable development of our other mineral
+resources. All of our great discoveries of coal, oil, silver, iron,
+lead, copper, and zinc can be said to have followed closely upon the
+discovery of gold in California. It is not supposed that the discovery
+of iron in northern Michigan in the early eighties had any connection
+with the "Pike's-Peak-or-Bust" expeditions, nor that the opening and
+development of the vast coal beds of Pennsylvania had any bearing on the
+discoveries of lead and zinc in the great Mississippi Valley. But, on
+the other hand, there can be traced a very intimate relation between the
+finding of gold, silver, copper, and lead in the Rocky Mountain states
+and the search for gold in California: the pioneers en route to the
+coast were the discoverers and settlers in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and
+Montana.
+
+Figures are not available for arriving at such striking or reliable
+conclusions in regard to the world's production of metals other than
+gold, but there is no logical reason to doubt that such increases have
+been just as pronounced as in the case of the yellow metal. In fact,
+there are good grounds for assuming that the figures for silver, lead,
+iron, and zinc would show up even more spectacularly; while with coal,
+we know that we are now in the greatest period of the world's
+production.
+
+The United States leads the world in the production of the base metals,
+such as copper, iron, manganese, lead, and zinc, taken collectively or
+separately. Our country stands second in the production of the precious
+metals, gold, platinum, and silver. We have the greatest variety of
+mineral products, as well as the greatest production of complex ores, or
+those carrying more than one valuable metal. We produce more copper
+than the rest of the world combined. Although we stand in second place
+when considering the production of gold, we still possess the Homestake
+mine in the Black Hills, famous as being the gold mine with the greatest
+tonnage in the world; and the Camp Bird mine, in the San Juan district
+of Colorado, famous the world over for its highest average value of gold
+ore. This great mine is now nearly exhausted and is about to close down
+after making a wonderful record.
+
+South Africa produces the greatest amount of, and the purest, natural
+gold in the world. Great Britain has an insignificant production of both
+gold and copper, and still it is noteworthy that the English-speaking
+nations control the world's production of both these metals. British and
+American citizens own seven-eighths of the world's gold mines. England
+stands second in the consumption of copper, which, of course, is mainly
+imported.
+
+Russia controls the world's output of platinum, with very little
+competition. In a similar manner, Canada has the control of nickel
+production. Mexico, although not commonly regarded as a gold mining
+country, is rapidly coming to the front and possesses the Esperanza
+mine, said to be one of the most profitable gold mines in the world.
+
+To more emphatically show the importance of the mining industry,
+especially in our own country, the following facts are taken from 1900
+census returns: Agriculture produces annually about $725 per capita;
+mining, $1,910; and manufacturing, which is dependent upon the others,
+$760. _The National Banker_ has said: "Statistics show that the combined
+dividends paid by the gold and silver mining companies of the United
+States are greater than the combined dividends paid by all of the
+banking institutions of the country; and the combined dividends paid by
+the copper mining companies of the United States exceed the combined
+dividends paid by all of our railroads."
+
+There is one thought that will always comfort any person who is engaged
+in furthering legitimate mining: Wealth acquired from a mine is not
+wrested from any being but Mother Earth, and it is not, therefore, in
+the class with the much discussed "tainted money" that is said to be
+wrung from unfortunate human beings.
+
+The following tables are presented to give the reader ideas concerning
+the productions of gold and silver during recent years. Among the
+interesting points that may be noted are the following:
+
+The gold production of the world took a sudden drop in 1900, but it
+immediately resumed its upward climb. During the decade from 1900 to
+1910, this production increased over 81 per cent.
+
+There is a remarkable similarity noticeable in the gold productions of
+the United States during the years 1910 and 1911.
+
+Without the notable increase in the gold output of the Transvaal in
+1911, the world's total gold production for that year would have shown a
+decrease.
+
+The silver production of the United States remained practically
+unchanged during 1911.
+
+
+        GOLD PRODUCTION OF THE WORLD FOR 20 YEARS
+
+
+  1892        $146,292,600           1902        $298,812,493
+  1893         158,437,551           1903         329,475,401
+  1894         182,509,283           1904         349,088,293
+  1895         198,995,741           1905         378,411,054
+  1896         211,242,081           1906         405,551,022
+  1897         237,833,984           1907         411,294,458
+  1898         287,327,833           1908         443,434,527
+  1899         311,505,947           1909         459,927,482
+  1900         258,829,703           1910         469,365,110
+  1901         260,877,429           1911         473,383,543
+
+
+        UNITED STATES SILVER PRODUCTION
+
+              (In Fine Ounces)
+
+
+                                        1910        1911
+
+    Alabama                              300         174
+    Alaska                           153,900     275,691
+    Arizona                        2,655,700   1,594,428
+    California                     1,791,600   2,727,336
+    Colorado                       8,523,000   7,530,940
+    Georgia                              300         225
+    Idaho                          7,027,000   7,507,802
+    Illinois                           2,100       4,648
+    Michigan                         262,200     507,234
+    Maryland                          ......          87
+    Missouri                          32,200      56,228
+    Montana                       12,282,900  11,116,778
+    Nevada                        12,366,000  10,651,571
+    N. Mexico                        779,000   1,142,335
+    N. Carolina                        8,300       2,227
+    Oklahoma                          ......     168,245
+    Oregon                            43,800      69,116
+    Pennsylvania                         700      13,262
+    S. Carolina                       ......          14
+    S. Dakota                        120,600     206,188
+    Tennessee                         69,800     126,683
+    Texas                            364,400     442,486
+    Utah                          10,445,900  12,679,633
+    Virginia                             200          45
+    Washington                       204,900     142,196
+    Wyoming                            1,300       1,009
+    Porto Rico                        ......          51
+    Philippines                        1,800       3,383
+    Miscellaneous                     ......     826,102
+                                  ----------  ----------
+    Total                         57,137,900  57,796,117
+
+
+                    UNITED STATES GOLD PRODUCTION
+                              (In Value)
+
+
+                                        1910         1911
+
+    Alabama                          $32,900      $18,335
+    Alaska                        16,271,800   16,002,976
+    Arizona                        3,413,200    2,954,790
+    California                    20,441,400   20,310,987
+    Colorado                      20,526,500   19,153,860
+    Georgia                           24,000       30,532
+    Idaho                          1,035,000    1,169,261
+    Illinois                          ------        5,788
+    Michigan                          ------           20
+    Maryland                          ------           20
+    Montana                        3,720,400    3,169,840
+    Nevada                        18,783,700   18,968,578
+    New Mexico                       477,200      639,897
+    N. Carolina                       64,500       76,693
+    Oklahoma                          ------       30,698
+    Oregon                           681,400      599,235
+    Pennsylvania                       5,900        7,814
+    S. Carolina                       37,800       13,437
+    S. Dakota                      5,380,200    7,430,367
+    Tennessee                          2,800       14,140
+    Texas                                400        1,178
+    Utah                           4,312,700    4,709,747
+    Virginia                             900        4,300
+    Washington                       806,000      504,537
+    Wyoming                            4,100       18,791
+    Porto Rico                         1,000        2,191
+    Philippines                      154,400      130,501
+    Miscellaneous                     ------      265,013
+                                 -----------  -----------
+    Total                        $96,269,100  $96,233,528
+
+
+                        GOLD PRODUCTION OF THE WORLD
+
+
+                                              1910          1911
+
+    Transvaal                         $155,730,260  $170,487,900
+    United States including Alaska      96,269,100    96,233,528
+    Australia                           65,634,340    61,072,409
+    Russia                              43,168,389    40,600,000
+    Mexico                              24,073,100    19,500,000
+    Rhodesia                            12,607,791    13,045,100
+    India                               12,089,400    10,505,506
+    Canada                              10,224,910    10,646,000
+    China                               10,102,300    10,000,000
+    Japan, East Indies, etc.            10,522,437    10,600,000
+    West Africa                          3,674,087     5,268,100
+    Madagascar                           2,149,721     1,900,000
+    France                               1,114,700     1,275,000
+    Central and South America           14,886,234    15,000,000
+    Other countries                      7,118,841     7,250,000
+                                      ------------  ------------
+    Total                             $469,365,610  $473,383,543
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+THE FINDING OF MINES.
+
+
+Mines are discovered in many ways. One hears much about prospecting, and
+since this is a practice which is rapidly changing from a mystical to a
+scientific basis, a few considerations will here be in order.
+
+Persons who have lived in mining communities are familiar with two types
+of prospector, the roving and the settled. Somehow, when we think of the
+former, there comes to mind a bearded, roughly clad man, usually
+accompanied by a "jack" and both packing the outfit consisting of a few
+tools, a pan, some blankets, a gun, and a supply of "grub." If we have
+in mind the other type of prospector, we imagine him as living an
+isolated life in a log cabin up in the hills, spending his daytime in
+putting in a few, short drill-holes and blasting down a ton or two of
+usually worthless rock in a "tunnel" or shallow shaft, confident that
+each succeeding shot will disclose a treasure.
+
+Both of these types represent the utmost in optimism. These men endure
+many hardships and privations, they can have little converse with other
+humans, often they can see no provisions for the next day; in fact, they
+receive few of the benefits of modern civilization--if we except the
+food-preserving features. Still, a typical, old-style prospector keeps
+on with absolute faith that fortune will smile tomorrow. We must reach
+the conclusion that these uneducated men are led on by subtle beliefs
+which, to a technically-trained man, seem like the rankest folly. They
+are diviners, dreamers. They are disappearing now and, a generation
+hence, there will be but memories of them. They are giving way to
+successors of a different type.
+
+The newer kind of prospector is well educated, and, perchance, he is
+rather youthful. His chances of success are many times those of the man
+he supplants. Why? Because he is taking advantage of the work that has
+been done by all former prospectors. He is guided by theories deduced
+from observations through ages, and he has the advice of the best
+contemporary men of experience in matters of geology as applied to
+mining. In other words, he is a scientific prospector.
+
+The prospector of today has a general understanding of mineralogy and
+geology; he must have knowledge of mining methods, so that he may know
+whether a deposit, once found, can be exploited at a profit; he must be
+ready to account for all discovered mineral bodies, and he must be
+capable of applying theories to actualities.
+
+There are so many metals and minerals sought for the markets of the
+world today that we see there are many fields of study and practice open
+to prospectors. It is not the purpose here to explain the details of
+scientific prospecting, for the study of this one subject would, in
+itself, fill a volume. The object of the above remarks is to draw to the
+attention of the economist the propriety (amounting almost to a
+necessity) of giving heed to the findings of the educated, trained
+searcher for mineral bodies, in preference to those of the illiterate
+man who has furnished themes for artists, narrators, and dramatists,
+because of his quaint characteristics.
+
+Some writers have classified mineral discoveries into Search, Chance and
+Adventitious.
+
+_Search_ discoveries, being the rewards of earnest seeking, it is not
+surprising that, under the past guide of notions and mysticism, the
+percentage of such discoveries has been small. Under the new order of
+things, with science as a guide, the percentage is growing and, in the
+future, this kind of discovery will undoubtedly strongly outnumber the
+others.
+
+_Chance_ discoveries are those that are made purely without
+premeditation. They have been a dominant factor in the mineral
+development of the past. The discovery of _gold_ in California came
+about through the noticing of shiny, yellow flakes of metal in a ditch
+leading to a saw-mill. The great _iron_ mines of the Mesabi Range were
+found by the ore clinging to the roots of an overturned tree. The
+Wallaroo _copper_ mine, the greatest in Australia, was discovered by the
+green minerals brought to the surface in the excavations of a wombat.
+The famous Sudbury _nickel-silver_ ore bodies were disclosed when making
+a railroad cut on the Canadian Pacific Railroad. The Reddington
+_quicksilver_ mine, in California, was similarly opened in a cut for a
+wagon road. The mining of _silver_ at Catorce, Mexico, followed the
+discovery of shining silver nuggets in the camp-fire of a native, who
+had camped right upon a rich outcrop. The Kimberly _diamond_ mines are
+said to have been disclosed by the burrowings of an ichneumon, which
+fetched a brilliant stone to the sunlight.
+
+_Adventitious_ finds are such as occasionally occur when, while really
+searching for, or actually mining, one metal, discovery is made of a
+different metal, or possibly the same metal is found in an entirely
+different kind of ore. The Comstock lode of Nevada was originally a
+_search_ gold discovery, the gold having been sought and found by two
+prospectors with ordinary gold pans. In their working to recover gold,
+a black mineral and a yellow sand were discarded from the pans and
+rockers. Curiosity of one man resulted in the identification of these
+two minerals as ores of silver which henceforth were held as valuable as
+the native gold. The Anaconda mine, at Butte, Montana, was located, and
+for some time worked as a silver proposition; but the values gradually
+changed with depth from silver to copper, until now silver is only a
+valuable by-product. The rich lead-silver ores of Leadville were
+discovered as _adventitious_ to the operation of the rich gold placers
+in California Gulch. A heavy, troublesome rock which accumulated in the
+sluices, much to the disgust of the miners, turned out to be cerussite,
+a fine ore of lead. This same district now produces in commercial
+amounts gold, silver, lead, iron, zinc, copper, and manganese. The
+Treadwell mine on Douglas Island, Alaska, was first worked as a placer
+and the values were found to extend downward into the underlying rock in
+a place which proved to be an immense deposit of eruptive, gold-bearing
+ore.
+
+As the old-fashioned, venturesome kind of prospecting has but recently
+been crowded off the scene by the better, scientific kind, let us not
+overlook the great discoveries that were made in the past before we had
+applied "organized common sense" to such a field of activity. Those
+original prospectors were searchers, hunters. They had no guides, but
+they did accomplish a great deal, and their discoveries were rewards for
+diligence and hard labor which were, to a great extent, often
+misdirected.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+MINING CLAIMS.
+
+
+The process of acquiring title to mining property may be viewed from a
+number of points. Such property is real estate and, as such, it may be
+bought and sold or otherwise transferred exactly the same as farms or
+city lots.
+
+The United States has constructed an elaborate system for the disposal
+of its public lands to individuals, under various classifications, such
+as homestead, desert land, timber and stone, timber culture, coal,
+placer, and lode claims. Different rules apply to the filing upon,
+improvement and patenting (acquiring deed from the Government) of these
+various kinds of claims. The character of the lands in the public domain
+is decided by the surveyors who execute contracts from the General Land
+Office for subdividing or staking the country off into townships and
+sections, according to our American system. In the return of each
+surveyor's notes, he recommends the sale of the land according to his
+judgment as to its highest value. There has naturally been a good deal
+of erroneous conception upon these points, with the result that, often,
+land has been later shown to be entirely different in its character from
+the classification given to it by the contracting surveyor; for the
+qualifications of such a person are not always of a high grade, when it
+comes to geological questions. And yet, on the whole, the scheme has
+worked out well and much fraud against the Government has been prevented
+by the rigid practice.
+
+The Government prices for some of the various classes of land have been
+as follows: agricultural, $1.25 per acre; coal, $10 per acre when the
+land was not closer to a railroad than 15 miles, and $20 per acre when
+it lay within this limit; placer, $2.50 per acre; lode, $5 per acre.
+These have been the prices demanded for the land only; the payment of
+these amounts, in many cases, has constituted a small fraction of the
+expense of securing the original deeds from the Federal Government.
+
+Coal lands may be located very much the same as a homestead, with the
+exception that residence upon the ground is not required, nor are
+improvements essential. In cases of dispute as to priority of location,
+the land office will recognize those claimants who have expended the
+greater amounts in improvements. One citizen may locate but one claim of
+160 acres.
+
+Since April 10, 1909, the Government has been disposing of its public
+coal lands under a classification that takes note of many details. The
+kind, grade, thickness, and purity of coal; the number of workable
+seams; the depth; the features of local supply; transportation
+facilities; and the average prices at which similar private tracts are
+held, are among the items recognized in the classification. Probably no
+two tracts will be sold at the same rate. In general, the new prices are
+higher than the flat prices that formerly prevailed and some pieces of
+land are now estimated as high as $175 per acre. In every case of
+application to purchase coal land, hereafter, the area in question will
+undergo inspection by Government experts and a price will then be
+assessed. This law is being severely opposed as being unreasonably
+severe, and its amendment may be looked for.
+
+Placer lands were formerly permitted to be taken up in any shape, the
+boundary stakes being placed upon the ground in such a manner as to
+include only the desirable area, which is usually of an alluvial nature
+along some valley or gulch. This practice has been forbidden, however,
+and a locator is now obliged to take up his land in quadrilateral tracts
+conforming to the subdivisions of the so-called Public Survey. By this
+rule, it is permissible to file upon land which is laid off into lots of
+not less than 1/16 of a quarter section--or ten acres--and a claim may
+be composed of such lots as lie contiguously and which may thus be
+considered as one complete workable area. The claims are often of zigzag
+or L shapes, but the locator is enabled, at the extra expense of
+subdivision surveying, to avoid filing upon, and paying for, much ground
+that he feels is not desirable in a placer claim. The Government does
+not survey public domain into smaller tracts than quarter sections of
+160 acres each, so that in the taking up of placers it often involves a
+great deal of expense to carry the subdivisions upon the ground into
+sufficient detail to ascertain the location of boundary corners.
+
+One person is entitled to as many placer claims as he desires. Each
+claim of a single individual may contain not to exceed 20 acres and, as
+said, it must be of one continuous area. Associations of citizens to the
+number of eight may unite in the location of 160 acres, which will then
+be held in equal and common interest by the several locators. The
+restraint placed upon greed in the matter of locations, either placer or
+lode, lies in certain expenses entailed in work or improvements upon the
+land before patent may be issued and the legal requirement of the
+performance of labor upon each claim amounting to $100 per annum. Also,
+it is required that _bona fide_ values be disclosed upon the ground. For
+each 20 acres located under the placer laws of the United States, not
+less than $500 worth of improvements must be made before the issuance
+of a patent.
+
+The legal (not the technical) definition of lode land covers all grounds
+containing deposits of ore in its natural and original place of deposit.
+Under the laws, therefore, a citizen may file upon a tract of land to
+include a vein, lode, mass, chimney or any other form of ore body. The
+laws were framed at a time when miners were familiar only with the
+steep, tabular forms, synonymously termed veins or lodes in their
+nomenclature, and there were introduced features which time and progress
+in geological investigations have proved to be entirely unsuited to the
+needs of locators in many districts.
+
+Our statutes provide that a lode claim may not exceed an area of 20,662
+acres, this being the area of a parallelogram 1,500 feet long by 600
+feet wide. The intention is to permit a discoverer to lay off a "lode
+line" along the outcrop of his vein for a distance of 1,500 feet and, at
+each end, to measure off, at right angles, a distance of 300 feet each
+way, merely as assurance that he covers the entire thickness of his
+lode. Since the surface contours of rugged country will crook the
+outcrop of a dipping plane (such as we may imagine a vein to be) the
+laws were constructed to permit a claim being laid off with angles or
+bends in the boundaries so that the outcrop might be kept closely along
+the middle of the claim.
+
+The above dimensions and area are the maximum permissible under the
+Federal laws. The Government does not say that claims may not be less in
+extent, anywhere, nor does it prevent states, counties or even mining
+districts from making further limitations. In most of the western mining
+states and territories that have applied the mining law, the full
+maximum is allowed; but in Colorado no claim is legal if it exceeds a
+width of 300 feet, while in four counties of the same state claims have
+been restricted in width to 150 feet. By legislative enactment, since
+September 1, 1911, claims in all counties of Colorado are permitted to
+be taken up 300 feet in width. The citizens or miners of any new
+district, in any state or territory, may elect to limit claims to any
+size less than the maximum granted by the statutes and such a decision
+will be recognized by courts as binding upon all comers. This is an
+example of the rights of custom in establishing common law. In all
+shapes and widths of lode claims, there is now the rigid restriction
+that the two end-lines must be laid off exactly parallel.
+
+[Illustration: A GILPIN COUNTY, COLORADO, SCENE, Showing the Prize,
+Gunnell, Concrete, Gold Collar, and Eureka Mines.]
+
+The laws of our country contemplate the right of any locator of a vein
+to follow such vein down upon its dip, even if it extends beyond
+vertical planes passed through the side boundaries. The vertical planes
+through the end-lines, however, may not lawfully be penetrated in the
+extraction of ore bodies. The application of this doctrine of
+"extra-lateral rights" has led to innumerable controversies that have
+crippled many worthy mining enterprises. The inevitable habit of
+different veins to intersect, branch, unite, and in many other ways to
+cause complications, has served no purpose but to delay operations,
+cause legal warfare and embitter neighbors. So unjust have been courts'
+decisions in interpreting the lax laws that various mining districts
+have taken unto themselves the prerogative of deciding for themselves
+what is justice to all concerned; and we therefore find that many
+"camps" have unwritten laws under which claimants are restrained in
+their underground operations, to the ground contained between vertical
+planes _through all boundaries_, whether end or side. This is obviously
+the only fair plan, and it is hoped that, whenever the legislators at
+Washington get time to give to the matter the attention it deserves, our
+nation will be favored with a revision of this and a number of other
+objectionable mining laws which have retarded the industry. Ours is the
+only country having laws permitting extra-lateral rights and, upon this
+score, we are criticized by all foreigners.
+
+The Canadian government appears to leave the framing of mining laws to
+the several provincial governments. Ontario and Quebec have very good
+and simple laws relative to mining claims. In some respects the laws of
+the two provinces are similar. For example, in each province a claim
+must be laid out as a subdivision of the usual public survey and is
+normally 40 acres in extent. Again, no prospecting or locating may be
+done except by persons holding so-called miners' licenses or miners'
+certificates, which cost $5 to $10 per year. No extra-lateral rights are
+recognized.
+
+In Ontario, a patent may be applied for any time within 3-1/2 years of
+the date of certificate of record, and the land is purchased outright by
+the payment of $3 per acre. The patent thus obtained conveys no rights
+to timber or water on the property. In Quebec, patents are never issued
+and mining claims are held by a sort of lease, as it were. A license to
+hold a mining claim costs a flat fee of $10, plus an extra fee of one
+dollar per acre. At times, arrangements are made for holding and working
+mining property upon a 3 per cent royalty basis.
+
+The Mexican laws permit the location of any number of claims by
+individuals. A locator is required to employ an expert (_perito_) to
+make a careful survey of his claims (_pertinencias_), which are taken up
+in rectangular form. Measurements are according to the metric system,
+and the unit of area is the _hectara_, which is the area of a square
+with 100-meter (328-feet) sides, and is equivalent to 2.471 acres. The
+government's sale price for mineral ground is 5 _pesos_ (about $2.50)
+per hectare, or approximately one dollar, United States money, per acre.
+The unit size of a claim is a hectare, and it thus comes about that the
+words _pertinencia_ and _hectara_ are used somewhat synonymously.
+
+Under United States laws, the owner of agricultural land, if he has not
+committed perjury in perfecting his title, will hold all minerals which
+may be disclosed subsequently to the granting of his deed. The proof of
+false representations will rescind any such patent and the ground will
+revert to the Government and be again open to location.
+
+In the surveying and laying off of mineral claims for patent purposes,
+the United States laws require the claimant to put the work into the
+hands of a mineral surveyor. Such a surveyor may usually be engaged in
+any mining district and he will hold a commission from the Department
+of the Interior authorizing him to do this sort of work. He will have
+passed certain examinations as to his capabilities and he will have
+filed bonds in the sum of $5,000 for the faithful performance of his
+duties to both the Government and his client. He receives no
+compensation from the Government, and each claimant may make such terms
+with him as are equitable. He must hold no interest, directly or
+otherwise, in the property he surveys, nor is he permitted to file upon
+any mineral land. If he undertakes a case for a client his duties
+require him to survey the boundaries of every other mineral claim which
+may be contiguous to, or conflicting with, the one in question, and his
+maps must accurately show all such claims. His notes will contain
+sufficient data to accurately convey the exact location, the chief
+topographical features, the conflicts with all other locations, the
+position, and description of all mining improvements, and many other
+details which will be required in the final purchase of the land from
+the Government. The surveyor's fee will vary from $50 to possibly $200
+for a single claim, much depending upon the nature of the survey,
+whether simple or difficult, and upon local financial conditions and
+competition.
+
+After the filing of the mineral surveyor's notes and plats with the
+Surveyor-General, critical examination of the documents is made, and if
+they are found to conform with all requirements, the case is "approved"
+and it may then pass to the local land office of the district. Next
+begins a publication period of sixty days, during which opportunity is
+offered the public to enter objections to the issuance of a patent,
+either for reasons of conflict or because of fraud. If no such adverse
+proceedings are instituted, the patent will follow, in due time.
+
+The ultimate expense of securing a patent to a claim of, say, the
+maximum area will not be less than $225, and it may run as high as $300
+if in a region difficult to survey or if there are a good many
+conflicting surveys.
+
+A mineral surveyor is prohibited from acting as attorney for the
+claimant in presenting his claims before the Land Office, so an
+attorney's fee must be added to the above rough estimates. As a matter
+of fact, although the surveyor does not nominally appear as the
+attorney, in many a case it is he who makes out all of the documents to
+be then signed by an attorney in fact. The laws are faulty in this
+respect. The lawyer recognizes this fact and he asks the surveyor to
+make out the many legal forms; for who is so fully cognizant of the
+property and the desires of the claimant as the surveyor who has become
+intimately acquainted with the premises, its workings, its desirable
+features and everything concerned with the adjustment of conflicts? It
+is to be expected that he could best protect the claimant's interests,
+and it is wrong to retire him at this very critical time prescribed by a
+foolish law. The fee of an additional man in the case is an unjust
+burden upon the client. Land Office officials have recognized this fact.
+They know that the best documents reaching their offices are those
+prepared by mineral surveyors.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+PLACERING.
+
+
+Different writers hold the following slightly different definitions of a
+placer: One says, "a placer is a surface _accumulation_ of minerals in
+the wash of streams and seas," while another writes that a placer is "a
+_place_ where surface depositions _are washed_ for valuable minerals,
+such as gold, tin, tungsten, gems, etc." One definition conveys no
+notion of the operations of mining, but is merely geological, while the
+other involves the thought of the recovery of values.
+
+No matter how or where found, placers were all originally of surface
+deposition. They are now found in gulches, cańons, valleys, ocean and
+lake beaches, glacial drifts, and sometimes beneath eruptive flows. Such
+placers as occupy the courses of streams are spoken of as gulch, valley,
+bar, and bench placers. The meanings of the first three names are
+obvious. By a bench placer is understood a deposit that was originally
+the bed of a stream, but which, in the course of time, has been cut
+down, or through, in such a manner as to leave a shelf or bench of the
+"wash" hanging up some distance above the present base of the gulch or
+valley.
+
+When such deposits that have been covered by lava flows are disclosed
+and worked, they go by the name of "buried placers." They are, by no
+means, uncommon, and typical "drift mines" of this sort are operated in
+California and New Zealand. They present the novelty of working alluvial
+deposits under cover of solid rocks, and they thus conform to one of the
+early definitions of a mine, as previously given. Since the workings of
+such subterranean placers are generally confined to an approximately
+horizontal zone, the mine passages, to a certain degree, resemble those
+of a coal mine.
+
+Placer deposits, being of a secondary nature, the materials are not in
+the place nor form of the original components. The gravels and sands,
+together with the valuable contents, probably originally existed in
+some solid forms such as rocks or massive minerals. The primary
+structures, in the course of ages and by atmospheric agencies, have been
+disintegrated and carried by gravity and flowing water to lower levels.
+The finer the decomposed material, the further it has been transported.
+
+If the original rocks carried gold, the flakes of the metal, being of
+high specific gravity, would tend to settle to the bottom of the
+channels and to be carried shorter distances than would the lighter,
+non-metallic particles. The finer the gold, the more evenly will it be
+distributed in the bed of gravel. Likewise, placers near the heads of
+gulches, as a rule, carry coarser gold than those farther down stream.
+
+The valuable materials found in placers must, of necessity, be those
+that possess the property of resisting corrosion and disintegration. The
+minerals and metals are, therefore, of a very permanent character.
+
+Every find of "values" in a placer is unquestioned evidence that
+somewhere, above the present deposit, there originally existed primary
+depositions containing the valuable metals or minerals. The trail can
+frequently be traced back to them. These so-called "mother lodes" are
+not necessarily rich. In the case of gold, for instance, these original
+deposits of ore may not carry the metal in coarse enough particles to be
+visible and yet the placers may contain nuggets. There are numerous
+theories proposed to account for this observed phenomenon, but we will
+not discuss them here. The fact remains that nuggets have been actually
+produced artificially in flowing water under conditions similar to
+Nature's.
+
+The methods of prospecting and working placer ground have undergone many
+improvements, but there are still many men practicing the primitive ways
+of a generation ago. The use of devices of simple construction and for
+operation by muscular effort is still familiar in many regions; and
+there are good miners who cling to such practice in the belief that it
+is the cheapest and truest way in which to ascertain the values of wash
+deposits. Also, there are many placers of limited areas and irregular
+shapes that cannot be well handled in any other manner.
+
+With a "pan," a man can wash, in ten hours, not over one cubic yard of
+dirt; and to accomplish this amount of washing the ground must be very
+loose and favorable. An ordinary ten-hour day's work is about 100 pans.
+This is equivalent to about one-half of a cubic yard, which is the unit
+of volume in all placering operations. One may thus readily arrive at
+the cost of carrying on operations in this way. A cubic yard of ordinary
+placer dirt is the equivalent of less than two tons. A _batea_ is the
+Mexican equivalent for the American iron gold pan. It is a sort of
+broad, conical, wooden bowl and its capacity is not equal to the pan.
+
+A "rocker" or "cradle" is a trough on rockers somewhat like the
+old-fashioned child's cradle. In using it, a stream of water is caused
+to flow into the device which has been nearly filled with gravel and the
+miner gives it a rocking motion that causes the contents to classify or
+stratify according to the laws of specific gravity. The valuable
+particles, being the heaviest, will settle to the bottom, whence they
+may be subsequently removed. A "long tom" is an inclined, narrow box set
+stationary with a constant stream of water entering at the upper end.
+Gravel is also shoveled into the device at the same point. The process
+is more continuous than the preceding ones, the values accumulating at
+the bottom of the lower end, while the upper layers of gravel are
+carefully removed by skimming with shovels. The work will keep two men
+busy and the capacity is correspondingly greater. With a long tom, two
+men will ordinarily handle about five or six cubic yards in ten hours.
+
+Whenever deposits of a broad area, with considerable and uniform depth,
+are thought to be valuable, it has become a practice to prove their
+value by "prospect drilling." This is a mechanical method and one form
+of apparatus employed is of the churn-drill type common throughout oil
+and coal regions. With these portable machines, holes are put down to
+bed-rock at intervals across the ground. As they are sunk, the holes are
+cased with iron pipes, the drillings are carefully saved and washed, and
+the values are estimated for each foot of descent. From the summation
+and averages obtained from all the holes, a very fair knowledge of the
+ground's worth can be obtained.
+
+Intensive placering is now the order of things and the marvelous
+increase in the use of dredges attests the success which these "gold
+ships" have attained. It is very interesting to watch the operations of
+these huge boats loaded with ponderous machines, especially when they
+are installed in inland regions or up in high mountain gulches. Yet
+numbers of them are thus in steady use. Wherever suitable beds with a
+tolerably uniform size of boulders and gravel are found, dams are built
+to retain the flows of streams until ponds are created of sufficient
+size to contain and float the barges.
+
+[Illustration: DREDGES OF YUBA CONSOLIDATED GOLDFIELDS, HAMMONTON,
+CALIFORNIA.]
+
+Continual improvements are being made in the construction of these
+mammoth machines with a view to economy in operations that will
+result from greater capacities. All costs of placering are reckoned per
+cubic yard washed. Costs have been rapidly dropping during the past
+decade until now some companies, with extensive operations, are handling
+dirt at not to exceed three cents per cubic yard for excavating,
+washing, wasting the refuse, maintenance, repairs, labor, taxes,
+interest on investment, and the depreciation of equipment. Such figures
+will hold good only under very favorable natural conditions of ground
+and climate such as prevail in California; they have not been attained
+in the frigid regions of Alaska nor in the torrid South American
+interior. In view of the wonderful improvements brought forth by
+mechanical engineers, it is improper to deny that the future will bring
+still further reductions in placer costs. On the contrary, the signs are
+good for material reductions.
+
+Dredges are very costly in their installation. They are usually designed
+to handle so many thousands of cubic yards per day. It has been stated,
+as a fair but rough rule, that "bucket" dredges will average, in
+initial cost, one dollar for every cubic yard the boats will handle per
+month. Thus, if a dredge of this type is built to treat fifty or seventy
+thousand cubic yards in a month, working steadily, the costs will be
+respectively $50,000 or $70,000. Other types of dredges, known as the
+"dipper" and the "suction," will cost less than the bucket type, but
+have not gained general usage.
+
+"Hydraulicking" is extensively practiced. This term signifies the
+working of placer deposits by water which is conducted through flumes
+and pipe-lines and, by means of nozzles called "giants" or "monitors,"
+is directed, in huge jets, against the banks of gravel. These banks or
+walls are thus torn down and, by the same water, the loosened,
+disintegrated materials are caused to flow into and through long,
+wooden, box-like troughs known as "sluices." The floors of these sluices
+are paved with ribs, cleats or other obstructions termed "riffles" whose
+function it is to retard and collect the heavy particles which may,
+later, during the process of cleaning up, be removed as the valuable
+product. The word "sluicing" is frequently used quite synonymously with
+hydraulicking.
+
+Costs of this latter sort of placering are considerably higher than
+those of dredging; but there are many deposits not adapted to dredging
+operations that may be nicely worked by sluicing, so that there will
+always be a field for this scheme. Average costs are difficult to obtain
+since it happens that most of the companies now operating hydraulically
+are secretive in their accounts. More labor is entailed, more time is
+required, greater delay is occasioned in cleaning up, and the amount of
+water used is much greater. Where water is abundant, this last item need
+not be considered. It is well to remember that even a very large dredge,
+while requiring a continual and large flow of water through its devices,
+can still operate with just the water in which it floats, this water
+being pumped and used repeatedly; whereas, in the case of hydraulic
+mining, the water may be used but once and, consequently, there must be
+a large supply and at a good head or pressure.
+
+But, in spite of these disparaging points, we find instances in which,
+under peculiarly favorable conditions, hydraulicking has been carried on
+at very low figures. E. B. Wilson says: "The yield of the gravel at
+North Bloomfield was 7.75 cents per cubic yard; the cost of mining, 4.1
+cents per cubic yard. The yield per cubic yard of gravel at La Grange
+was 10.19 cents, the cost of mining, 6 cents. The costs of mining at
+these two mines would analyze about as follows: Labor, 60 per cent;
+supplies, 17 per cent; water, 13 per cent; office, 10 per cent. Ground
+carrying but 3.99 cents per cubic yard has been worked at a profit at
+the first mine. With such a small margin to work on, it is evident that
+skill and executive ability must be provided from the pipemen up." It is
+claimed that an Idaho mine was worked profitably with less than two
+cents value in the dirt, but this is to be regarded with some doubt.
+
+[Illustration: THE SNOWSTORM PLACER, FAIRPLAY, COLORADO. A Typical
+Hydraulic Mine.]
+
+There are large deposits in the arid portions of the globe where water
+for working is not obtainable. To meet such conditions, numerous
+inventions continue to be placed upon the market. These devices are all
+planned in such a way as to use very little or no water. If water is
+required at all, the machines are expected to use it repeatedly. The
+machines are built to effect the segregation of the precious contents
+gravitationally, electrostatically, pneumatically, and by amalgamation
+with mercury. It is too early to say how successful such devices will
+prove in commercial operations. Because some of them have not "made
+good" does not mean that genius will not yet cope with the situation;
+and we look into the future to see large operations efficiently and
+economically conducted by dry placer machinery. There are now no
+authentic figures obtainable upon this question of dry placering costs.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+OPEN MINING.
+
+
+Some mention has been already made of open mining. The greatest
+development of this sort of mining has come about since the application
+of the modern steam shovel to the excavation of ore. This practice was
+an American innovation and it is being adopted throughout the world
+wherever natural conditions will warrant.
+
+Within the past few years, immense bodies of iron ore have been
+discovered in northern Minnesota and the adoption of these immense,
+mechanically operated shovels has worked such economies in the mining of
+this kind of ore that entirely new cost figures have been established
+and tonnages are being produced which, a few years ago, would have
+seemed unbelievable. There are about a dozen mines of this "open pit"
+type that have each produced over a million tons of ore per year in a
+season that must cease with the close of navigation on the Great Lakes.
+One mine has shipped over three million tons a season.
+
+At the Utah Copper Company's mine in Bingham Cańon, Utah, a great
+deposit of low grade, copper-bearing eruptive rock is being handled upon
+a steep mountain-side by this same scheme. This ore averages a little
+less than two per cent. in copper, but so economical is the handling of
+it in such vast amounts that a neat profit is made above all mining,
+transportation and milling charges. When the red metal sells at thirteen
+cents per pound, the gross value of this ore is about $5.20 per ton.
+This mine has maintained an output of ten thousand tons or more per day
+over long periods.
+
+A famous gold mine in Queensland, Australia--the Mount Morgan--is also
+being worked by steam shovel methods. The deposit is here in the form of
+a small mountain and the operations are gradually razing this landmark
+to the level of the surrounding plains.
+
+The mining of low-grade _gold_ ores by open-pit methods has taken hold
+in America, and an example of the practice may be found at the Wasp No.
+2 mine in the Black Hills. According to published accounts of the
+operations of this company, all of the costs of mining and treating the
+ore amount to only $1.02 per ton. The ore body is a bed of quartzite
+lying nearly flat, and averaging in the neighborhood of only $2.50 per
+ton in gold, the only mineral of value. The recovery of this metal is at
+the rate of between 75 and 80 per cent. efficiency, or about $2 from
+each ton. The net profit is therefore close to one dollar per ton. This
+very modern scheme of mining has been made possible through the recent
+advances made in the cyanidation of ore, and it is going to pave the way
+for many more such mining plants.
+
+[Illustration: STEAM SHOVELS AND CHURN DRILLS, COPPER FLAT, ELY,
+NEVADA.]
+
+The Nevada Consolidated Copper Company has conducted vast mining
+operations "in the open" at Ely, Nevada, by the use of 95-ton shovels
+having a capacity of two and one-half cubic yards per dip. One shovel
+has handled as high as 2,800 cubic yards (the equivalent of about 5,500
+tons) in nine hours; but this must be recognized as an exceptional
+run, and cannot be taken as an average. The ore has a thickness of about
+200 feet and covers many acres. As in the majority of such properties,
+there is here a large amount of "overburden" to be removed and disposed
+of before the ore can be excavated. This process of uncovering the ore
+body by the removal of the overburden is called "stripping." The cost
+per ton of ore mined is said to average 55 cents.
+
+In an open mine there must be maintained a system of continually
+changing tracks placed upon grades (sometimes rather steep) and with
+sharp curves. With multiple switches, numbers of small locomotives are
+kept busy pulling and pushing up and down the tracks with their strings
+of loaded cars and replacing the "loads" with "empties." When such
+operations are upon a mountain-side, a very beautiful panoramic view may
+be had from the opposite side of the gulch.
+
+Generally, the ore material is disintegrated to some extent. In some
+cases, it will actually crumble down before the advance of a steam
+shovel. In other mines, it is necessary to drill large holes which are
+loaded and blasted.
+
+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.
+
+In consequence of the success attained by the pioneers in this kind of
+mining, there has been created a demand for properties possessing large
+deposits of low grade ore that is workable on this intensive scale.
+Copper properties have been holding a prominent place recently and
+stockbrokers carry regular lists of "Porphyries," this nickname having
+been coined to cover the companies operating in the low grade porphyry
+ores of the Western United States. Not all of these porphyry companies
+will use surface mining methods. Some companies in the Globe District of
+Arizona have started extensive underground schemes for mining large
+tonnages very cheaply by "caving" methods.
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+CONSIDERATIONS PRECEDING THE OPENING OF MINES.
+
+
+The word "exploitation" is used by many mining men and engineers to
+signify a plan of so opening up ore deposits as to render the contents
+removable. The same persons use the word "mining" to mean the operations
+involved in the actual extraction of the ore exploited. It is sometimes
+difficult to draw any line between the meanings of these two words for,
+as handled by different men, with varying shades of intention, they are
+sometimes synonymous. Thus, if exploiting an underground mine, which
+carries ore right from the surface, means developing the mine in such a
+way as to provide for a large, steady production, it is difficult to see
+why the ore taken out in this process cannot be said to be "mined."
+
+By "dead work" is usually meant that work of opening up a mine which
+will put or keep it in a producing condition but which does not supply
+any remuneration in the shape of ore (or coal). Again, as used by some
+men, there is little distinction between this work and exploitation.
+There may, however, be lines reasonably drawn between these three terms,
+and therefore the following definitions are proposed:
+
+_Dead work_ is such work as is necessary to develop an ore body, but it
+does not produce any ore. It may be prosecuted for drainage or
+ventilation purposes or for creating passage-ways for men and products.
+
+_Exploitation_ is also work performed in opening up or developing a
+property, but it does not contemplate the value of the extracted
+materials which may, or may not, be of any commercial importance.
+Indeed, much ore might be extracted during work which was carried on
+merely to define extents or boundaries of ore bodies. In this last
+supposition, the original sense of exploration is brought out and this
+should serve to fix the definition clearly in mind.
+
+_Mining_ may be restricted to mean the methods and work involved in the
+profitable production of the mine's ore (or coal). The term would not be
+used to cover operations of shaft-sinking, tunneling, and the like,
+unless such work be in the valuable materials. 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. Exploitation may,
+or may not, produce ore. Mining must produce ore.
+
+Throughout all of the above and the following discussion of this
+chapter, the reader should bear in mind the point that the word "coal"
+may be substituted for the word "ore" without altering the substance of
+the definitions or the conclusions.
+
+Before a mine is opened up, the economist-manager will consider many
+items. In the first place, care must be exercised in the _examination of
+the title_ to the property. A mineral property may have passed through
+the most complicated kind of transfers of fractional interests in the
+title, just as is true with ordinary real estate. The abstract must be
+traced back clear to the issuance of patent from the Government, and
+then on back to the original location. With an undeveloped property (a
+prospect), this precaution is essential to estop any possible
+pretensions to ownership, by outside parties, in case the ground
+subsequently turns out to be exceptionally valuable. It has often been
+the case that no obstructions from any adverse claimants have been met
+until owners have, in good faith and at great expense, developed
+splendid mines. Then suits for possession or partial ownership have been
+instituted, sometimes with marked success for the plaintiffs. There are
+persons who make it a special line of business to examine titles to
+mining property, and it is economy for the average manager to employ
+such experienced men to attend to these matters.
+
+_Topographical considerations_ will hold a place in the study preceding
+the opening of a new mine. The nature of the surface of the property and
+the surrounding country will largely influence in the selection of the
+proper site for the mine's mouth. Neglect upon this point has been a
+common cause of failure in mining operations.
+
+A mine opening must be away from all dangers of snow-slides,
+rock-slides, cloud-bursts and deluges from overflowing streams or
+breaking dams. It may make a difference in the mine's ventilation as to
+which direction the prevailing winds blow and therefore upon which side
+of a hill the mouth be opened.
+
+_Transportation_ facilities must be given due thought. If means are not
+already at hand, one must inquire into the feasibility of constructing
+some form of carrier; and here, again, will enter the question of the
+surface's contour. If a railroad is out of question, possibly an aerial
+tramway may be constructed. These modern conveyances stop at no
+obstacles of surface configuration and are dependent only upon the
+necessity of having the point of delivery lower in altitude than the
+point of loading at the mine. With some of the modern improvements in
+these installations, mine products are being transported up-hill as well
+as down-hill through the application of power. In mining regions, it is
+generally the case that the mines, themselves, are above the settlements
+in which are the railroads or treatment plants, so that the mine
+products will transport readily by the natural force of gravity.
+
+_Climate_ holds an important place in the economics of mining. The
+working of very rich pieces of ground may prove a losing proposition in
+some portions of the world where the climatic conditions are such as to
+render operations possible during only a very small portion of the year.
+Extremes of heat or cold, malaria or other pestilential obstacles, long
+rainy seasons with floods, and the hostility of native humans, beasts
+or insects have accounted for the abandonment of seemingly attractive
+mining projects.
+
+The question of _labor_ must be given due thought. It is true that the
+best miners on earth are Americans. We do not deny that many of our
+miners are of foreign birth, but the fact remains that they perform
+better and more intelligent service than do their fellow countrymen who
+have not been adopted into our country. Our men are in demand in the
+mining development of foreign countries. An American mine manager will
+always experience dissatisfaction while endeavoring to get, from natives
+in foreign parts, the same efficiency that he is accustomed to receive
+from the miners "at home." He may be paying a good deal less per capita
+for such labor, but he finds he is actually paying more per ton of
+output.
+
+Even within a single country, there are notable differences in the worth
+of labor. The natives of some of the Mexican states are far preferable
+to those of other states. Within the United States, there may be
+discerned material differences between the efficiencies of the citizens
+of various sections, when it comes to mining. One cannot procure as
+competent miners in some of the agricultural states as in the typical
+mining states. This is but to be expected. For instance, there are
+deposits of lead ore in the "moonshine" regions of Kentucky which have
+never been successfully worked, and the real cause of failure, in the
+writer's belief, lies in the inability of superintendents to obtain real
+miners either in that region or from the outside. The residents will
+never become miners; outsiders will not enter for work under existing
+sociological conditions.
+
+The question of _unionism_ is sometimes held by managers as a deciding
+one when debating the opening of a mine. While there are those who will
+broadly denounce such organizations, there may be found other and just
+as successful mine operators who declare that the effects of union
+control over their miners are beneficial to their companies' interests.
+Probably the greatest objection to unionism raised by operators is that
+they resent the dictation that accompanies the inauguration of union
+rules in their mines. The owners and managers prefer to run their own
+business to suit themselves. Some managers are so imbued with this
+conviction of their own rights that they will refuse to open up mines
+or, if they are operating, they will close down their mines before they
+will submit to the demands made upon them by the union officials.
+
+On the other hand, there are mine managers who prefer the presence of
+some central, labor-controlling body; for they believe that the men who
+belong to such a large federation or organization will, and do, have
+less complaint to make and therefore work more freely than is the case
+with the independent laborers. The argument is that these union men are
+satisfied because they feel that their interests are being looked after
+with a sort of attention that they, individually, could not give.
+
+This is not a place to discuss the crimes that have been laid at the
+doors of both the labor organizations and the mine owners' associations.
+It is safe to assume that wrong has probably been done by both sides.
+But it is furthermore right to believe that most of the crimes were not
+authorized, nor recognized, by the officers or the majority of members
+of either side. Individual members must not be taken as averages of the
+membership in any kind of civil, social or political organization.
+
+It seems entirely wrong that _politics_ should enter into the
+considerations of a mine manager whose operations are apparently so
+apart from affairs of state; but the fact remains that there are places
+where mining operations cannot be carried on without the good will of
+certain officials of the state or national governments. It is not
+advisable to enter into any compromising terms to gain privileges for
+carrying on any legitimate business for there are other, better ways,
+generally, of attaining the justice that is deserved.
+
+One must not omit to investigate the _sources of supply_ for all the
+needs of a mine and its camp. There are many kinds of materials needed
+to keep a mine going. Fuel, machinery, timber, water, food for men and
+beasts, lumber, and all household furnishings and necessities must come
+from some markets or natural sources. It behooves the cautious manager
+to see that all these things may be had in ample amount and at figures
+which will not prove annihilating to his business.
+
+In Utah, there are mines which have all their timbers framed in and
+shipped from the forests of Oregon, the sawing and framing being done
+before shipment to save on freight. The fir of Oregon is shipped to
+distant Australia for mining purposes. The arid camps of Nevada get
+their supplies of timber from the sister state, California. The Michigan
+mines are fortunate in being in a lumber region. Colorado's metal mines
+are more favored in the matter of timbers than are the coal mines of the
+same state. Most of the coal mines are upon the barren plains, while the
+metal mines are chiefly in the wooded mountains.
+
+[Illustration: MILL OF THE PITTSBURG-SILVER PEAK GOLD MINING CO., BLAIR,
+NEVADA.]
+
+Water may be too scarce for the needs of a mine or its community. There
+may not be sufficient to supply boilers or a mill, or for the domestic
+purposes of the workers. On the other hand, water may be so abundant
+in the mine workings as to prove a deterrent factor in profitable
+operation. With shaft mines, having deep workings and low grades of ore,
+if water must be delivered mechanically, the costs for such drainage are
+frequently prohibitive of mining. Some mines, in arid regions, have been
+fortunate in striking such flows of underground water that it has been
+possible to operate mills right at the mines. In this way, the cost of
+water hoisting has been more than compensated in the milling benefits
+which, in turn, have decreased freights and treatment charges.
+
+_Machinery_ is usually purchased at centres of mining supplies and
+manufactures. San Francisco, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, Denver and
+Chicago are the principal _rendezvous_ in the West for mining men in
+need of machinery. Mexico City is, similarly, the outfitting point for
+the mines of southern Mexico. The United States holds the supremacy of
+the world in the matter of equipping mines and mills, large orders of
+American-made mining machinery being shipped to even the antipodes.
+
+The nearer a property is to a depot of supplies, the less is bound to be
+the cost of getting goods onto the ground. It is this last item--the
+delivery of goods--that must be recognized as a very pertinent, and
+sometimes a critical, factor upon the cost side of mining accounts.
+Mines that are remote or in rugged countries are frequently dependent
+upon animal transportation. In some cases, machinery going to the mines
+must be so built that it may be taken apart into small portions suitable
+for loading upon the backs of horses or burros, or even, in the Andes,
+upon the frail llamas.
+
+Operations, if planned to be conducted for a long term of years and
+therefore warranting the installation of large and expensive plants,
+should be based upon the holding of extensive ore-bearing ground. Here
+enters the notion of the _shape and size of a mining property_.
+
+With some kinds of mining ground, the best form for the holdings would
+probably be a compact, approximately equilateral tract, covering a
+reasonably large acreage. This would be the case with ores that occur in
+sedimentary beds, for instance, where it is advisable to have the mining
+plant centrally located so as to work expeditiously the entire area.
+This would apply to a region like the Cripple Creek District, which
+contains innumerable veins running in all directions but displaying no
+outcrops.
+
+In other instances, the most desirable shape might be long, narrow
+strips so laid off as to contain the strikes of persistent lodes or
+veins, as those of the wonderful Comstock Lode region. It is not acreage
+that counts here so much as lineal extent.
+
+In the Transvaal, land is held in rectangular blocks. The first owners
+of the ground took it up for agricultural purposes. This same statement
+is also true of the mining properties in the Joplin District of Missouri
+and Kansas.
+
+In the case of the South African properties, every company has definite
+boundaries to which operations may be planned. Hence it is possible for
+the management to so plant any mine as to operate it at a given rate
+for a predetermined life of the enterprise. The work is planned to
+maintain a certain output that will exhaust the ore bodies in just so
+many years, and all the equipment may thus be purchased with the
+forecast that it will serve its purpose and perform its economic share
+within the prescribed time.
+
+This notion will be more readily understood when we consider the various
+types of ore bodies. With properties wherein there is no possible way of
+predicting the number, size, and worth of discoverable ore bodies, the
+life is wholly problematical and it is therefore difficult for a manager
+to decide how much he should expend in the initial equipment.
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+MINE OPENINGS.
+
+
+In every new mining project, there is much to be considered concerning
+the expediency of opening up through shafts, inclines or adits. More
+attention has lately been given to this subject than formerly. There are
+very good reasons for the selection of any one of these kinds of mine
+openings.
+
+The words shaft, incline, and tunnel have been handled with careless
+meanings by mining men. It is time that some definitions be accepted so
+that everybody will use these terms with the same meanings.
+
+A shaft has loosely been any steep opening sunk through the ground. An
+incline--sometimes spoken of also as an incline shaft--has been taken to
+mean an opening resembling a shaft, but not very steep and not
+approaching verticality. Right here, there has been too much latitude
+of speech and it has entailed the necessity of many awkward
+explanations.
+
+By a tunnel has been intended any (approximately) horizontal passageway
+driven from the natural surface. Objection to this use of the word rests
+in the strict definition of a tunnel, which states that it must have
+both ends open to the natural surface of the earth, as for example, an
+irrigation or a railroad tunnel. A level passageway which has but one
+end open to daylight is not properly spoken of as a tunnel. In mining
+practice, practically every horizontal opening of this nature is open at
+only one end, and it is an adit rather than a tunnel. If the precaution
+of speaking of it as a "mining tunnel" is observed, very well, for this
+may be taken to be an expression synonymous with adit. The latter term
+is, however, shorter and more correct.
+
+For the sake of a uniform usage, the following definitions are proposed.
+Their use will conform with the usages of those well-informed persons
+who adhere to correct speech.
+
+A _shaft_ is a truly vertical mine passage which may, or may not, be
+sunk in or along an ore or a coal body.
+
+An _incline_ is any mine passage which occupies a sloping position and
+which may, or may not, maintain a uniform inclination throughout its
+length. It may be sunk along, or in, a pitching vein or seam and it may
+thus conform to the irregularities of the dip of such body. It is
+neither horizontal nor vertical. Such an inclined passage following a
+seam of coal is known as a _slope_.
+
+It sometimes happens, especially in coal mining, that a sloping
+passageway is driven through barren rock either to get at known bodies
+by the shortest means or to establish uniform grades for tracks. In a
+strict sense, these are not inclines or slopes, for they do not even
+approximately follow, nor parallel, bodies of value. The miner's term
+for such an opening is _rock slope_.
+
+An _adit_ or _mining tunnel_ is a horizontal opening driven from the
+surface. If it be driven along an ore body, as a vein, it is properly
+called a _vein adit_; if it is driven _across_ barren country to
+intercept presumed or known bodies, it is spoken of as a _crosscut
+adit_. All adits must be given a small amount of grade for drainage
+necessities.
+
+Before getting underground we should consider what is required in the
+way of opening our mine; what is positively known about our body of coal
+or ore; and what conditions are liable to confront us later on. We must
+consider the type of ore body; character of material to be extracted;
+average thickness and hardness of the body; desired tonnage; power
+facilities; probable surface and underground drainage to be maintained;
+and dozens of other things which only the experienced man will think of
+and appreciate. The right kind of a manager will know that he cannot
+afford to overlook such points.
+
+Every case involves different contingencies, and therefore extreme
+forethought must be given to the subject before deciding upon any
+particular kind of an opening into the ground for mining purposes. This
+remark does not apply to such openings as prospect drill-holes,
+openings which are not for mining purposes, but for exploitation.
+Assuming that sufficient data are known concerning the property to
+warrant the expenditures incident to the making of a mine, the question
+remains as to the best way of proceeding.
+
+It is a well-established fact that it is much cheaper to drive an adit
+than to sink a shaft of equal transporting capacity. It is also cheaper
+to drive an adit than to sink an incline. If the topography is such that
+an adit can be driven into or beneath an ore body and thus expose it
+from a low elevation, the temptation is strong and along lines of good
+practice to do so. If the country is quite flat or nearly so, or, if the
+surface is such that, while rough, an adit of reasonable length cannot
+be driven to tap the valuable mineral and handle it economically, then
+it is good practice to decide upon a shaft mine.
+
+An adit will not only be cheaper, foot for foot, than a shaft or
+incline, but, if given the proper, slight grade, it will afford a
+natural drainage outlet for all subsequent workings above its level.
+The cost of pumping, as already suggested, may be a considerable item
+and it may be a deciding factor in favor of an adit when this form of
+opening is possible.
+
+Furthermore, an adit will obviate the installation and use of hoisting
+machinery, and thus there may be maintained a greater efficiency in the
+operating expense of the mine than would be possible with a shaft.
+
+Again, it is a simpler and cheaper matter to maintain a mining tunnel in
+working shape than it is a shaft, particularly in bad ground. By the
+settling or "working" of the ground, a shaft may be thrown perhaps but
+slightly out of alignment and annoying interferences will be experienced
+in hoisting, especially when rapid and uninterrupted hoisting is
+necessary to maintain the desired output. While the same amount of
+disturbance does take place in an adit, it is an easy matter to readjust
+track grades while continuing regular haulage operations.
+
+The timbers, in the case of either a shaft or an adit, will require
+occasional renewal, but the expense of such repairs is less in adits
+than in shafts or inclines, while the delay to other operations of
+mining, in the case of the adit, will be inappreciable.
+
+Topography has been referred to above, but it must be again briefly
+mentioned. There are some places in which ore bodies extend to, or exist
+at, such depths that adits could not be projected to get beneath enough
+of the ore to warrant their construction. An adit mine is not a
+practicable thing in a flat country like Nevada or the Rand, but in the
+rough country of the San Juan it is the customary kind of a mine. In the
+very early days of Comstock Lode mining, shafts were sunk by each of the
+hundreds of companies. Before a great while, the advantages that would
+accrue from having a deep "tunnel" became evident, and the famous Sutro
+Tunnel, with its historic, checkered career, was driven. Although it
+loomed up like a gigantic undertaking for that period, the immense
+prospective or future value of it could not be denied.
+
+The following relative advantages of the several types of mine mouths
+are in addition to those already given and are worth consideration:
+
+With an incline, the value of a tabular deposit is determined as work
+progresses; the course and dip of the body will be known at all depths
+along the incline; the body may be explored from the incline in both
+directions, simultaneously, with a resulting doubling of the development
+and production; all, or nearly all, the material removed is "vein stuff"
+and its value may repay the sinking expenses; there is no losing of the
+ore body unless a geological fault is met.
+
+With a shaft, more rapid hoisting is possible than with an incline; the
+timbering labor is less than in the case of an incline, but greater than
+in the case of an adit; with ground containing ore bodies in irregular
+masses and at no uniform intervals, vertically or horizontally, stations
+and levels may be started wherever desirable; the crosscuts which are
+usually necessary to reach the bodies may disclose otherwise unknown
+bodies.
+
+[Illustration: MILLS AND SHAFT HOUSE OF DALY WEST MINE, PARK CITY,
+UTAH.]
+
+With a vein adit, the vein is prospected as work advances; the ore
+removed may pay its own way, as it were; the drainage is automatic; ore
+is transportable from the mine by haulage rather than by hoisting; the
+ore in place is above the level and will handle itself to the outgoing
+passage by gravity.
+
+With a crosscut adit, in addition to the last three advantages noted for
+the vein adit, there is bound to be exploration of the ground upon at
+least one side of the known body; there will generally be easier haulage
+because of the straighter track, since an adit driven along a vein will
+conform to the geological irregularities and the track is bound to be
+more or less crooked.
+
+Without counting upon the doubtful success of the numerous propositions
+in tunneling machines, but judging only from past experiences, we may
+say that a shaft will cost about three times as much as a "tunnel" of
+equal transporting capacity. If the ground is wet, the discrepancy in
+first costs becomes much larger. In a remote region, with difficult
+transportation of machinery and fuel, it may be better to drive and use
+a long adit rather than a shallow shaft. An adit will transport more
+product than will a shaft of equal dimensions.
+
+An adit may be driven to intercept a shaft and to serve as a sort of
+artificial surface, as it were, and thus save expenses in pumping and in
+hoisting up to the original collar of the shaft at the surface of the
+ground.
+
+No matter how crooked an incline may be, it is possible to hoist ore in
+conveyances known as skips, although the hoisting may be necessarily
+somewhat slow. These same conveyances are useful for lowering and
+hoisting men, and the parody, "Men go down to the mine in skips," here
+finds its significance. The usual hoisting conveyances used in shafts
+are known as cages. They usually produce less friction than do incline
+skips. A skip in an incline must travel upon a track, while a cage,
+somewhat resembling a passenger elevator, has no wheels, but slides upon
+guides. However, an incline skip, because of the inclination of the
+passage, does not exert the same dead weight upon the cable and
+hoisting engine and hence these parts of the equipment may be made
+correspondingly lighter. Skips for shafts are similar to cages in their
+lack of wheels.
+
+Complete estimates of probable future requirements should be made before
+a shaft is sunk. When it becomes necessary to enlarge a
+single-compartment shaft to one with two compartments, the expense has
+been found to exceed one-half the original cost of sinking; while, to
+convert a one-compartment shaft into a three-compartment shaft costs
+fully three-fourths of the original sinking expense. Approximately the
+same ratios of cost will hold in the case of enlarging inclines.
+
+Character of ore sometimes influences the selection of the kind of
+passageway. Some high grade, brittle ores must not be dumped nor handled
+repeatedly, since values are lost in the "fines." Iron and copper ores
+will not probably be injured by any amount of dumping. Coal should be
+handled as few times as possible. In view of this fact, other things
+being equal, adopt that system that will injure the ore or coal the
+least.
+
+As a rule, workmen are safer in tunnels than in shafts, since there is
+little danger from objects falling any great distance. Tiny bits of rock
+have been known to kill men in shafts. On the other hand, there is less
+liability of injury from falls of large rocks in shafts than in adits.
+Roof falls are a very prolific source of mine accidents.
+
+The workmen of neighboring mines will often be able to give much
+valuable information as to the proper procedure in opening a new
+property. For instance, water levels, amounts and kinds of gases that
+may be expected, the nature of the wall rocks, and other pertinent
+points may be learned by interviewing the men who are employed in
+adjacent mines. Still better information may be obtained by personal
+visits to the underground workings of the nearby mines. In this
+connection, one must not permit himself to be unduly influenced by the
+prejudices or hobbies of the neighboring operators or their employés if
+there is reason to suppose that such notions are contrary to good
+practice.
+
+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; but
+have a certain feature of elasticity about the plans that may take care
+of future increase in business if found desirable. Do not "over-plant."
+Never plant, at all, _prematurely_. It is better to postpone the
+installation of the equipment until some specific facts are available.
+Many companies have met defeat in the exhaustion of capital through the
+purchase and installation of elaborate plants which were never
+warranted.
+
+After a mine is once opened and preparations have all been perfected to
+operate 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.
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+TYPES OF ORE BODIES.
+
+
+It has been necessary, a number of times in this discussion, heretofore,
+to make mention of kinds of ore bodies. It is well, at this time, to get
+some fixed ideas concerning the leading types of bodies of minerals
+which are extracted as ores.
+
+Because of the laxity in type differentiation which has prevailed among
+miners and writers, the same geologists who have framed definitions of
+ore, have also defined the various types of ore bodies. The definitions,
+having been accepted by the leading mining geologists and engineers of
+the present day, it is well for us to fall into line and to agree with
+the authorities in such matters.
+
+A _vein_ is a _single, ore-bearing fissure_, generally, though not
+necessarily, with at least one well-defined wall.
+
+When we run across a tabular-shaped deposit of ore that looks as though
+it may have been put into a pre-existing fissure or chasm, the chances
+are that it is a vein. But a vein must not be confounded with a dike. A
+dike is a filling that has been injected, while molten or fluid, into an
+open passageway or rupture across rocks, or into an opening which it
+created for itself. A little examination of the material should tell, to
+even the novice, whether or not the substance is of plutonic origin. The
+filling of a vein is not eruptive, at all. Veins have been filled from
+circulating aqueous solutions, by slow depositions, that have occupied
+very long periods.
+
+A vein may be any thickness, since a fissure may have been opened to any
+width. Hence, a vein may be as thin as a sheet of paper, or it may be a
+hundred feet across. However, it is true that some wide veins have
+resulted by a sort of enlargement from original thin seams. Very few of
+the notable wide veins of the world are believed to have been created by
+the filling up of chasms originally as wide as the present ore bodies.
+But, in all cases of real veins, there were original fissures,
+fractures or crevices which acted as channels for circulating solutions
+that contained the materials which were left to make the vein matter.
+
+A _lode_ is an _assemblage of veins_ so closely spaced that the ground
+between the veins becomes, in places, ore-bearing, and the entire width
+of the aggregation becomes an ore body.
+
+A zone of sheeted rocks like schist or slate, if sufficiently
+mineralized to warrant mining, would be a lode. Sometimes, in certain
+districts, the earth's crust has been subjected to many approximately
+parallel, closely-spaced fractures, and by the subsequent filling of
+these cracks, with the accompanying corrosion of the walls and their
+replacement by ore, extraction of the entire mass of rocks across a
+considerable distance will be found to yield a profit. Any such body is
+a lode.
+
+In the Cripple Creek District, the ground is criss-crossed in every
+direction by tiny fissures which have resulted from the contraction of
+the country rock, just as a bed of mud is fissured in the process of
+drying up after a rain. Wherever these fissures are found in aggregates
+that are closely spaced and in which a majority of the cracks have a
+general trend so that the whole assemblage can be readily worked as one
+mass, this whole body of fractured rock may be found worth mining and it
+will then constitute a lode. It may be mentioned here that the so-called
+ore of this district is not really ore according to the accepted
+definition. The true ore, the filling of these innumerable, tiny cracks,
+really constitutes but about five per cent. of the material that is
+shipped as ore, but which is principally the "country rock" broken down
+with the small volume of ore.
+
+In _legal_ phraseology, the word lode has come to include all sorts of
+ore bodies. When the word is thus used, in a legal sense, it should not
+be confused with the strictly technical meaning.
+
+It has been the fashion for prospectors to dilate upon the fact that
+they have located "true fissure veins." This expression, formerly on the
+tongues of most mining men in districts possessing veins at all, is now
+obsolete and hence should be placed in the discard. There can be no
+such thing as an "untrue" vein nor an "untrue" fissure. Neither can
+there be any vein without a fissure. Therefore, if there is any vein, it
+must be a real or true vein. Accordingly, the verbiage is to be
+discouraged. The intention of a miner, in using this pet phrase, has
+been to convey the impression that his vein extended downward,
+indefinitely; there having arisen a notion that some veins are rather
+superficial and liable to "peter out" at slight depths, while
+others--the kind he invariably has located--persist both in size and
+value to extreme depths.
+
+There are districts in which are found short fissures, generally
+confined to certain horizons in sedimentary rocks, such as the
+limestones of the great Mississippi Valley, from which are mined lead
+and zinc ores. These are called "gash veins." These are always readily
+recognized and there is not the slightest excuse for confusing them with
+the fissures which are common to other kinds of rock formations.
+
+A _bed_ or _blanket vein_ is the term applied to any nearly flat
+deposit conforming to the bedding. Such a body of ore must be in a
+sedimentary series of rocks. Coal bodies are all of this type. Many
+bodies of iron ore are also of this type.
+
+A _chimney_ is an ore body which has not the tabular form of a vein but
+is rudely elliptical in outline, horizontally, and with a very
+considerable vertical extent. A _stock_ is a similar body but it is of
+still greater irregularity of boundary.
+
+These bodies are usually the filling of extinct volcanoes or geysers,
+and therefore they are presumed to extend to very great depths. The
+diamond mines of Kimberly, Africa, are of this type and the ore is a
+sort of hardened geyserite or mud in which are enclosed the precious
+gems. In Custer County, Colorado, the ore body of the Bassick Mine is a
+conglomerate of rounded boulders of all sizes cemented together,
+somewhat like concrete, by the materials which really carry the values.
+This mass occupies an ancient volcanic neck or throat of a geyser,
+probably the latter. The main portion of the Cripple Creek District is
+the crater of a great prehistoric volcano. It might be called a great
+chimney, but custom seems to limit the use of the word chimney to a
+smaller body such as might be included in a single mining property.
+
+A _mass_ is a deposit whose irregularity of shape is so great that it
+cannot be recognized as belonging to any of the types already mentioned.
+Masses conform to no rules as to shape or size. They are usually the
+result of a chemical dissolving of the original barren rocks with a
+simultaneous or subsequent substitution of valuable materials. There are
+many instances of ores that have been deposited, molecule by molecule,
+replacing equal volumes of the previous rock, much upon the order of the
+petrifaction of wood. Again, there are immense masses which are believed
+to have accumulated in caves already dissolved out of the containing
+rocks.
+
+While recent geological study of the districts in which such ore bodies
+abound have disclosed numerous facts about their occurrence, there still
+remains much conjecture concerning their origins, and we may still
+believe that they do not conform to any rules as to regularity or size.
+The ore bodies of Leadville are of this type, and they may be described
+by the homely similes that they are as like and as unlike, and their
+occurrences are about as regular, as potatoes in a hill. The potato-tops
+give the farmer a suggestion as to where to dig. So, also, do certain
+geological relations guide the miner. And yet a shaft may be sunk
+hundreds of feet down among masses and not happen to penetrate a single
+one.
+
+There are numerous recognized types of ore body not enumerated here; but
+it is sufficient for the average layman in mining matters to understand
+these few distinct types and to believe that all other types are
+rarities, and are, as a general thing, but intermediate forms of those
+defined.
+
+[Illustration: Shaft No. 3, TAMARACK MINING COMPANY, CALUMET, MICHIGAN.]
+
+[Illustration: SMELTERY OF THE BALAKLALA CONSOLIDATED COPPER CO., CORAM,
+CALIFORNIA.]
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+THE QUESTIONS OF DEPTH AND GRADES OF ORE.
+
+
+The prevailing belief of a few years ago that ore bodies always improve
+with depth has been discredited. Not a single mining geologist will
+longer maintain such a notion. The evidence of many thousands of mines
+has refuted this older belief and it has been proven that quite the
+opposite view is the correct one concerning changes of value with depth.
+Values, instead of getting better, do actually, in the majority of
+cases, grow poorer as depth is gained.
+
+President C. R. Van Hise, of the University of Wisconsin, was among the
+early expounders of the newer theories to account for this fact. The
+writer heard him state, years ago, before a scientific gathering (which,
+at that time, was not quite ready to agree with him), that if he were
+given his choice, he would much prefer to own the upper thousand feet of
+the earth's crust than all the rest of the globe. In this remark, he
+was referring only to mineral values, of course.
+
+This belief that the best values are to be found not far from the
+surface has since become popular, for it is based upon proven facts. It
+is not claimed that values are never mined below an elevation that is a
+thousand feet from the surface. There are many mines, and great ones,
+too, that are operating at depths greatly exceeding this distance; but
+in these same mines there will be found valid reasons for not applying
+the general statement to their particular cases. For instance, the great
+copper mines of the Keweenaw Peninsula are productive at depths of a
+mile or more from the surface; but we believe that here the ore must
+have been originally deposited at, or near, the surface, that it was
+then overlain with rock strata; and subsequently steeply tilted by earth
+movements which carried some of the ore bodies down to the depths where
+they are now found.
+
+The "reefs" or bankets of the Rand are so termed because these ore
+bodies were undoubtedly ancient coast beaches or sea placers. The
+gravel, sand, and gold particles were cemented together into a
+conglomerate, then covered with many later sedimentaries, and finally
+the continent of Africa was so raised or altered in some manner as to
+bring these gold deposits into their present inland and tilted
+positions.
+
+In veins or lodes, it is not supposed that ore-making minerals could
+have been precipitated from solutions travelling either upward or
+downward and obeying chemical laws if the depth were sufficient to
+furnish great temperature or high rock and hydrostatic pressures.
+Therefore minerals which were deposited from aqueous solutions rising
+from depths, for example, must have retained their dissolved condition
+until they ascended to horizons in which both pressure and temperature
+were low enough to permit the precipitation and crystallization that
+create ores. Contrarily, descending solutions must have given off their
+contents before reaching the deep zones of heat and pressure, or not at
+all.
+
+It is a quite common phenomenon to observe that the richest _gold_ ore
+in a mine is found close to the surface, if not actually at "grass
+roots." The explanation is simple. The gold, being the most stable of
+the aggregate of minerals composing the original ore, has the better
+resisted the corrosive attacks of atmospheric agencies and has remained
+nearly intact, while its associated minerals have been dissolved or
+altered and carried away. The same amount of gold remaining with a
+diminished quantity of the worthless, non-metallic minerals--the
+"gangue"--inevitably renders the ore richer per unit of weight (such as
+a ton), although per unit of volume the value remains constant, or
+nearly so, so far as the gold is concerned.
+
+But with other kinds of ore, as, for example, copper, the best grades
+are found, not close to the surface but some two hundred or more feet
+down. The explanation is that the minerals of copper are considerably
+more soluble than the ordinary gangues and therefore the weathering and
+oxidation that takes place in the upper horizons of ore bodies will
+dissolve out the cupriferous compounds and thus deplete the
+superficial ore. But, by the flowing of the copper solutions to a lower
+zone, there occur certain reactions that reprecipitate the salts of
+copper upon compounds of the metal already formed and we have instances
+of the phenomenon known as "secondary enrichment."
+
+[Illustration: CONCENTRATOR DIVISION, WASHOE REDUCTION WORKS OF THE
+ANACONDA COPPER MINING CO., ANACONDA, MONTANA. Largest Copper Works in
+the World.]
+
+It was this very process that effected the changes in the character of
+the ore in the famous Anaconda Mine, previously mentioned (page 44). The
+locator's discovery was upon an outcrop rich in silver. Probably the
+original compounds of the vein were of both silver and copper. The
+silver was more stable against dissolution than was the copper, with the
+result that the base metal was removed more rapidly and completely than
+was the precious metal. The upper portion of the vein was therefore left
+rich in silver, and low in copper. But, as depth of mining increased,
+there was found a gradual diminution of the silver content with a
+simultaneous increase in the copper. The mines of Butte have become
+known as copper mines, and the wonderful records they have made are
+ample testimony to the fact that the change in the prevailing metallic
+values has not wrought serious havoc in the mining industry of the
+district.
+
+Regarding the probability of veins persisting to great depths, there is
+this thought suggested by J. E. Spurr: "Owing to the pressure exerted by
+gravity, it is doubtless more difficult for a fissure to stay open in
+depth than near the surface. The tendency is to press the sides
+together. At a certain depth, it is probably the case that the pressure
+and the plasticity resulting from this, together with the increase in
+heat, makes it impossible for fissures, fractures or any openings to
+exist."
+
+There are still many persons who are reluctant to let go of the
+cherished notion about the improvement of ores with depth. But there is
+no economy in deceiving one's self, and the wise thing to do is to
+accept the truths as they are daily proven. It may be worth while to
+again refer to the wonderful Camp Bird Mine. This mine was discovered
+in its true worth years after it had been abandoned by early prospectors
+because it lacked showy, base-metal minerals. However, since its true
+merit has been recognized, it has maintained large and remarkably rich
+annual outputs. As values were beginning to show a material decrease,
+about five years ago, an experienced mining engineer of recognized
+standing was engaged to give advice concerning the future exploitation
+of the property. After exhaustive investigation of the ground, and in
+the face of adverse opinions, he recommended the discontinuance of
+further development in depth. At the same time, however, he advised the
+exploitation of the ground laterally or along the strike of the very
+persistent vein. His advice was followed and the company's stockholders
+had reason to be advocates of the new theory; for a very reasonable
+amount of horizontal development work opened up vast stores of rich gold
+ore.
+
+And yet, notwithstanding this disquieting feature that seems to apply to
+mining, there is comfort to be found in the consideration of the
+exceptional cases. Every man may hope that when he locates a new mine he
+is taking possession of a property that will have as extensive ore
+bodies as those that have been proven to exist in the lead-silver mines
+of Laurium, Greece, the quicksilver mines of Spain, or the copper and
+tin mines of Cornwall. These mines are in lodes which have persisted and
+have been mineralized to comparatively great depths, so that their
+bottoms have not been reached.
+
+There is a modern idea that has taken root in the minds of mining men of
+the last generation to the effect that the mines with rich ore are not
+necessarily the ones with big profits. There are many men looking for
+investments in mines whose contents are of low grade but in large bodies
+readily worked. If a mine with rich ore can be found and the ore abounds
+in such liberal amounts as to warrant the inauguration of a company with
+the essential working equipment, such a proposition will naturally not
+be turned down. However, the faith of some men is placed in those mines
+that may be operated upon very large scales for long periods even if the
+profit per ton be very small. With a large plant, the unit of expense,
+_i.e._, the cost of mining per ton, is less than with a small mine. With
+the assurance of regular outputs of ore of a reasonably uniform grade,
+the milling equipment can be planned to handle a mine's product to the
+greatest advantage. The Alaska-Treadwell Mine, on Douglas Island, is an
+instance of a splendid property that has been continuously operated for
+about a third of a century. The ore is low grade in gold but immense
+dividends have been declared because the ore body, a tremendous mass of
+eruptive rock, has lain in such a position that the owners found it
+possible to excavate the stuff, to a great extent, by open-pit methods,
+although not by using steam shovels. The ore is treated in a vast mill
+contiguous to the mine.
+
+The Homestake, another gold mine, has an ore body quite dissimilar
+geologically from, but of dimensions approximating those of, the
+Treadwell. It is a great body of mineralized, crushed shales, standing
+steeply in the shape of a lode and carrying about $3.75 per ton. It has
+been followed down considerably over one thousand feet and although the
+grade has dropped somewhat with depth, there are known to still be
+millions of tons in reserve. According to estimates, the mine has enough
+positive ore in reserve to keep the mill running at the rate of 4,000
+tons per day for several years even if no more ore were to be opened up.
+This ore nets but 53 cents per ton above all mining and milling
+expenses; but a little arithmetic will show that this mine is worth
+twice as much as the mine that is producing, with more or less
+regularity, an average daily output of, say, forty tons of high grade
+ore upon which there is a net gain of $25 per ton, a figure that is
+rather high for the average of so-called "high grade" mines.
+
+We must, therefore, decide that it is always wise to think twice before
+condemning a mine because its grade of product is low. It is only
+recently and by virtue of marked improvements in metallurgical
+processes that many bodies of mineral have become "ore." Hence it is but
+natural that many of the older miners fail to grasp the possibilities
+that lie in such deposits.
+
+What is the line of value separating a low grade from a high grade of
+precious metal ore? There is no uniform practice along this line. One
+will notice that ores are nowadays spoken of as high grade that, before
+the practice of mining these described meagre deposits, were reckoned as
+low grade. This fact is due to two reasons, viz., the cheapening of
+metallurgical operations, and the greater respect that is entertained
+for ores of low metallic content. The Esperanza Mine, in Mexico, is
+called a high-grade gold mine. Its ore has averaged about $33 per ton
+and the profit therefrom about $19. The Oroya-Brownhill Mine, in western
+Australia, has had ore that carried a value of about $22 per ton and
+from it a profit of about $15 per ton was made. In the Cripple Creek
+District, ores that run above $30 per ton are considered high grade.
+This means that the average rich ore shipments of the district have a
+gold content of about 1-1/2 ounces per ton. The expenses of mining,
+freight, and treatment will probably total close to one-half the gross
+value, or about $15 per ton.
+
+When one speaks of $30 or $40 ore as rich or high grade, it is not to be
+inferred that there is no ore in the shipments which is not worth a
+great deal more than this amount per ton. Such lots of ore will, no
+doubt, contain a great many chunks that would assay many times the
+average value. Such selected materials would not, however, be samples;
+they would be what are called "specimens." The specimen has its place in
+mine economic discussions because it furnishes the basis of operations
+for the ubiquitous "high grader" with which nearly every new and rich
+mining camp must contend.
+
+Some writers claim that the high grader is a product of modern
+conditions; but we find that he has existed for such a long time that he
+was given mention by the Scotch historian and scientist Andrew Ure, who
+wrote of the precautions that were exercised in working the graphite
+mines of England, a century ago, to prevent the pilfering of even this
+comparatively low-grade material. Even the ignorant African natives of
+today cannot be trusted to wear clothing while working in the diamond
+mines. No, the cause of high grading is the innate greed of human beings
+and it has existed from prehistoric time and among all peoples.
+
+In this discussion as to grades of ore, the question may arise as to
+what might be reasonably considered the most attractive kind of a mining
+proposition. This is too knotty a query to be answered in a few words.
+There are so many different phases that must be given due weight. Every
+mine is a problem in itself. The Minnesota mines afford the best
+examples of profitable iron mining. Under the classification of
+underground, tabular deposits such as veins or lodes, no matter in what
+metals their values are found, Mr. T. A. Rickard believes that the ideal
+mine would be one carrying ore worth $10 per ton, in a body five feet
+thick, with costs not exceeding $5 per ton, and so mined as to keep one
+million tons continually in reserve. According to these restrictions, he
+thinks the Robinson Mine, of Johannesburg, will about fill the bill as
+an ideal _gold_ mine. It has a deposit of about the right thickness to
+avoid excessive timbering expense and this ore body is in such a vast,
+continuous sheet that its superintendent can depend upon maintaining a
+systematic development that will assure a constant supply of ore to the
+immense mill for ten or twelve years in advance. This same ore averages
+about fourteen pennyweights (approximately $14) per ton and upon this
+there is assured a profit of over five dollars per ton.
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+VALUATION OF MINING PROPERTY.
+
+
+Whenever a piece of mining property is to change hands, it is the proper
+procedure to employ an expert engineer to investigate the ground and the
+improvements and so arrive at some estimate concerning its intrinsic
+value. Nobody is infallible and it is a trite saying that "nobody can
+see into a mine farther than the last drill hole." But there is a great
+difference in the reliabilities of reports made by trained and by
+untrained men. A self-styled "expert" of the type which is so abundant
+in every new mining centre and about cities frequented by mining
+investors will probably not be able to comprehend anything beyond his
+vision; but the mining geologist and engineer--the man who has devoted
+the better part of his life to study and experience along these
+lines--will be able to reach conclusions upon which much reliance may
+be placed. This fact has come to be recognized by the men who exercise
+business judgment in their mining investments.
+
+The sampling of mines has been studied and improved upon by succeeding
+engineers, until one may say that it is conducted along strictly
+scientific lines. The old method of taking a sample of a mine by
+scratching ore from the sides of a shaft from top to bottom and letting
+the collected material at the bottom represent a fair average of the ore
+body, has been relegated to its proper place in the evolution of mine
+valuation.
+
+Without entering into a description of the methods now employed by the
+best examiners of mines, let it be said that every scientific precaution
+is taken to obtain representative portions of the ore bodies, at such
+intervals as seem best in each particular case; that measurements and
+assays are made for each and every sample taken and not for the
+aggregate of all the samples; that no opportunity is allowed
+unscrupulous persons to vitiate results in any manner; that a
+professional engineer will not hold nor acquire, in any way, an
+interest in any proposition which he examines; and that the report of a
+reputable engineer is equally acceptable to the seller and to the
+purchaser, no matter for whom the work is done.
+
+Much discussion has prevailed as to the best means of estimating the
+amount and the value of ore in unbroken reserves. Associated with these
+beneficial disputes, there has been a further controversy as to the
+correct classification for reserves of unbroken ore. It is now conceded
+among mining men and engineers to be improper to longer make use of the
+meaningless but tongue-worn expression "ore in sight" as signifying any
+known or unknown volumes of ore in the ground. The only ore in sight is
+that which has been hoisted or which has been broken and stored
+underground. Well-known engineers have proposed the following
+expressions:
+
+To denote the contents of ore bodies which have been exposed on four
+sides, we may say _ore blocked out_, _positive ore_ or _ore developed_;
+for bodies exposed upon three sides, it is considered correct to
+describe the contents as _ore partly blocked_; for such bodies as are
+proved upon two sides only, the terms _ore faces_, _ore developing_ or
+_probable ore_ are appropriate; while in speaking of all ore that may be
+expected or suspected, but which is beyond the last exposures, we may
+use the expressions _ore expectant_ and _possible ore_.
+
+When it comes to the question of placing a value upon an undeveloped
+property--one in which there is little, or no, development work or
+exploitation--it takes more than the ability of the common "expert" of
+the curbstone variety to arrive at any dependable figures. Without any
+exposures, except those that may have been produced by Nature, and
+perhaps with no guidance from facts that might be obtainable were there
+adjoining mines, one might suppose that the whole matter would resolve
+itself into mysticism. Right here is where the trained man best shows
+his ability.
+
+The greatest error of the usual investor in mining schemes is to rely
+upon either no report at all or upon a worthless one furnished by an
+impostor. _In no sort of a mining proposition is a reliable report so
+essential as when one is contemplating the purchase of a "prospect."_
+Successful engineers, whose predictions concerning such properties have
+come true, are sometimes complimented (?) by being accused of possessing
+intuition or prophetic vision. Call this ability what we will, we must
+admit that _education and training_ give certain qualifications that
+will enable a man to arrive at conclusions which, in the majority of
+cases, will be found to wear.
+
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+THE MINE PROMOTER.
+
+
+With the thought that has justly been given to the place occupied (or
+that should be occupied) in the world's financial and economic affairs
+by legitimate mining, there has developed a well-founded stigma upon the
+operations of a class of persons who have styled themselves by what was
+formerly considered a worthy title, that of "promoters." Since men have
+found that it is as possible to go into a mining deal with the same
+chances for success as attach to any other line of investment; since it
+has been proved that real, worthy mining property does not require the
+exertions of many middlemen to obtain capital for its development; and
+since it has usually turned out that these "promoters" have handed the
+hot end of deals to their investors, it is not to be wondered that some
+sort of a brand would attach itself to the men who are not in the
+business to benefit the industry of mining in the least, but really for
+the selfish gains which they can pocket at the expense of the industry.
+
+These men are legion. The mails are laden with their seductive letters
+and "literature." Brokerage firms are numbered among these leeches on
+legitimate mining. Charlatans appear almost daily upon mining scenes.
+The men who engage in these deplorable practices are not from any one
+walk in life: they spring up from various branches of our social
+structure. The general public has learned that a very prominent Boston
+magnate will not scruple to promote a mining property even though it
+lacks the merit essential in attracting the conservative capitalist.
+Thousands of people of small means throughout the United States and
+Canada have been recipients of nicely worded and familiarly-addressed
+letters signed by the son of a famous American author. This son, himself
+a writer of some repute, presumed to speak to his "friends" concerning a
+mining property which he promoted and into which he was glad to allow
+them to get with him "on the ground floor." He frankly stated that he
+was not offering such privileges to the big capitalists. He inwardly
+knew that such men do not require holdings in the Cobalt or any other
+region. Through the splendid work carried on by the Government postal
+authorities many of these frauds have been exposed and the perpetrators
+brought to justice. In January, 1912, the above-mentioned author,
+together with a number of his ilk, were brought before the Federal Grand
+Jury, and found guilty.
+
+It is not the men of great capital who are induced, as a rule, into the
+deals of the "promoter." It is usually the common people, the persons of
+small means who have saved up a little spare money from which they hope
+to realize competencies for rainy days--a class of beings inexperienced
+in investments--who become the dupes of the promoter.
+
+There have been notable exceptions to the statement that capitalists do
+not yield to the seductions of these men, but recurrences are liable to
+be few. The great business man is fortified by experience against forms
+of treachery and he is, therefore, not so susceptible to the allurements
+of any "promotion," be it mining or otherwise.
+
+If one investigates these advertised mining "promotions," he will often
+find that the money paid in by the small investors purchases a very
+small portion only of the capitalization. The men who conceived the
+scheme of "promoting" a concern have carefully arranged to hold a
+majority of the stock, so that should there, by any chance, prove to be
+a mine, they are the ones who will reap the greatest benefits. Further,
+it often transpires that the contributions of cash that purchase the
+small interests do not perform the function of development for which the
+stock was ostensibly put upon the market. Perhaps somebody has a desire
+to get rich quickly. The operations of such frauds are so obscured and
+so complex to the average individual that sufficient evidence can seldom
+be procured to prove any violation of law.
+
+A witty newspaper paragrapher once remarked that out in Nevada the old
+adage "Death loves a shining mark" was changed to "Death loves a mining
+shark." It would seem, however, that if Death were to love the person
+bearing the odious, well-understood title of "shark" enough to claim him
+early, the business of mining would be materially benefited. The
+post-office officials of the United States are to be commended for their
+efforts at curbing the despicable operations of these fakirs.
+Occasionally the papers come out with the news that a firm's offices
+have been raided and their business stopped. These news items fall as
+awakeners upon the hundreds of gullible, middle-class persons all over
+the country who are known to actually force their cash remittances upon
+these fraudulent operators, much upon the plan of a department store's
+supposed bargain sale.
+
+In spite of the "bad name" that has been attached to the persons engaged
+in starting up enterprises, there is a real need for more activity in
+the matter of inaugurating real, legitimate mining enterprises. Persons
+who devote their brains and energies in the direction of furthering
+worthy mining propositions do really "promote" the interests of such
+companies. What shall such persons be called if not "promoters"? There
+does not seem to be any other word that expresses the occupation of such
+persons. The real solution of this dilemma in which the honest men
+engaged in such work find themselves placed is to denounce, forcefully,
+the charlatan as being not a real promoter but a gross misrepresentation
+of one.
+
+Let us, therefore, remove the odium from this title and give our
+approbation to those persons who are earnestly endeavoring, by honest
+means, to place mining enterprises upon strictly business-like footings.
+The mining industry needs promotion and promoters.
+
+
+
+
+XV
+
+INCORPORATION AND CAPITALIZATION.
+
+
+Let us consider the legitimate financing of a new or a reorganized,
+worthy, mining proposition. It is the universal custom to own and work a
+mine under the laws that govern a corporation and, for this reason, the
+mining man of the day is familiar with the practices of incorporating.
+
+It is something of a question at the start to decide what is a fair
+price to fix upon a property as a whole--that is, to decide what the
+capitalization should be. There is no rule to be followed in this
+matter. Some organizers will decide to capitalize at what is expected
+will be the value of the property after some time. Other men will stick
+to the idea that it is the proper thing to capitalize for what the
+property will invoice at the time. The higher the capital stock, the
+greater number of shares there are for sale, usually. With a
+conservative capitalization, there may be fewer shares for sale, but
+each share is worth correspondingly more and the chances are much better
+for an advance in the price per share whenever the mine becomes
+productive. There are investors who will carefully investigate this
+feature and will shun any mining stock which has any appearance of
+over-capitalization. It would be well if all investors were to follow
+this precaution.
+
+But what about the price at which to capitalize a prospect? By a
+prospect we here mean a property that has been favorably reported upon
+as worthy of development but in which, up to date, there is little, if
+any, showing of values or reserves. The engineer's report has
+recommended the property as containing the possibilities of a mine. How
+much is it worth? Can he or can anybody even roughly estimate the sum?
+An engineer frequently does fix the sale-purchase price of a property,
+but it is not so usual for him to decide upon a valuation for
+capitalization. A very good guess may be made, perhaps, if there are
+similar and neighboring properties which have been developed.
+
+Assuming a prospect that has been reliably reported to the owners as
+possessing the earmarks of a mine and as warranting expenditures for
+exploitation, upon what basis should a company be capitalized? If the
+owners of the property have capital, the chances are that they will not
+care to share their holdings with other parties. But very frequently
+worthy "prospects" are held by men of no means, and in order to develop
+their mines the owners feel the necessity of coöperation with parties
+who can furnish working funds. In every such instance, there will arise
+this debate as to the proper basis of capitalization.
+
+There is no human means of arriving at a _close_ valuation of any
+prospect, so it becomes a matter of pure judgment as to future
+probabilities and the possibility of placing the stock at the most
+advantageous price. A company will, therefore, be stocked for some round
+number of shares, say 100,000, upon which some empirical par valuation,
+say $1, is placed per share. This is not to be understood as stating nor
+assuming that the property has a present valuation equalling the par of
+the entire capitalization. Who would assert that any mere prospect ever
+had such a value as $100,000? No, it is not the intention of the
+organizers to claim that the ground is worth the par valuation; but some
+start must be made and so, in the absence of something precise, round
+numbers are made to do service.
+
+Stock is then offered at figures much below the par valuation and in
+such quantities as will maintain sufficient capital in the treasury of
+the new concern to get the property's exploitation under way and to so
+sustain it as to make the prospect grow into a mine.
+
+If shares are offered at 10 cents, it does not mean that a prospect is
+worth even that valuation. It does mean (we are considering now only the
+operations of honest concerns) that the men who are managing affairs
+believe that the sale of so many shares at ten cents each will furnish
+adequate means for the development and equipment of the mine. Therefore,
+there is a _prospective_ valuation placed upon all such enterprises.
+
+Is an investment in such a company to be considered as gambling? If
+there have been sound assurances from reliable examiners concerning the
+likelihood of the ground carrying the essentials of a mine and the only
+uncertain element is the ultimate magnitude of the mine, then we might
+say that the investment is not a gamble at all, since there is no chance
+to lose. The purchase of such stock is a very sane investment and there
+is no telling what the returns may reach.
+
+When incorporating a new company, it has become the fashion for the
+owners of the ground to exchange their titles for certain specified
+fractional interests in the company. This is effected usually by going
+through the formality of having the owners sell their holdings outright
+for the entire issue of the capital stock. Then, according to
+prearranged agreements, these owners donate to the treasury of the
+company a portion of this capital stock to be henceforth termed
+"treasury stock." The first step makes the capital stock "fully paid
+for," since it has been accepted in full payment for the property. The
+second step supplies the company with the necessary means for raising
+funds to develop.
+
+There can be no reasonable objection to this practice. But there is much
+criticism of the usual apportionment of the owners' and the treasury
+stock. It is agreed that the incorporators are, as a rule, greedy in
+this respect, since they generally issue more than 50 per cent. (and
+frequently 60 per cent.) of the capital stock to themselves and expect
+to float the project to success upon the money derivable from the sale
+of the balance or treasury stock.
+
+Is a mere prospect, even under the best natural conditions, plus the
+effort incidental to the organization of a mining company, worth
+one-half or more of a producing mine? During an extended experience in
+the business of converting discoveries into patented claims and
+prospects into mines, the writer has found that _there is never an owner
+who is willing to sell a developed mine for twice the price he had set
+upon the original prospect_. The valuation of his holdings goes up by
+greater multiples than mere doubling or even trebling and it is a rare
+thing to find a man willing to sell out a proved mine at less than ten
+times the prevailing valuation that would have been placed upon the same
+piece of property before its development.
+
+Hence, there is no propriety in the act of self-appropriating half the
+capital stock by the organizers. Investors should be wary about taking
+interests in companies which have been so organized. If an owner
+believes that a mine is worth ten times as much as a prospect, let him
+be consistent and offer his undeveloped property for a tithe of the
+capital stock in the anticipated mine. If he has a worthy piece of
+ground, he will reap the same benefits as the holders of the stock who
+place their cash against his title to a tract of virgin territory. If he
+will not thus act fairly, it indicates either a questionable piece of
+property or an avidity undesirable in a partner. It is accordingly
+advisable to shun offerings in such concerns.
+
+Another matter to be considered here is that of overloading a fairly
+good mining enterprise with so much capital investment that the
+property cannot be made to pay proper dividends and fair interest on the
+capital. Many worthy, though perhaps small, mining concerns have made
+failures through a disregard for this economic feature. The proper
+adjustment of this matter is a serious thing and it should not be passed
+over lightly. Investors should look into this phase of mining
+thoroughly.
+
+
+
+
+XVI
+
+MINING INVESTMENTS.
+
+
+One should be able to establish, in his mind, a distinction between the
+value of investments in operating mines and in prospective mines; and he
+should likewise be competent to fix some difference in his attitude when
+purchasing the stocks in these dissimilar projects. One should invest in
+an established mine with the same business precautions that would guide
+him in buying an interest in a mercantile establishment.
+
+It is possible to obtain, through competent engineers, the approximate
+present valuation and the probable life of any mine and thus to arrive
+at conservative figures that will govern one's investments. But, when
+debating the purchase of stock in a prospect, a man should learn all the
+available facts concerning the geology and the organizers and should
+then decide, in his own way, whether he cares to make the purchase. Even
+the prospects offering the finest inducements have been known to
+disappoint, just as some less promising prospects have occasionally
+exceeded expectations.
+
+[Illustration: MILL OF THE ROODEPOORT-UNITED MINES, TRANSVAAL, SOUTH
+AFRICA.]
+
+So, while there are certain safeguards to investments, there should also
+be accepted the uncertainties which must accompany the placing of faith
+in unseen things.
+
+The same general rules for business success will attend both commercial
+and mining enterprises. Any incorporation must be handled according to
+recognized, successful methods, no matter what its scope or activity. In
+most lines of business, there is a likelihood of growth with longevity,
+there being no reason to limit the life of the usual mercantile
+business. With advancing years, a manufacturing company, for instance,
+with good management, will establish a reputation and will gradually
+increase its business and its stock in trade. But with a mine, the
+business is one which is most successful only when actually depleting
+the assets at the most rapid rate. With some kinds of mines such as
+coal, placer, iron or the "reef" gold mines of the Rand, the life can
+be very accurately forecast and all activities may be planned for
+specified periods.
+
+In some kinds of mining ground--as for instance, the irregular masses of
+Leadville or the crooked and uncertain veins of Tonopah--there can be no
+predictions that will reliably or even approximately decide the probable
+life of the mining activities of any company. The duration of mines of
+this second class is wholly problematical. A few years ago, there was
+much discussion of this subject and one writer, who had collected
+statistics over an extended period and covering various kinds of mines,
+arrived at the conclusion that the average life of a mine is about
+eleven years. J. P. Wallace, in his work, _Ore Deposits for the
+Practical Miner_, in discussing this point says, "The average mine, if
+continuously worked, seldom lasts longer than three to five years. A
+mine is valuable not for what it has produced, but for what it is
+capable of producing." This opinion cannot be borne out by facts, for
+the brevity he ascribes to the average mine is altogether unreasonable
+and his statement is pessimistic. The cases of mines which have petered
+out in three or five years are exceptionally few. It must be that the
+experiences of this author have been in "pockety" districts, for he
+could not have lived in any of the worthy mining camps of the world very
+long and have come away with any such notion.
+
+To take care of this intrinsic feature of mining, and to place
+propositions fairly before the public, there should be attention given
+to the matter of recovering the invested capital before the expiration
+of activities through the exhaustion of mining assets, the ore bodies.
+This practice, known as "amortization," is being given more and more
+consideration as people come to realize this peculiarity of mining. Some
+companies are now so organized and managed that there is a guaranteed
+refund, at stated periods, or whenever profits have accrued, of
+fractions of the invested capital with accumulated interest thereon.
+These funds are calculated to continue over the number of years which it
+is presumed the mines will live so that upon the cessation of mining,
+the owners of the stocks will have been completely reimbursed with their
+original outlay in addition to the dividends that have resulted from the
+success of the enterprise. It is here that the problem of the life of a
+mine enters into economics, and it is important that it be given its due
+share of study. Amortization is not of American origin and it has not
+been adopted in this country to the extent which it is bound to be in
+the future.
+
+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. All this efficiency can be
+very readily transferred to the operation of virgin mining property.
+Often much of the equipment of a mine can be moved and used again. When
+a mine is known to be nearing its finish, there is a hesitancy on the
+part of the owners in replenishing the equipment and sometimes the
+mining is kept up through the use of worn-out, inefficient apparatus
+when, were the owners expecting to continue mining, they would purchase
+and install the new equipment when it is needed.
+
+One company in the San Juan region of Colorado prepared for the
+contingency by purchasing neighboring property to which it moved its
+operations. Another large company bought a large piece of mining
+property in Mexico, although its initial operations were in Colorado.
+Placer mining companies frequently dismantle, move and re-erect
+dredges.
+
+
+
+
+XVII
+
+MINE EQUIPMENTS.
+
+
+There is a constant tendency toward the adoption of machinery for the
+performance of every mining act which, formerly, was done by manual or
+animal labor. There are good reasons for this tendency. Good, trained
+labor is scarce; wages are slowly but gradually rising; ores of lower
+grade must be mined, and the tonnages must be correspondingly greater.
+The increased economy in production can be brought about by the adoption
+of devices that will supplant, and even excel, muscular effort.
+
+A machine can now be installed and can be operated by a single man to
+perform the work formerly done by many men. There have been machines
+invented to entirely, or partially, perform every operation in and
+around mines, and one might imagine an ideal mine in which all such
+machines were installed. But even there, we should have to grant the
+presence of some few men, for it would not be possible to keep all the
+machines working without human, intelligent control. In such a mine, it
+might be possible to maintain a large production with very few laborers
+or overseers. Fewer men means less wages, less labor trouble, fewer
+fatalities, and less time occupied in handling men into and out of the
+workings.
+
+In some ways, copper mines are ahead of gold mines in their equipment.
+Coal mines have adopted car loaders which as yet and without any very
+good reasons metal mines have not.
+
+Plants for mines must utilize the same sources of power as are used by
+any other plants. Steam and water have been the usual forms, but
+electricity is gaining in favor in places where it can be cheaply
+obtained. At a coal mine, we naturally expect to see all the power
+generated through the combustion of coal under boilers. At metal
+mines--which are frequently remote from sources of coal supply--we run
+across the use of expensive coal for all power purposes. When it is
+possible to obtain a sufficient supply and head, water is adopted to
+furnish the required power for operation. At mines, with water
+sufficient to produce a part only of the needed power, we may see both
+steam and water power utilized. In the cases of some mines which are
+distant from sources of both coal and water supply, power is generated
+at points where stores of natural energy are available for use and the
+power is transmitted (usually as electricity, sometimes as compressed
+air) over long distances to the mines.
+
+Some mines cannot be economically operated without the treatment of the
+ores upon, or close to, the mining property. With certain sorts of
+low-grade ore, or with those kinds of ores that may be concentrated
+before shipment, provision should be early made for the erection of
+appropriately designed mills. We say the subject should be considered
+early, but we do not advocate the premature erection of any mill. The
+hills of the Western mining states are dotted with monuments to men's
+error in this particular. Here and there (not in our own country alone,
+but throughout the mining world) one may run across an abandoned mine
+plant, a complete mill, a smeltery, a railroad or an aerial tramway, all
+prematurely provided for outputs which failed to materialize.
+
+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. This is a grievous mistake that comes
+about through misconceptions. It is often true that ores of the kind
+these mines are expected to produce should be treated upon the ground.
+But it is also true, and far more essential, that there be enough ore to
+supply the treatment works. It is rank folly then to spend the money
+needed to make a mine upon a plant to handle the product. Money should
+be spent, first, in exploitation and proving the value of a property. If
+the proof is forthcoming, it is then time enough to erect the plant.
+Meanwhile, during the development stages of a mine, the proper amount of
+experimentation can be conducted to ascertain the correct process for
+treating the ore. If ores are produced in abundance, they may be shipped
+for treatment in custom works until such time as the company's own plant
+is ready; or the ores may be stocked up for emergency mill supply at
+future times when it may be compulsory to curtail the mine production
+because of accidents or other unforeseen causes.
+
+One who considers these matters from an economic standpoint will
+recognize that there must exist some proper ratio of mine output to
+treatment capacity. Just what this relationship is constitutes a serious
+problem for each particular mine and there cannot be stated any
+ironclad rules that may be applied to all cases.
+
+In the first place, we believe _a mine will be operated at its greatest
+economy when it is making its largest and most regular output_. This
+being the case, we must agree that the plant and mill must be capable of
+taking care of this maximum output. It would then seem axiomatic that
+the equipment must be calculated according to the mine's capabilities.
+But, in the youth of a mine, how are we to know what its mature capacity
+will be? Here comes the rub.
+
+Very nice discussions along this line have been indulged in by British
+and American representative mining men. When speaking of operations that
+are typical of some foreign mining districts and especially those that
+possess ore-bodies whose extents are readily calculated, no clever
+prophecy is required to ascertain the proper amount of equipment. But
+there are many regions, especially in our own country, where nobody can
+predict, with any degree of accuracy, how extensive will prove to be
+the natural reserves of any mine. It is in such places as these that
+hard study and careful guessing are needed, and we are inclined to agree
+with George J. Bancroft when he says, "To my mind, there is more credit
+due to those who take up the hard propositions and make them pay than to
+those who exploit bonanzas along purely scientific lines. The first
+usually require energy, sagacity, perseverance and, very often, daring;
+while the others need chiefly cool calculation."
+
+It is a safe practice, throughout the world, whenever there is no
+absolute means of reaching figures of a mine's ultimate production, to
+erect the treatment installations in units. By a "unit" is here meant
+the outfit of machinery and the other equipment which will handle a
+specified round number of tons per day. In some districts, a unit will
+be for the treatment of 10 tons; in other districts this number may run
+up to 100 tons. In the plans provisions are made for additions, from
+time to time, as mining development warrants. Very much the same scheme
+should be followed in the erection of the plant for carrying on the
+operations, which are strictly those of obtaining the ore from the
+earth. That is, mining equipment, as well as the milling equipment,
+should be on a flexible plan so as to be readily adapted to an increased
+scale of operation. There must be space provided for harmonious
+additions to the initial plant whenever such extra parts are required.
+
+[Illustration: SPRAY SHAFT HOUSE OF COPPER QUEEN CONSOLIDATED MINING
+CO., BISBEE, ARIZONA.]
+
+
+
+
+XVIII
+
+MINE MANAGEMENT.
+
+
+No matter how splendid a company's holdings may be naturally, there
+cannot be expected any profits from the workings of the deposits if
+there be not a sound business management. H. C. Hoover, the prominent
+mining engineer and mine manager, says, "Good mine management is based
+upon three elements: first, sound engineering; second, proper
+coördination and efficiency of every human unit; third, economy in the
+purchase and consumption of supplies." And he goes on to emphasize the
+fact that "no complete manual will ever be published upon 'How to Become
+a Good Mine Manager.'" In view of this damper upon good intentions one
+might possess, and granting that the subject is one that cannot be
+taught (except along very general lines possibly), no attempt will be
+made to enter into arguments concerning this important subject of Mine
+Management.
+
+Good administrative ability can be improved by cultivation just as can
+an individual of the vegetable kingdom; but there must first be the
+existent, innate ability. No man should attempt such a hard proposition
+as the management of a mine, with its varied phases of activity, unless
+he has found himself possessing the fundamentals that go to assure
+success in managerial positions. Furthermore, he should not think,
+because he has been successful in running a clothing business or any
+other mercantile line, that he is certain to succeed in running a mine.
+
+The duties of directors and president are pretty much the same in all
+sorts of incorporations. 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. To be sure,
+if they are ignorant along mining lines, they can, and often do, place
+the blame for their shortcomings upon their manager, their consulting
+engineer, or their superintendent. But this is not an auspicious state
+of affairs and it were well for stockholders to see to it that they
+elect to the directorate men who are cognizant of mining economics.
+
+The well-organized mining concerns of today maintain their engineering
+staffs just as completely as do other great technical businesses. The
+engineer is a very important man in mining affairs. His duties are
+probably more varied than those that appertain to any other sort of
+engineering. His operations will extend into the realms of the
+mechanical, the civil, the chemical, the metallurgical, the hydraulic,
+and the electrical engineers. He must be posted along the latest
+conceptions in geology, mineralogy, and physics. Besides he should be an
+accurate and rapid mathematician and draftsman.
+
+The manager finds in the engineer his most helpful and trusted aid.
+Often the engineer performs many of the functions usually attaching to
+the office of manager and, in the absence of the latter person, he may
+attend to all of the management. As stated above, the qualities that
+make a good manager are inherent; hence, to a certain extent, we may
+hold the deduction that good mining engineers, also, must possess innate
+qualities. Yet there may be pointed out this distinction between the
+make-up of a good man for manager and that of a good mining engineer:
+one, as said, cannot learn his business except through his own
+experience, while the other can receive vast benefit by _study_ of a
+theoretical nature and by _practice_.
+
+Lately, there is much said about the _consulting_ mining engineer. His
+field of usefulness is broad. He can be asked to add his opinions and
+recommendations to those of the regular engineer, at any time; he can be
+used at times when the duties are too much for the resident engineer; he
+can be called upon to substitute; he need not live near the property,
+but may visit it periodically. Thus, while his retention is deemed
+remunerative, his services are available at a fractional part of what
+he would demand if he were employed exclusively by the company.
+
+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. No new reserve can be
+added--they can simply be found and unpacked, as it were.
+
+This finding entails the greatest amount of concern, and upon its
+successful practice depends the life of the mine. The presumption is
+strong that many mines have been abandoned while they really contained
+possibilities; but lack of knowledge of things geological, or perhaps
+failures to explore, permitted the operators to remain ignorant of the
+splendid assets that were available. Proof of this error has been found
+in many mines that have been subsequently re-opened.
+
+The work of sizing up the quantity and the value of available ore is
+known as sampling. It is not well to limit the practice of sampling to
+the times only when a sale is contemplated. Reports based upon careful
+sampling should be issued frequently. Some companies employ men whose
+sole occupation is the daily sampling of every working face. The assay
+results obtained from the collected samples inform the superintendent
+just "how the stuff is holding up" throughout the mine and he governs
+his work accordingly. At longer intervals, the engineer should go into
+the work more thoroughly by not only taking very careful, scientific
+samples (not the usual "grab" samples taken by the daily sampler) but
+also by making careful memoranda of the physical appearances of the ore
+with its thickness and all geological data that will tend to throw light
+upon the permanency of each body. The engineer's monthly report will
+then be a substantial guide to the manager and the directors.
+
+Managers, too, are expected to make periodical reports--monthly,
+quarterly, or annually--to the directors who, in turn, issue reports to
+the stockholders. The reports of managers and directors are not usually
+technical in their nature, although sometimes it is the practice of a
+manager to attach the engineer's report to his own for the perusal of
+such readers as may desire to dip into the technical affairs of the
+operations. Usually, the directors' reports are of a simple, financial
+nature, stating the conditions of affairs in plain business language to
+the persons whose cash has been invested in the enterprise.
+
+It may happen that, for some reason, a special report is desired by the
+directors who may be contemplating some consolidation or other financial
+move and both the manager and the engineer will be required to furnish
+detailed statements concerning their respective branches. If a sale is
+planned, it may be that not only the company's engineer, but very
+probably another engineer engaged by the contemplative purchaser, will
+make examinations. They may work together or separately, as best suits
+them mutually, but it is upon the reports issued by them that the
+satisfactory price for the exchange of title is based.
+
+
+
+
+XIX
+
+PRICES OF METALS.
+
+
+There is only one product of mines that has a constant market value,
+viz., gold. The precious metals, gold, silver, and platinum, are sold by
+the Troy ounce: the base metals are all handled and dealt with on
+avoirdupois weights. Copper, lead, zinc, tin, and nickel are quoted in
+cents per pound avoirdupois. Iron and manganese are curiously sold by
+mines to smelting companies on the ton of ore basis.
+
+Since gold has been found in every known rock of every geologic age and
+is of world-wide distribution; since it possesses physical properties
+that long ago placed it at the head of the list of desirable metals; and
+further, since it does not occur in very condensed amounts, generally;
+this metal was selected as the standard of value by which the worth of
+every other commodity in the world is fixed. It must therefore be
+possessed of a fixed market value, and one never looks for quotations
+on pure gold. The price of pure gold is set at $20.6718. This very
+peculiar value is known as the "mint value," and is the price which the
+Government of the United States pays for all of its coinage gold. Among
+miners, as a rule, the price is thought of as $20 per ounce, and this is
+probably because this is more nearly the actual return the miner has
+been accustomed to obtain from companies who have bought and treated his
+ores. Most all the gold produced in the world is associated with other
+metals, such as silver, copper, or platinum, so that the bullion
+recovered in milling or smelting will usually contain the gold alloyed
+with such other metals and the gold is said to be not "fine," or pure.
+The fineness of gold in the metallic state is expressed in two ways.
+Jewelers have the carat system, while mints use the decimal system in
+expressing such degrees of purity. Pure gold is 24-carat fine. An alloy
+of 3 parts gold and 1 part copper would be considered as 18-carat gold.
+In the decimal system, pure gold is called 1,000 fine, and the various
+degrees of purity are then expressed in their true proportional amounts.
+Thus the same alloy as cited above would be called 750 fine gold.
+
+Silver has a fluctuating market value although attempts have been made,
+at times, to establish its value at some fixed ratio to the value of
+gold. In fact, a reader may occasionally run across statistics of silver
+production in which it appears as though there were a fixed value for
+the metal, but this will be found to be due to the use of what is known
+as the "coinage value," which is $1.29198. This figure will be
+recognized as our old acquaintance, "16 to 1," _i.e._, this price for
+silver being one-sixteenth of the fixed price for gold. There is
+actually no such fixation, and prices for silver are established every
+business day of the year in the great metal markets of the world, London
+and New York.
+
+Platinum has been increasing in market value during recent years and the
+quotations have ranged up so high that it is now more than twice as
+valuable as gold. The reasons for this high price are that the
+production of the metal is limited, whereas the uses for the metal have
+been increasing. The greatest production of this metal is in the Ural
+Mountains of Russia, and the output from this region is handled by a few
+concerns who virtually possess a monopoly. These companies are able to
+maintain the production practically constant and to cause the market
+price to fluctuate.
+
+Tin is found in commercial amounts in but very few regions. There is but
+one mineral mined as an ore of tin, viz., cassiterite, the oxide, which
+is 78 per cent tin. Tin is found in both veins and placers and the great
+bulk of the metal is now being derived from the latter type of bodies in
+the Malay Peninsula and the Straits of the East Indies. Formerly,
+Cornwall produced the world's supply, from veins. Although the United
+States consumes 35 per cent to 40 per cent of the world's production,
+the country does not produce 1 per cent of this production. Since the
+main source of our tin is British territory, the markets are controlled
+by London, and quotations are issued daily from that center. Such
+quotations are given in units of English money per long ton (2240
+pounds) of metal. However, prices are also quoted at New York, daily, in
+cents per pound, and there is a real difference in value between the two
+quotations to take care of freights and duty. For instance, on a certain
+date, quotations were Ł190 10s, and 42c. The average price during 1911
+in New York was 42.281 cents.
+
+The chief supply of nickel now comes from the Canadian districts of
+Cobalt and Sudbury, where this metal occurs accompanying rich silver
+deposits. The metal is sold by the pound avoirdupois and prices in
+January, 1912, ranged from 40c. to 50c.
+
+Tungsten is a metal which has been finding more and more uses of late
+years, but the production has remained quite limited. Three-quarters of
+the world's total production in 1911 came from a small district in
+Boulder County. Colorado. The quotations on this metal are given in
+dollars per ton of concentrated ore, and the price is for a certain
+percentage of WO_{3}, the oxide of wolfram (tungsten). The schedule of
+prices announced in April, 1912, for Boulder County ores and
+concentrates provides as follows, a unit being understood to mean 1 per
+cent or 20 pounds per ton: For material assaying 10 per cent WO_{3},
+$3.50 per unit; for 20 per cent WO_{3}, $4.40 per unit; for 40 per cent
+and more, $4.90 per unit. Ore containing, say, 50 per cent of the
+tungsten radical is thus salable at $245 per ton, the mineral itself
+thus bringing a price of 24-1/2 cents per pound.
+
+Although copper is used and sold in very large lots commercially, it
+continues to be quoted upon the pound basis. The United States produces
+about 60 per cent of the whole amount mined in the world and the prices
+are made in New York daily. The amount of copper mined in this country
+in 1911 was 1,431,938,338 pounds and the price varied between 11.989
+cents and 13.768 cents. There are always at least two quotations every
+day on copper, one being on "lake" and another on "electrolytic". By
+these terms are meant, respectively, copper produced in the Lake
+Superior region and the copper from other mines. The Lake Superior
+copper is the purest in the world and it always sells for a fraction of
+a cent per pound more than the other coppers which are refined by
+electrolysis.
+
+Metallic iron is reduced from a number of different ores, but by far the
+bulk of pig-iron is made from the oxides and carbonates of iron. Such
+ores, in the United States, are obtained principally in Minnesota,
+Michigan, Wisconsin, and Alabama. As already stated, the quotations on
+iron are based upon the ores rather than the pig-iron, and there are two
+types of such ore recognized. If the ore is suitable for the making of
+Bessemer steel, it is given a certain quotation per ton, while if it
+cannot be used for such a purpose, it is given a non-Bessemer rating and
+is used for casting. The greatest iron-mining region in the world is in
+the Lake Superior country. Here are a number of districts that are known
+as "ranges." In some of these ranges mining is by underground methods,
+while in others the excavation is entirely in the open by the use of
+great steam shovels. The outputs of these ranges go by rail and water to
+the great smelting points along the Great Lakes and at Pittsburg.
+
+The metallic zinc on the market is known as spelter. All quotations on
+this metal are given in two systems, the "pounds Sterling per long ton"
+and the "cents per pound." The average prices during 1911 were
+respectively, Ł25.281 and 5.758 c. The American quotations are
+frequently given in the unit of dollars per hundredweight. This offers
+no confusion, whatever, for under this nomenclature, the average price
+for 1911 would be stated as $5.758. In the zinc-mining regions of the
+Mississippi Valley, the producers of ore have a practice of putting the
+mines' products through their own mills at the mines and making
+concentrates of the zinc mineral, which is usually blende or "jack," and
+this concentrated stuff is then sold to smelting companies at the daily
+quotations per ton of 60 per cent ore. During 1911 the average price
+paid in the Joplin District was $41.45. Since this amount bought 1,200
+pounds of metallic zinc, it is evident that the miner received only
+about 3.45 cents per pound for his metal, the discrepancy between this
+sum and the New York quotation being consumed in costs of smelting and
+shipment and in profits to the middlemen.
+
+Lead is sold upon a plan exactly similar to zinc. It has the same
+various quotations. For example, the 1911 prices in London, New York,
+and Joplin averaged, respectively, Ł13.970, 4.420c., and $56.76.
+
+Quicksilver is sold by the "flask" of 75 pounds. The price ranges in the
+neighborhood of $43 to $45.
+
+There are numerous other metals, but the more common ones are given
+above. Below is given a graphical exhibit of the course of the prices of
+lead, spelter, standard (electrolytic) and lake copper, pig-iron, and
+tin for a number of years. A study of this chart is interesting in
+noting the waves or fluctuations that have covered periods of years.
+This chart is reproduced from _The Engineering and Mining Journal_.
+
+[Illustration: DIAGRAM OF METAL MARKET FOR ONE-THIRD OF A CENTURY]
+
+
+
+
+XX
+
+MINE ACCOUNTING.
+
+
+While there has been a great deal of attention given to the matter of
+keeping systematic mine accounts, both in the main offices and those at
+the works, there still is a lack of uniformity in practice. In the
+bookkeeping of manufacturing and mercantile institutions, uniform
+practices or systems have become a feature. But there have been good
+reasons for the absence of similar methods in mine offices.
+
+There will be found to exist some uniformity in the accounting as
+practised by the mines of a particular district which are operating
+under similar conditions; but when one considers that the mines of
+various districts have quite dissimilar conditions throughout almost
+every phase of the business, it is not surprising that different methods
+must be employed in the keeping of their accounts. It is unavoidable.
+Mines extracting different metals or different kinds of coal will find
+it necessary to keep quite unlike records. Mines with their own mills
+will likewise require a different system of accounting from those that
+ship their products to custom works. Open and underground mines will
+need quite different styles of accounts.
+
+So, it is not possible to recommend any one method of mine accounting.
+The best way to become posted upon this subject is to investigate the
+schemes, the blank forms and the books of some of the established,
+successful companies here and there about the world. In this way, ideas
+will be collected, and it will be possible for the investigator to
+evolve his own schemes for recording the accounts of his company.
+
+It has come to be recognized as contributing to economy to maintain
+systems of accounts that will enter into minutić concerning every branch
+of the business. Just how far this can be carried without creating
+office expenses that will exceed the benefits to be derived from the
+detailed information remains a question to be decided by each manager.
+There are companies with accounts so perfected that it is possible to
+quickly ascertain, to a fraction of a cent, what the expenditures of any
+day have been for any particular part of the operations, as for
+instance, the haulage per ton underground, or the fuse employed in the
+blasting of a particular stope. Such details are highly useful since
+they prevent leaks in the costs; but it is a problem to decide to what
+extent it is economy to carry them. These data also furnish the
+superintendent information concerning the efficiency of his many
+laborers and the machinery. Labor-saving inventions, such as the printed
+blank form, and the loose leaf, are put to excellent use in mining
+offices.
+
+There are strong companies operating great mining plants whose records
+are open to the perusal of any individual, be he stockholder or not. In
+the office of such a company, a person may turn to the accounts and see
+for himself how much it costs to maintain each and all of the operations
+and he can learn the size and the value of all shipments of products of
+any sort--ore, concentrates, coal, matte, or bullion. Again, there are
+those companies that are so secretive about everything connected with
+their work that even the Government is unable to learn any particulars,
+except at very great trouble.
+
+The Portland Gold Mining Company, operating a great property at Victor,
+in the Cripple Creek District, is an instance of the first sort, while
+the United Verde mine, at Jerome, Arizona, may be taken to represent the
+second sort. Both of these mines have made splendid records. It cannot
+be seen wherein the second mine is required to maintain secrecy, for
+there is no danger of litigation from neighboring property holders, the
+one company controlling, practically, the mining in its neighborhood.
+The presumption is that the owners hold their business to be nobody's
+else and they have a right to keep their affairs secret if they desire.
+On the other hand, the Portland is surrounded by good mines which profit
+by knowing the details of operating costs and incomes of their
+neighbor; but it is found to cost no more to be open and above board
+than to keep things under guard. The Colorado Fuel and Iron Company will
+not divulge any particulars concerning its mining movements; but there
+are other just as great mining companies that will explain every detail.
+
+The Clark copper companies, of Butte, Montana, did not permit much
+information to escape their offices, while the neighboring Amalgamated
+companies gave particulars freely.
+
+The question of secrecy should be considered, and if there is no very
+good excuse for maintaining a privacy it should not be instituted. The
+trend of all modern thought is along the line of publicity in all our
+dealings. The only persons who have a reasonable right to be secretive
+are those who have something they do not care to share or divulge to
+their fellow-men. Law breakers, tax dodgers, and trespassers, could be
+put into one class; persons doing research work which it is premature to
+publish are a more respectable class; manufacturers with strong
+competition in the sales markets are in a measure excusable; even a mine
+which is producing some material in the sale of which it attempts to
+maintain a monopoly might be excusable. But it is hard to see what
+excuse or benefit there is for a coal or a copper mining company to
+prevent a knowledge of its affairs, if the business is being conducted
+along strictly legitimate lines.
+
+
+
+
+XXI
+
+INVESTMENT IN MINING STOCKS.
+
+
+As a feature of investment in mining stocks, there has always been a
+more or less open lure. Generally much larger returns are promised or
+are expected than in other kinds of investments. There may be absolutely
+no intention on the part of the seller to create this impression; but
+there does, somehow, exist in the memories of people accounts of
+wonderful fortunes that have been made in 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.
+Concerning the average stock purchaser, then, we may conclude that it is
+speculation rather than true investment that he is seeking.
+
+The writer hopes that, even in the short preceding discussions, the
+reader will have come to agree with him and to understand that safe
+investments are as possible in mining as in any other business. It would
+be a great benefit to this great industry of mining were the public
+taught to take interests--that is, financial interests--in mining
+concerns with the same precautions and with the same sound business
+sense that accompany the purchases of interests in other enterprises.
+Writing along this line of thought, Mr. P. A. Leonard has this to say in
+_The Mining World_: "One very general difficulty seems to be that the
+man unacquainted with mines who is asked to invest either expects an
+unreasonable return for his money, or he blindly closes his eyes and
+takes what he calls a 'flyer,' expecting little more from it than he
+would if he bought margins on 'change or bet on a horse race."
+
+About the first thing that the promoters of a new mining company do is
+to issue a neat, attractive prospectus. It is a bait, no matter how
+reliable these men may be nor how worthy the property they desire to
+work. Many of these documents are written in absolutely good faith and
+every representation is intended to be accurate. There are occasionally
+offered for sale stocks in mining properties that warrant the fullest
+confidence of the promoters and the investors. However, careful perusal
+of a great many of these pamphlets has led the writer to the conclusion
+that at least 75 per cent. of them are unreliable from the fact that
+they either wilfully misrepresent or because they grossly exaggerate the
+probabilities of success beyond all reason. Exaggeration is a habit with
+some people and it is used many times with no real criminal intent or
+even consciousness upon the part of the offender. But its effect is just
+as baneful when innocently inflicted as when it is used in a
+premeditated manner.
+
+Good, worthy mining property does not need to be hawked, usually. There
+have been periods of financial unrest when it has seemed quite
+impossible for honest men to dispose of interests in what were
+unquestionably reliable mining enterprises. At such times, there has
+been nothing to gain by any amount of teasing the public, and any
+attempts at forceful disposal of interests in the concerns have but
+served to kill any small remnants of confidence that the public may have
+possessed.
+
+Prospectuses are usually prepared for the reading of small investors who
+may feel inclined to risk a few dollars or, in other words, to speculate
+upon the representations contained in the seductive pamphlets. There are
+a few "Don'ts" which it would be well for any person inclined to invest
+in mining stocks to read, consider, and follow. For instance, never
+invest in any new stock whose company _guarantees_ specific dividends.
+Profits in mining, except in rare cases, cannot be so accurately
+foretold as to warrant such a guarantee. We should remember that the
+success of any mine depends upon many, very many, contingencies and that
+some of them are invisible and are among Nature's secrets. Again, avoid
+placing any confidence in those companies that are simultaneously
+selling treasury stock and declaring dividends. This is a very common
+practice of the numerous "get-rich-quick" concerns which Uncle Sam has
+been routing the past few years. Such crooked practice is difficult to
+eradicate, although severe penalties are awarded the transgressors.
+
+The success which has been met in the operation of the _great_ mining
+companies of the world can, in the majority of cases, be traced to the
+common sense which was exercised in the business management. The
+_business of mining is legitimate_. If mining is one of the basic
+industries of the world, how could the operation of a real mine be
+anything but a legitimate business? The mere fact that there have been
+neat opportunities for, and the practice of, fraud in the growth of this
+tremendous industry does not by any means, argue that the whole thing is
+founded upon unstable premises.
+
+What is needed is a presentation of the industry in its legitimate
+aspect before all kinds of investors and this can be done properly and
+effectively only by the rank and file of men interested in mining. These
+men should place themselves boldly on record as combating all sorts of
+deals that smack of fraud, and they should do their utmost to discourage
+all delusions that may exist in the mind of the public with reference to
+the supposed lure offered by mining.
+
+There have been too many causes of failure in mining for even a partial
+enumeration of them. There have been many errors in getting started,
+both on the part of the organizers and the investors. There have been
+many mistakes in management. Many blunders have been evidenced in the
+operation of mines which made very good starts. All of these failures
+are attributable to something outside of the mine's intrinsic worth;
+they are mistakes due to inexperience or misconception. Such
+shortcomings should not be tolerated in the make-up of a mine's
+managerial staff.
+
+Perhaps one of the most common mistakes of mine managers is to submit to
+a condition of nepotism that is often furthered by directors or
+stockholders. No responsible position around a mine should be filled by
+a novice. Just because a director has two or three sons needing
+situations does not make it incumbent upon a superintendent or a manager
+to jeopardize his reputation by employing these young men. Percy
+Williams, a veteran mining man, advised "Don't take your son or nephew
+or your clerk out of your store or business house and send him to
+Arizona or Colorado to run things for you at the mine. Sell out first.
+If you are a director in a mining company, do not force the manager or
+superintendent to find a job for all your unsuccessful friends and
+relatives. Let him hire his own men. Don't convert your mine into an
+asylum for ne'er-do-wells."
+
+As already stated, there is protection obtainable by every investor in
+mining. One may always secure, at reasonable cost, the services of
+competent engineers whose business consists in sizing up the worth of
+mining property. If the services of these men were more generally
+appreciated and secured, there would be a great diminution in the
+number of disappointments following investments in mining. An eastern
+man of means complained to the writer about the way in which he had been
+"stung" in various mining investments. A little catechizing brought
+forth the facts that he knew absolutely nothing about mining in general
+and that, worse still, he had never investigated--that is, in a
+business-like manner--any of the propositions which had absorbed his
+ready money. Receiving no sympathy during the recital of his troubles
+but, instead, the assurance that he "got what was coming to him," he was
+prepared to sit up, take notice, and listen to a severe roasting which
+opened his eyes about mining matters. Now, this man has proved
+successful in other lines of business. He is a prominent lawyer and
+banker in his own city and has numerous, scattered, money-making
+interests. But he was content to go into mining without the
+investigation which it is certain he would have given to any other sort
+of an investment.
+
+The time should come when there would not be such a prevalent
+"slaughter of the innocents" in mining investments. People must learn to
+curb their gullibility in such affairs. But this has proved almost
+impossible. Just as it is in the nature of some persons to gamble, and
+it takes something more than misfortune at gaming to wean them from the
+vice, so it is with a certain class of men who can not overcome the
+temptations of dabbling in mining. Such men will not desist even when
+they have suffered several delusions, and will continue to "send their
+good money after their bad," absolutely defiant of the well-meant advice
+of friends who are often in position to judge of the merits of any
+contemplated investment. Probably every mining engineer of any extended
+experience can tell of instances in which he has endeavored to
+discourage clients from investment in unworthy mining enterprises but in
+which the gambling instinct of the clients has overridden the sound
+advice.
+
+During the early days of the wonderful Cripple Creek District, all sorts
+of wildcat tricks were successfully practiced upon the "tenderfeet" and
+the "down-east suckers." In one case, stock was readily unloaded upon
+the representation that a person could stand in the door of the cabin on
+the property and "look right into the shaft-house of the Independence
+mine." This statement was not untrue, although grossly misleading; for
+while it was actually quite possible by the use of a telescope to span
+the intervening three or four miles, visually, the prospect lacked the
+propinquity to the famous mine that was the bait implied by the
+statement in the prospectus. This is but one of many ingenious tricks
+that were played. Did the outcome of this one fraud cure the victims of
+irrational mining investment?
+
+Railroads, too, have, in the past, added their troubles to the mining
+men. Recent laws have, however, to a great extent, mitigated the
+annoyances and unjust practices that the common carrying companies have
+been in the habit of committing. It is now obligatory upon a railroad
+company to treat all shippers without favor or discrimination, so that
+the difficulties formerly experienced by one mining company in getting
+enough ore cars to transport its shipments while its rival company could
+have cars in abundance, is now almost a thing of the past. It takes time
+to right all wrongs of this sort. It is a slow matter to get laws
+framed, passed through the necessary legislation, and made effective.
+But the outlook is favorable, along this line.
+
+The leasing system has exercised an influence upon the mining activity
+of many districts. By this system is meant the custom of renting or
+letting the whole, or fractional parts, of a mining property to miners
+who enter upon and work the premises, extract the ores, and pay to the
+owners a specified percentage of the receipts from the marketing of the
+ore. This practice has frequently been the only successful way of
+operating some mines. It has, at times, been the manner of operating
+practically every mine in certain districts.
+
+In districts carrying pockets of very rich ore, "high grading" has been
+discouraged in this way, for the "leasers" (incorrect, though common,
+word for lessees) do their own mining and there is much less object in
+stealing.
+
+In other instances of mines which have been operated by the owning
+companies until they were past a profitable stage, it has been proved
+possible to prolong the life of operations very materially by leasing
+the property to miners, who always work with more diligence and economy
+for themselves than they ever do when working under "day's pay." This
+feature of leasing has been quite a factor in the lives of some of the
+mines of the Cripple Creek District. Until the recent drainage of the
+district through the Roosevelt Tunnel, there were numerous small--and
+even some large--properties that had worked all the ore bodies
+previously known to exist above the water level of the district, and had
+been obliged to shut down because of the heavy pumping expenses. Company
+operation did not longer pay. But the plain "leaser" and his partner
+could go into such old workings and they could prospect and find ore
+bodies that had escaped the observation of the superintendents. The
+expenses incurred in leasing are low. It is true that lessees will not
+probably take as good care of mine workings and equipment as will
+"company men," and often a property may be seriously crippled through
+the lack of sufficient timbering after having been in the hands of a set
+of lessees for some time. But, on the whole, there has probably been
+more benefit than loss through the letting of leases.
+
+When, a few years ago, the plans of the National Forestry Service were
+put into effect, there was great complaint recorded concerning the
+rulings that were made against various miners. Some very well
+authenticated cases of wrongs were cited. However, it is now believed by
+all fair-minded men that there has been no intention, on the part of the
+officials of the Forest Service, to interfere with any legitimate mining
+enterprise. There was a well-founded object, viz., to put a stop to
+dishonest practices in obtaining title to timber lands by the
+misrepresentation of mineral finds.
+
+The General Land Office passed a rule authorizing Foresters and
+Assistant Foresters to make inspections of all mining claims within
+their reserves and to report to the Secretary of the Interior. The idea
+embodied in this rule was that these men, being agents of the Government
+and upon the ground, are able to investigate the facts concerning every
+mining claim and its claimant and so to run across any evidences of
+fraud that might be attempted in the securing of title. Trouble
+immediately arose because the Foresters were not all experienced miners
+and prospectors and so were not thoroughly qualified to pass judgment
+upon the merits of mineral lands. This weakness has been admitted by the
+officers of the Service but the excuse has been offered that there was
+an immediate need for a great many Foresters and it was not possible to
+secure men trained in both forestry and mining at such short notice.
+"Just as soon as conditions became better understood, and money was
+available to allow the Service to hire men whose judgment in mining
+matters could not be gainsaid, such men were employed," says Paul G.
+Reddington, recently Forester for the Rocky Mountain Regions. 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. Minerals which
+are not now ores--according to the accepted, scientific definition,
+because the values cannot be recovered at a profit--will, at some future
+period, become ores. It is not safe to make any close predictions along
+this line, for such marked reductions in treatment costs have been going
+on during the last few years that mining men are entertaining great
+expectations. Inventions for improvement in metallurgical lines are
+being placed upon the market so frequently that it is difficult for even
+the professional metallurgist to keep posted. This being true, it is
+clear that the layman cannot expect to keep abreast of the
+metallurgical advance. At the same time, it is well for everybody to be
+slightly conversant with the wonderful advances being made in the
+reduction and dressing of ores. Conspicuous in this field are the
+improvements that have been effected in cyanidation, electrolytic
+amalgamation and extraction, and flotation. These processes are
+applicable to the lower grades of ore. Among the very recent successes
+in the treatment of very low-grade gold ores are the operations
+conducted in the new mills of the Portland Gold Mining Company,
+Stratton's Independence, and the Ajax Gold Mining Company, all in the
+Cripple Creek District. All of these mills are now treating old mine
+dumps, the contents of which were considered as absolutely waste matter
+at the time it was excavated. This stuff is now ore and its treatment is
+making fine profits. There is still a demand for cheaper methods of
+reducing ores of zinc. There are vast quantities of stuff that contains
+very good percentages of zinc, but the material cannot be mined and
+treated at a profit under existing conditions. With the invention of
+something radically new in the metallurgy of this metal, there will be
+opened an entirely different aspect in the zinc-mining regions. The
+Leadville District possesses great reserves of this material that is
+being held until it may become "ore."
+
+[Illustration: FLORENCE MINE AND MILL, GOLDFIELD, NEVADA.]
+
+
+
+
+XXII
+
+THE MEN OF THE FUTURE IN MINING.
+
+
+The mining of the future will probably be largely in the hands of young
+men. To arrive at any conclusions concerning the probabilities of
+success, therefore, we are obliged to recognize the dual conditions. In
+other words, there is to be an interdependence between men and mining.
+Up to this point in our discussion, we have dwelt upon the probabilities
+as viewed from the standpoints of natural resources and of human
+capability. In a certain degree, we have already covered the ground of
+this present chapter; and yet there are some points that must be given
+special consideration.
+
+What is the true status of metal mining? Alarmists would have us believe
+that civilization is rapidly exhausting the world's reserves of
+available metals. Conservative investigation, however, repudiates such
+notions. The best that can be claimed for the reliability of such
+disconcerting statements is that they may apply in _some_ districts, to
+_some_ grades of _some_ kinds of desirable mineral matter.
+
+It may be true that the early miners have removed the "cream" from
+Nature's deposits in some districts, in the sense that they have skimmed
+off, as it were, the rich surface portions. But this does not signify
+the exhaustion of deeper ore bodies, nor does it mean that the pioneers
+were the only capable prospectors.
+
+Why should we have any reason to deny the ability of present or future
+generations to find just as good mineral deposits as did our
+predecessors? Persons in some of the older of the western mining
+states--as for instance, Colorado or California--are apt to carry a
+misconception along this line. They can see a number of idle "camps"
+that are mere relics of former thriving mining communities and they are
+liable to jump to the conclusion that the day of mining at such places
+is past, forever. However, as we look at the subject in a more rational
+light, we shall see that there is no more authority for such an
+assumption than there is for one to the effect that a farm in the
+wintertime is a worthless proposition simply because, temporarily, it is
+not producing its customary summer yield. Just as Nature brings about
+changing conditions for the farmer, so will economic forces establish
+varying degrees of attractiveness to the miner.
+
+It is unfair to judge one of the pioneer mining districts by its
+activity at the present time, if the productiveness happens to be small.
+Let us look for the reasons of the apparent decline. The chances are
+that the inactivity will be shown to be due, not to an exhaustion of ore
+bodies, but to some needed changes in mining or metallurgical methods.
+Very likely, under a readjustment of our notions about that particular
+district there will appear to be as great latent possibilities as ever
+cheered the earlier operators. The prospects may appear to be even
+better than this, and the future may appear to extend greater
+opportunities than were ever manifested in the past. Investigation may
+disclose great bodies of ore that could not be seriously considered in
+the earlier working of the region. In fact, speaking technically, the
+stuff in question was not ore at the time of previous operations, for it
+could not then be made to yield a profit. And yet, by introducing some
+changes in equipment or methods of working or treatment, there may be
+possibilities of making a great deal of money from an abandoned
+property; and the chances are good that this same profit may be won at a
+much more rapid rate than was ever before possible and that therefore
+the economic conditions are enhanced. For we must not lose sight of the
+fact that the greatest profits in mining usually accrue from the most
+rapid exhaustion of the ore bodies.
+
+A mine, or even a whole district, may have been deserted because of
+failure on the part of original miners to recognize the value of certain
+minerals. The recent revival of activity that has been noted in
+Leadville mining circles is but an instance in point. In this district,
+miners have given a delayed recognition to some important minerals of
+zinc, and the indications are that Leadville has entered upon another
+of its eras of mining activity.
+
+But, it is not necessary to restrict our thoughts to the old mining
+regions, for if we can observe how easy it has been to overlook valuable
+deposits in a country that has been subjected to severe mining work, for
+years and years, what must we conclude concerning the possibilities of
+the many and vast undeveloped areas in remote portions of the globe? It
+would seem that there is indeed very small cause for alarm about the
+exhaustion of the earth's metals.
+
+No, it can be shown that mining, which is one of the very fundamental
+industries of the world and the one upon which every other form of
+commercialism rests, will be carried on with a continual increase in
+magnitude just as long as man exists. As the richer and more easily
+mined ore reserves of Nature are exhausted, improved and cheaper methods
+of mining, transportation, and treatment will be introduced and at a
+pace that will equalize this exhaustion. We, of the present generation,
+see the eminently successful handling of copper ores of grades so low
+that they were not given passing consideration ten years ago. The
+outlook would appear to be that the improvements in methods and costs
+will not only keep abreast of needs in such matters, but the
+probabilities are that they will take a very marked lead, with the
+result of a continually increasing scope to the mining industry. Let us
+then entertain optimistic views about the _future of mining_.
+
+Now, as to the future of the young man who engages in mining there is
+just as much to be said as there is concerning the career of a young man
+in any other line of business. This word "business" is used advisedly,
+for the day is past when any person has a right to say that mining is
+anything but strictly legitimate business.
+
+We look to the young men of the present and future to correct all of the
+shortcomings that have hindered the establishment of mining upon its
+deserved plane of stability in the minds of the general public. Young
+blood will take a lead in the dissemination of the correct thoughts
+about mining.
+
+The successful man in mining will be, as heretofore, the one with the
+right qualifications in his make-up. Is a college education an essential
+prerequisite to success in mining? No, the writer is not one to declare
+that young men cannot succeed in the business without college training.
+However, there can be no avoidance of the proposition that the chances
+of the college-trained man are better than are those of the man who has
+not had the benefits of such a career.
+
+A man may be said to engage in mining in three different ways. Thus, he
+may operate mining property; or he may perform any of the manifold lines
+of mining engineering; or he may be an investor in mining property or
+mining stocks.
+
+To prove a success when enrolled in either of the first two classes,
+there is no denying the advantages of technical, mining education. The
+successful investor likewise will do well to make a consistent study of
+mining economics, and the more attention he gives to the many phases of
+approved modern mining, the greater will be his ultimate achievement,
+financially. Just as education along usual school branches is of
+immeasurable benefit to any man of business, so is it to the mining man.
+And in just as great ratio is the possession of innate business ability.
+
+Education and natural ability are the two elements that will count in
+the future of any young man in mining.
+
+Space might be devoted to the discussion of the possibilities of young
+men in the field of research work along scientific lines that would add
+materially to the economy and scope of mining. Such a career offers
+inducements looking to the achievement of honor as well as fortune. The
+field for such service is ready.
+
+
+
+
+XXIII
+
+MISCELLANEOUS CONSIDERATIONS.
+
+
+There are regions producing ores that are too refractory for the simple
+treatments that might be given by company plants located at the mines.
+There are districts that have many small gold and silver mines with ores
+that do not yield to simple milling processes and which must therefore
+be shipped to custom smelteries. Even were the ores amenable to milling
+of some sort, it is often the case that the mines are not of sufficient
+magnitude to warrant the maintenance of their own treatment plants.
+
+Under proper trade and commercial conditions, there is no impropriety in
+shipping ore to a custom plant or in selling it outright to a company
+owning such a plant. But, contemporaneously with much of the mining in
+the West, there has been such a monopoly on ore treatment that great
+injustice has been wrought to the shippers of small lots of ore. Not
+only has this accusation been true of smelting concerns but also of
+milling companies. Once in a while representatives of such corporations
+will arise and attempt to refute these statements, but the evidence is
+overwhelmingly against them, and their arguments of being benefactors of
+the miner fall flat.
+
+By consolidation of companies and the elimination of competition,
+arrogant methods and unreasonable charges have been put into force; and
+the managers of mines have been obliged to accept whatever rates the
+monopolists saw fit to charge for treatment and whatever arbitrary
+prices they cared to pay for the metallic contents of the shipped ores.
+Very gross extortion has been practised and even yet there are many
+mining camps which are so absolutely under the control of these concerns
+that properties which should pay well, under just and favorable
+conditions, are forced to remain idle. These conditions could not be
+expected to prevail forever, and the time is now at hand when the
+extortionate smelting and milling trusts are meeting with pronounced
+opposition and a greatly diminished business. The state of Utah has
+demonstrated the ability of ore producers to bring the oppressors to
+time and the mine owners of that state are in a much more favored
+position right now than are the miners of Colorado, for instance, who
+really have been the greater sufferers. The Utah mining men have
+benefited by the sad experiences of the miners of the sister state. In
+Colorado, the American Smelting and Refining Co. has been a domineering
+factor in the mining industry for years, and the decrease of mining in
+Colorado has been contemporaneous with the oppression of this great
+corporation. The real cheating that has been practised by the ore-buying
+and ore-treating companies is well understood by all mining men who have
+been within their clutches.
+
+It seems to be a fact that every tyrant eventually proves his own
+undoing. In the case of the oppressive smelter trust, the greed resulted
+in an immense income for the time being; but as mines were obliged to
+close down because of the unjust charges imposed for handling the ores,
+the quantities of ore handled continued to diminish. During the past few
+years when mining has been so unusually dull in many of the western
+mining camps, it has been very difficult for the smelting company to
+secure enough ore to keep running, and the present outlook is not
+encouraging. Statistics will show that the production of the metals is
+not really so low as the decrease in tonnages would seem to indicate,
+and the discrepancy is accounted for in the fact that very many mining
+companies have installed their own plants for either actually recovering
+their metals or for reducing their bulk of ores by concentration before
+shipping to the custom treatment plants. Thus the smelting company may
+still be turning out a large amount of metallic lead, for example, but
+it is smelted from concentrates instead of from crude ore and the
+tonnage, the principal basis for estimating smelting charges, is very
+much less than was formerly handled in obtaining the same amount of the
+same sort of product. The investigations started by the oppressed ones
+in their efforts to evade the oppressor have led to wonderful results,
+and it is no longer necessary for the miner to depend upon the smelter.
+
+Some similar sharp practice against the mining fraternity was attempted
+and for a short time successfully carried on by what was termed, in
+Colorado, the milling trust. This concern handled the ores from Cripple
+Creek, principally. The larger mining companies soon began the erection
+of their individual plants and the practice has been extending until it
+is now common for Cripple Creek mines to own and operate their own
+reduction works, much on the order of the practice in the Transvaal
+country.
+
+As a final word in this discussion, the author wishes to reiterate his
+belief in the legitimacy of investment in mines and mining stocks. When
+mining is placed upon sound business principles and every detail of the
+work is carried on with strict attention to sound economy, there can be
+few failures. This means that business judgment and expert advice must
+be used from the very start--in other words, that no false starts must
+be permitted. Then, after getting under way in a worthy enterprise, the
+successful mine operator will exercise just as close scrutiny of every
+operation, method, and employee as do the men who conduct other
+successful lines of business.
+
+This little work has been prepared primarily for the perusal of men and
+women who are not personally acquainted with details of mining, but who
+entertain notions of becoming financially interested. It is hoped that
+the simple descriptions of some of the elementary details will prove of
+use to a great many persons.
+
+
+
+
+        CAPITALIZATION AND DIVIDENDS OF NORTH AMERICAN METAL MINES.
+
+
+===============================================================================
+        Company        | State or |   Metals   | Capitali- | Par/ |Dividends to
+                       | Country  |  Produced  |   zation  |Share|Jan. 1, 1912
+-----------------------+----------+------------+-----------+------+------------
+Alaska-Mexican         |Alaska    |gold        | $1,000,000| $5   | $2,634,381
+Alaska-Treadwell       |Alaska    |gold        |  5,000,000| 25   | 11,385,000
+Amalgamated            |Montana   |copper      |155,000,000|100   | 63,579,315
+Anaconda               |Montana   |copper      | 30,000,000| 25   | 47,700,000
+Arizona                |Arizona   |copper      |  3,669,300|  1.20| 14,373,550
+Baltic                 |Michigan  |copper      |  2,500,000| 25   |  6,050,000
+Boston & Montana Cons. |Montana   |copper      |  3,750,000| 25   | 62,425,000
+Bullion-Beck & Champion|Utah      |silver, gold|  1,000,000| 10   |  2,738,400
+Bunker Hill & Sullivan |Idaho     |silver, lead|  3,000,000| 10   | 12,211,350
+Butte Coalition        |Montana   |copper      | 15,000,000| 15   |  2,450,000
+Calumet & Arizona      |Arizona   |copper      |  2,500,000| 10   | 11,500,000
+Calumet & Hecla        |Michigan  |copper      |  2,500,000| 25   |112,750,000
+Camp Bird              |Colorado  |gold        |  5,387,000|  5   |  6,541,960
+Centennial-Eureka      |Utah      |gold, silver|  5,000,000| 25   |  2,700,000
+Champion               |Michigan  |copper      |  2,500,000| 25   |  5,700,000
+Colorado               |Utah      |silver, lead|    200,000|  0.20|  2,270,000
+Copper Range Con.      |Michigan  |copper      | 40,000,000|100   | 10,751,180
+Crown Reserve          |Ontario   |silver      |  2,000,000|  1   |  2,387,898
+Daly                   |Utah      |gold, lead, |  3,000,000| 20   |  2,925,000
+                       |          |  silver    |           |      |
+Daly-West              |Utah      |gold, lead, |  3,600,000| 20   |  6,201,000
+                       |          |  silver    |           |      |
+DeLamar                |Idaho     |gold, silver|    400,000|  5   |  2,737,520
+Doe Run                |Missouri  |lead        | 10,000,000|100   |  2,448,478
+Elkton Con.            |Colorado  |gold        |  3,000,000|  1   |  2,666,959
+El Oro                 |Mexico    |gold, silver|  5,750,000|  5   | 12,426,590
+Esperanza              |Mexico    |silver, gold|  2,250,000|  5   | 10,752,750
+Federal                |Idaho     |silver, lead| 30,000,000|100   |  8,300,000
+Gemini-Keystone        |Utah      |gold, silver|    500,000|100   |  2,000,000
+Goldfield Con.         |Nevada    |gold, silver| 50,000,000| 10   | 11,027,812
+Granby Con.            |B. C.     |copper,gold,| 15,000,000|100   |  3,778,630
+                       |          |  silver    |           |      |
+Greene Con.            |Mexico    |copper      | 10,000,000| 10   |  6,137,800
+Guggenheim Exploration |Mexico    |all metals  | 22,000,000|100   | 10,151,995
+Hecla                  |Idaho     |silver, lead|    250,000|  0.25|  2,090,000
+Hercules               |Idaho     |silver, lead|  1,000,000|  1   |  3,132,000
+Homestake              |S. Dakota |gold        | 21,840,000|100   | 19,955,550
+Hond. Rosario          |C. A.     |gold        |  1,500,000| 10   |  2,955,000
+Horn Silver            |Utah      |silver      | 10,000,000| 25   |  5,642,000
+Iron Silver            |Colorado  |all metals  | 10,000,000| 20   |  4,250,000
+Kerr Lake              |Ontario   |silver      |  3,000,000|  5   |  2,430,000
+La Rose Con            |Ontario   |silver      |  7,500,000| $5   |  2,890,912
+Mammoth                |Utah      |gold,silver,| 10,000,000| 25   |  2,220,000
+                       |          |  copper    |           |      |
+Mohawk                 |Michigan  |copper      |  2,500,000| 25   |  2,150,000
+Mountain               |California|copper      |  6,250,000| 25   |  4,216,250
+Naica                  |Mexico    |silver, lead|     30,000|300   |  3,190,000
+Nevada Con             |Nevada    |copper      | 10,000,000|  5   |  2,400,000
+Nipissing              |Ontario   |silver      |  6,000,000|  5   |  5,490,000
+North Butte            |Montana   |copper,gold,|  9,000,000| 15   |  9,040,000
+                       |          |  silver    |           |      |
+North Star             |California|gold        |  2,500,000| 10   |  2,786,988
+Ontario                |Utah      |silver, lead|  5,000,000|100   | 14,962,500
+Osceola                |Michigan  |copper      |  2,500,000| 25   |  8,958,650
+Panuco                 |Mexico    |gold, silver|  2,000,000|      |  7,465,000
+Parrot                 |Montana   |copper      |  2,300,000| 10   |  6,991,138
+Penoles                |Mexico    |silver, gold|  2,000,000| 50   |  4,741,687
+Phelps, Dodge & Co     |U. S.     |copper      | 50,000,000|100   |  8,766,747
+Plumas, Eureka         |California|gold        |  1,406,250| 10   |  2,831,294
+Portland               |Colorado  |gold        |  3,000,000|  1   |  8,677,080
+La Rose Con            |Ontario   |silver      | $7,500,000| $5   | $2,890,912
+Mammoth                |Utah      |gold,silver,| 10,000,000| 25   |  2,220,000
+                       |          |  copper    |           |      |
+Mohawk                 |Michigan  |copper      |  2,500,000| 25   |  2,150,000
+Mountain               |California|copper      |  6,250,000| 25   |  4,216,250
+Naica                  |Mexico    |silver, lead|     30,000|300   |  3,190,000
+Nevada Con             |Nevada    |copper      | 10,000,000|  5   |  2,400,000
+Nipissing              |Ontario   |silver      |  6,000,000|  5   |  5,490,000
+North Butte            |Montana   |copper,gold,|  9,000,000| 15   |  9,040,000
+                       |          |  silver    |           |      |
+North Star             |California|gold        |  2,500,000| 10   |  2,786,988
+Ontario                |Utah      |silver, lead|  5,000,000|100   | 14,962,500
+Osceola                |Michigan  |copper      |  2,500,000| 25   |  8,958,650
+Panuco                 |Mexico    |gold, silver|  2,000,000|      |  7,465,000
+Parrot                 |Montana   |copper      |  2,300,000| 10   |  6,991,138
+Penoles                |Mexico    |silver, gold|  2,000,000| 50   |  4,741,687
+Phelps, Dodge & Co     |U. S.     |copper      | 50,000,000|100   |  8,766,747
+Plumas, Eureka         |California|gold        |  1,406,250| 10   |  2,831,294
+Portland               |Colorado  |gold        |  3,000,000|  1   |  8,677,080
+Quincy                 |Michigan  |copper      |  3,750,000| 25   | 19,330,000
+Richmond               |Nevada    |gold, silver|  1,350,000|  1   |  4,453,797
+                       |          |  lead      |           |      |
+San Rafael             |Mexico    |gold, silver|     60,000| 25   |  3,218,338
+Sta. Gertrudis         |Mexico    |gold, silver|  3,000,000|      |  3,960,000
+Sta. Maria del Paz     |Mexico    |gold, silver|    120,000| 12.50|  5,568,000
+St. Joseph             |Missouri  |lead        | 20,000,000| 10   |  7,208,357
+Silver King Coalition  |Utah      |silver      |  6,250,000|  5   | 12,522,385
+Smuggler               |Colorado  |silver,lead,|  1,000,000|  1   |  2,235,000
+                       |          |  zinc      |           |      |
+Standard Con           |California|gold, silver|  2,000,000|  1   |  5,194,130
+Stratton's Ind         |Colorado  |gold        |  5,500,000|  5   |  5,028,568
+Strong                 |Colorado  |gold        |  1,000,000|  1   |  2,275,000
+Tamarack               |Michigan  |copper      |  1,500,000| 25   |  9,420,000
+Tennessee              |Tennessee |copper      |  5,000,000| 25   |  2,056,250
+Tomboy                 |Colorado  |gold, silver|  1,500,000|  5   |  2,561,000
+Tonopah                |Nevada    |gold, silver|  1,000,000|  1   |  6,450,000
+United                 |Montana   |copper      | 50,000,000|100   |  7,625,000
+United Verde           |Arizona   |copper      |  3,000,000| 10   | 26,722,000
+Utah Copper            |Utah      |copper      | 15,268,000| 10   |  5,629,785
+Utah Con               |Utah      |copper      |  1,500,000|  5   |  6,900,000
+Vindicator Con         |Colorado  |gold        |  1,500,000|  1   |  2,227,500
+Wolverine              |Michigan  |copper      |  1,500,000| 25   |  6,300,000
+-----------------------+----------+------------+-----------+------+------------
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+    Accidents, 104
+
+    Adit, advantages of, 97, 100, 101, 104
+
+    Adit, defined, 95
+
+    Ajax mine, 200
+
+    Alaska, 8, 44, 67, 123
+
+    Amortization, 151
+
+    Anaconda mine, 44, 119
+
+    Arizona, 77
+
+    Australia, 26, 125
+
+
+    Bancroft, Geo., 160
+
+    Bankets, 116
+
+    Bassick mine, 112
+
+    Batea, 64
+
+    Bingham Cańon Dist., 73
+
+    Black Hills, 33, 74
+
+    Blanket vein, 111
+
+    Brazil placers, 8, 67
+
+    Buried placers, 61
+
+    Butte District, 44, 183
+
+
+    Cages, 102
+
+    California mining, 26, 31, 42, 61, 67
+
+    Camp Bird mine, 33, 121
+
+    Canadian mining claims, 54, 55
+
+    Capitalization, 140, 216
+
+    Charleton, A. G., 16
+
+    Chimneys, 112
+
+    Churn drilling, 65
+
+    Climatic influences, 83
+
+    Coal mining, 20, 23
+
+    Coal washing, 17
+
+    Colorado Fuel & Iron Co., 183
+
+    Colorado lode claims, 52
+
+    Comstock lode, 43, 91, 99
+
+    Concentration, 13, 156
+
+    Consulting engineer, 165
+
+    Copper mining, 24, 43, 73
+
+    Copper, price of, 175
+
+    Cornwall, 25, 122
+
+    Cost of patenting claims, 58
+
+    Cradle, 64
+
+    Cripple Creek District, 91, 109, 112, 125, 193, 196, 200, 214
+
+    Crosscuts, 96
+
+    Custom treatment, 210
+
+
+    Dead work, 79
+
+    Dikes, 108
+
+    Directors' functions, 163
+
+    Dividends of N. Amer. mines, 216
+
+    Dry placers, 71
+
+
+    Egypt, 22
+
+    Ely District, 74
+
+    Esperanza mine, 125
+
+    Examination of mines, 130, 191
+
+    Exploitation, 79, 166
+
+    Extralateral rights, 53
+
+
+    Failures in mining, 190
+
+
+    Gash veins, 111
+
+    Gangue, 118
+
+    Giants, 68
+
+    Gold, price of, 170
+
+    Gold production, 30 to 38
+
+    Golden Fleece, explained, 24
+
+    Grab samples, 167
+
+    Greece, mining in, 25, 122
+
+
+    High-grading, 126, 195
+
+    Homestake mine, 33, 123
+
+    Hoover, H. C., 162
+
+    Hydraulicking, 68, 70
+
+
+    Inclines, 95, 100
+
+    Incorporation, 140
+
+    Iron ore prices, 176
+
+
+    Joplin District, 13, 91
+
+
+    Kansas coal mining, 5
+
+    Kemp, Jas. F., 18
+
+    Kentucky lead mining, 8, 85
+
+    Keweenaw Peninsula, 116
+
+    Kimberly diamond mines, 43, 112, 127
+
+
+    Labor considerations, 84, 85
+
+    Lead, prices of, 178
+
+    Leadville, 44, 114, 150, 201, 205
+
+    Leasing, 195
+
+    Leonard, P. A., 186
+
+    Life of a mine, 92, 150
+
+    Lode defined, 51, 109, 110
+
+    Long tom, 65
+
+    Low-grade mining, 122, 200
+
+
+    Machinery, 89, 154
+
+    Management, 162
+
+    Mass, defined, 113
+
+    Metallurgy, 14
+
+    Mexico, 34, 43, 125
+
+    Mexican mining claims, 55
+
+    Milling, 14
+
+    Mine accounts, 179
+
+    Mine, definition of, 4, 8, 20
+
+    Mine promotion, 134, 139, 146, 186
+
+    Mine reports, 168
+
+    Miner's licenses and certificates, 55
+
+    Miner's pan, 64
+
+    Mine sampling, 130, 167
+
+    Mine timbers, 88
+
+    Mining, defined, 20, 80
+
+    Mining engineer's functions, 164, 191
+
+    Mining plants, 105, 154, 155, 157, 160
+
+    Minnesota iron ranges, 6, 42, 72, 127
+
+    Monitors, 68
+
+    Mount Morgan mine, 6, 73
+
+
+    Nevada Cons. Copper Co., 6, 74
+
+    New Zealand, 61
+
+    Nickel mining, 34, 43
+
+    Nickel, price of, 174
+
+
+    Ore defined, 18, 19
+
+    Ore deposition, 117
+
+    Ore dressing, 14, 16
+
+    Ore in sight, 131
+
+    Ore reserves, 131
+
+    Oroya-Brownhill mine, 125
+
+    Open pit mining, 72
+
+    Ophir, location, 24
+
+
+    _Pertinencia_, 56
+
+    Placer dredging, 66, 153
+
+    Placer defined, 60
+
+    Placering, 14
+
+    Platinum mining, 33
+
+    Platinum, price of, 172
+
+    Political considerations, 87
+
+    Porphyry mines, 76
+
+    Portland mine, 182, 200
+
+    Prospecting, 39
+
+    Prospects, 148
+
+    Prospect drilling, 65
+
+    Prospectuses, 186, 188
+
+
+    Quicksilver mining, 43
+
+    Quicksilver, price of, 178
+
+
+    Reddington mine, 43
+
+    Reddington, P. G., 198
+
+    Reefs, 116
+
+    Richard, R. H., 15
+
+    Rickard, T. A., 127
+
+    Riffles, 68
+
+    Robinson mine, 128
+
+    Rocker, 64
+
+    Roosevelt tunnel, 196
+
+
+    San Juan Region, 33, 99, 153
+
+    Secondary enrichment, 119
+
+    Secrecy in operations, 183
+
+    Shafts, 94, 98, 100
+
+    Silver, price of, 172
+
+    Silver production, 36
+
+    Skips, 102
+
+    Slope, defined, 95
+
+    Sluices, 68, 69
+
+    Sorting, 14
+
+    South Africa, 24, 33, 35, 128, 149
+
+    Spain, 122
+
+    Spurr, J. E., 120
+
+    Steam shovelling, 7, 72
+
+    Stock, defined, 112
+
+    Stratton's Independence mine, 194, 200
+
+    Stripping, 75
+
+    Sudbury district, 43
+
+    Supplies, mine, 87, 88
+
+    Surveyor-General offices, 58
+
+    Sutro tunnel, 99
+
+
+    Tin, price of, 173
+
+    Title to property, 81
+
+    Tonopah district, 13, 150
+
+    Topographical considerations, 82, 99
+
+    Transportation considerations, 82, 194
+
+    Transvaal, 13, 91
+
+    Treadwell mine, 44, 123
+
+    Treasury stock, 144
+
+    Treatment monopolies, 210, 214
+
+    Tungsten, price of, 174
+
+    Tunnel, defined, 94
+
+
+    Unionism, 85
+
+    United Verde mine, 182
+
+    U. S. Bureau of Mines, 28
+
+    U. S. coal claims, 47, 48
+
+    U. S. Forestry service, 197
+
+    U. S. lode claims, 46, 51
+
+    U. S. mineral output, 32 to 37
+
+    U. S. mineral surveyors, 56, 58
+
+    U. S. placer claims, 49
+
+    U. S. Postal Dept., 138, 189
+
+    Utah Copper Co., 6, 73
+
+
+    Van Hise, C. R., 115
+
+    Vein, defined, 107
+
+
+    Wallace, J. P., 150
+
+    Wallaroo mine, 43
+
+    Wasp No. 2 mine, 74
+
+    Wildcatting, 137, 193
+
+    Williams, Percy, 191
+
+
+    Zinc, price of, 177
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Business of Mining, by Arthur J. Hoskin
+
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+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
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+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" />
+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" />
+    <title>
+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Business of Mining, by Arthur J. Hoskin, M.E.
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css">
+
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+<body>
+
+
+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Business of Mining, by Arthur J. Hoskin
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Business of Mining
+       A brief non-technical exposition of the principles involved
+              in the profitable operation of mines
+
+Author: Arthur J. Hoskin
+
+Release Date: February 16, 2012 [EBook #38903]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BUSINESS OF MINING ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Eric Skeet and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_i" id="Page_i">[i]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="center"><a name="illus1" id="illus1"><img src="images/illus1.jpg" alt="Utah Copper Company's Open Pit Mine" /></a></p>
+<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Utah Copper Company's Open Pit Mine, Bingham, Utah.</span><br />
+This Mountain is Copper Ore.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ii" id="Page_ii">[ii]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<h1>THE BUSINESS<br />
+OF MINING</h1>
+
+<h3>A BRIEF, NON-TECHNICAL EXPOSITION<br />
+OF THE PRINCIPLES INVOLVED IN THE<br />
+PROFITABLE OPERATION OF MINES</h3>
+<h3>BY</h3>
+<h2>ARTHUR J. HOSKIN, M.E.,</h2>
+
+<p style="text-align: center; font-size: small; " >CONSULTING AND GENERAL MINING ENGINEER; WESTERN EDITOR, "MINES<br />
+AND MINERALS"; FORMERLY PROFESSOR OF MINING, COLORADO SCHOOL<br />
+OF MINES; MEMBER, AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF MINING ENGINEERS;<br />
+MEMBER, COLORADO SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY</p>
+
+<p style="text-align: center"><i>WITH 16 FULL PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS AND ONE CHART</i></p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/illus2.jpg" alt="Publisher's Logo" /></p>
+<h3>PHILADELPHIA &amp; LONDON</h3>
+<h2>J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY</h2>
+<h3>1912</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[iii]</a></span></p>
+<p style="text-align: center; font-size: small">COPYRIGHT, 1912, BY J. B. LIPPENCOTT COMPANY<br/>
+PUBLISHED JULY 1912</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p style="text-align: center; font-size: small">PRINTED BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY<br />
+AT THE WASHINGTON SQUARE PRESS<br />
+PHILADELPHIA, U.S.A.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[iv]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+
+<table border="0" summary="Table of Contents">
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2" class="left" style="margin-left: 20%; padding-right: 5mm">CHAPTER</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 0">PAGE</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="right" style="margin-left: 20%; padding-right: 5mm">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="left;"><a href="#chap0"><span class="smcap">Introduction</span></a></td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="right" style="margin-left: 20%; padding-right: 5mm">I.</td>
+<td class="left"><a href="#chap1"><span class="smcap">What Is a Mine?</span></a></td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">4</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="right" style="margin-left: 20%; padding-right: 5mm">II.</td>
+<td class="left"><a href="#chap2"><span class="smcap">What Is Mining?</span></a></td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">12</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="right" style="margin-left: 20%; padding-right: 5mm">III.</td>
+<td class="left"><a href="#chap3"><span class="smcap">The Antiquity of Mining</span></a></td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">22</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="right" style="margin-left: 20%; padding-right: 5mm">IV.</td>
+<td class="left"><a href="#chap4"><span class="smcap">Mining's Place in Commerce</span></a></td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">28</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="right" style="margin-left: 20%; padding-right: 5mm">V.</td>
+<td class="left"><a href="#chap5"><span class="smcap">The Finding of Mines</span></a></td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">39</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="right" style="margin-left: 20%; padding-right: 5mm">VI.</td>
+<td class="left"><a href="#chap6"><span class="smcap">Mining Claims</span></a></td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">46</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="right" style="margin-left: 20%; padding-right: 5mm">VII.</td>
+<td class="left"><a href="#chap7"><span class="smcap">Placering</span></a></td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">60</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="right" style="margin-left: 20%; padding-right: 5mm">VIII.</td>
+<td class="left"><a href="#chap8"><span class="smcap">Open Mining</span></a></td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">72</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="right" style="margin-left: 20%; padding-right: 5mm">IX.</td>
+<td class="left"><a href="#chap9"><span class="smcap">Considerations Preceding the Opening of Mines</span></a></td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">78</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="right" style="margin-left: 20%; padding-right: 5mm">X.</td>
+<td class="left"><a href="#chap10"><span class="smcap">Mine Openings</span></a></td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">93</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="right" style="margin-left: 20%; padding-right: 5mm">XI.</td>
+<td class="left"><a href="#chap11"><span class="smcap">Types of Ore Bodies</span></a></td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">107</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="right" style="margin-left: 20%; padding-right: 5mm">XII.</td>
+<td class="left"><a href="#chap12"><span class="smcap">The Questions of Depth and Grades of Ore</span></a></td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">115</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="right" style="margin-left: 20%; padding-right: 5mm">XIII.</td>
+<td class="left"><a href="#chap13"><span class="smcap">Valuation of Mining Property</span></a></td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">129</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="right" style="margin-left: 20%; padding-right: 5mm">XIV.</td>
+<td class="left"><a href="#chap14"><span class="smcap">The Mine Promoter</span></a></td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">134</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="right" style="margin-left: 20%; padding-right: 5mm">XV.</td>
+<td class="left"><a href="#chap15"><span class="smcap">Incorporation and Capitalization</span></a></td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">140</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="right" style="margin-left: 20%; padding-right: 5mm">XVI.</td>
+<td class="left"><a href="#chap16"><span class="smcap">Mining Investments</span></a></td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">148</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="right" style="margin-left: 20%; padding-right: 5mm">XVII.</td>
+<td class="left"><a href="#chap17"><span class="smcap">Mine Equipments</span></a></td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">154</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="right" style="margin-left: 20%; padding-right: 5mm">XVIII.</td>
+<td class="left"><a href="#chap18"><span class="smcap">Mine Management</span></a></td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">162</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="right" style="margin-left: 20%; padding-right: 5mm">XIX.</td>
+<td class="left"><a href="#chap19"><span class="smcap">Prices of Metals</span></a></td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">170</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="right" style="margin-left: 20%; padding-right: 5mm">XX.</td>
+<td class="left"><a href="#chap20"><span class="smcap">Mine Accounting</span></a></td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">179</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="right" style="margin-left: 20%; padding-right: 5mm">XXI.</td>
+<td class="left"><a href="#chap21"><span class="smcap">Investment in Mining Stocks</span></a></td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">185</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="right" style="margin-left: 20%; padding-right: 5mm">XXII.</td>
+<td class="left"><a href="#chap22"><span class="smcap">The Men of the Future in Mining</span></a></td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">202</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="right" style="margin-left: 20%; padding-right: 5mm">XXIII.</td>
+<td class="left"><a href="#chap23"><span class="smcap">Miscellaneous Considerations</span></a></td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">210</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="right" style="margin-left: 20%; padding-right: 5mm">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="left"><a href="#chap24"><span class="smcap">Capitalization and Dividends of North<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;American Metal Mines</span></a></td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">216</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="right" style="margin-left: 20%; padding-right: 5mm">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="left"><a href="#chap25"><span class="smcap">Index</span></a></td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">220</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[v]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>ILLUSTRATIONS</h2>
+
+
+<table border="0" summary="Illustrations">
+<tr>
+<td class="left" style="margin-left: 20%; ">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">PAGE</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" style="margin-left: 20%;"><a href="#illus1"><span class="smcap">Utah Copper Company's Open Pit Mine, Bingham, Utah</span></a></td>
+<td class="right"><i>Frontispiece</i></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" style="margin-left: 20%;"><a href="#illus3"><span class="smcap">Hacket Mine and Mill, Joplin, Mo.</span></a></td>
+<td class="right">12</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" style="margin-left: 20%;"><a href="#illus4"><span class="smcap">Coal Washing Plant, Pana, Illinois</span></a></td>
+<td class="right">17</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" style="margin-left: 20%; "><a href="#illus5"><span class="smcap">Universal Mine, Clinton, Ind.</span></a></td>
+<td class="right">20</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" style="margin-left: 20%; "><a href="#illus6"><span class="smcap">Kennedy Mine, Jackson, Cal.</span></a></td>
+<td class="right">31</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" style="margin-left: 20%; "><a href="#illus7"><span class="smcap">A Gilpin County, Col., Scene</span></a></td>
+<td class="right">53</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" style="margin-left: 20%; "><a href="#illus8"><span class="smcap">Dredges of Yuba Consolidated Goldfields, Hammonton, Cal.</span></a></td>
+<td class="right">66</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" style="margin-left: 20%; "><a href="#illus9"><span class="smcap">The Snowstorm Placer, Fairplay, Col.</span></a></td>
+<td class="right">70</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" style="margin-left: 20%; "><a href="#illus10"><span class="smcap">Steam Shovels and Churn Drills, Copper Flat, Ely, Nev.</span></a></td>
+<td class="right">74</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" style="margin-left: 20%; "><a href="#illus11"><span class="smcap">Mill of the Pittsburg-Silver Peak Gold Mining Co., Blair, Nev.</span></a></td>
+<td class="right">88</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" style="margin-left: 20%; "><a href="#illus12"><span class="smcap">Mills and Shaft House of Daly West Mine, Park City, Utah</span></a></td>
+<td class="right">100</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" style="margin-left: 20%; "><a href="#illus13"><span class="smcap">Shaft No. 3, Tamarack Mining Co., Calumet, Mich.</span></a></td>
+<td class="right">114</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" style="margin-left: 20%; "><a href="#illus14"><span class="smcap">Smeltery of the Balaklala Consolidated Copper Co., Coram, Cal.</span></a></td>
+<td class="right">114</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" style="margin-left: 20%; "><a href="#illus15"><span class="smcap">Washoe Reduction Works of the Anaconda Copper Mining Co., Anaconda, Mont.</span></a></td>
+<td class="right">119</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" style="margin-left: 20%; "><a href="#illus16"><span class="smcap">Mill of the Roodepoort-United Mines, Transvaal, South Africa</span></a></td>
+<td class="right">148</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" style="margin-left: 20%; "><a href="#illus17"><span class="smcap">Spray Shaft House of Copper Queen Consolidated Mining Co., Bisbee, Ariz.</span></a></td>
+<td class="right">161</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" style="margin-left: 20%; "><a href="#illus18"><span class="smcap">Diagram of Metal Market for One-third of a Century</span></a></td>
+<td class="right">178</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" style="margin-left: 20%; "><a href="#illus19"><span class="smcap">Florence Mine and Mill, Goldfield, Nev.</span></a></td>
+<td class="right">201</td>
+</tr>
+
+</table>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h1>THE BUSINESS OF MINING</h1>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="chap0" id="chap0">INTRODUCTION</a></h2>
+
+
+<p>There is probably no line of human
+activity that is not beset with malicious
+and ignorant intruders. The fact that
+any occupation or business is really legitimate
+seems often to stimulate the operations
+of these disreputable persons.</p>
+
+<p>Mining does not escape the application
+of this postulate. For ages, the
+industry has afforded most fertile opportunities
+for the machinations of the
+unscrupulous and the erring. Somehow,
+there weaves throughout the history of
+mining a sort of magnetism rendering us
+unduly susceptible to the allurements
+which are presented with every mining
+proposition.</p>
+
+<p>It is not, however, always intentional
+deceit that is perpetrated upon the unwary.
+Often, mining failures result from
+actual ignorance of the business upon the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span>
+part of those entrusted with its conduct,
+or if not from actual lack of knowledge,
+then from erroneous conceptions with the
+consequent misapplication of honest endeavor.
+A victim of such misplaced faith
+is perhaps more leniently inclined than
+is the person who has been duped by a
+"shark," but the effect upon the great
+industry is hurtful in either case.</p>
+
+<p>The purpose of this short monograph
+will be served if the author can feel
+assured that his readers will finish its
+perusal with the belief that mining may
+be followed as a business with just as
+much assurance of success as attaches
+to any one of the many lines of industrial
+activity. Many persons who have sustained
+losses in mining ventures deserve
+no sympathy whatever, since they have
+not exercised even the simplest precautions.
+So long as men&mdash;or women&mdash;will
+take as fact the word of any untrained
+or inexperienced individual concerning
+investments, just so long will there be
+resultant financial losses, no matter what
+the line of business. Because there have
+been elements of chance observed in the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span>
+records of mining, this business appeals to
+the speculative side of our human natures,
+with the result that untold numbers of
+individuals have had ample reason to
+regret their ventures. But, as will be
+found in the text matter, mining can be
+relied upon with precisely as much assurance
+as can any other business.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing of a technical or engineering
+sort has been attempted herein, the sole
+aim of the writer being to establish the
+reliability and the credit of the mining
+industry as a whole by pointing out the
+lines of conduct which should be followed
+by those who enter its precincts as business
+people. When investors of small
+or large means will put their money into
+mining projects with the same precautions
+that they would exercise in placing their
+cash in other enterprises, they will be
+rewarded with corresponding remuneration.
+In this firm conviction, then, this
+little work is dedicated to the intelligence
+of American laymen in mining matters.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="chap1" id="chap1">I<br/>WHAT IS A MINE?</a>
+</h2>
+
+
+<p>Before entering into a discussion of the
+economic features of the mining industry,
+it will be well to be sure that we understand,
+definitely, what is meant by mining.
+As one investigates the question,
+he is bound to run across varying shades
+of meaning for the words <i>Mine</i> and
+<i>Mining</i>, and so we must pause long
+enough to define these words according
+to the best usages.</p>
+
+<p>A search through works on mining
+written at various periods reveals differing
+ideas that have prevailed among
+authors. Less than a hundred years ago,
+it was said that a mine "consists of
+subterranean workings from which valuable
+minerals are extracted." One early
+writer said that a mine is one only when
+the operations are conducted in the
+absence of daylight. As time has created
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span>
+new fields for the industry, we find that
+ideas concerning the meaning of the word
+mine have necessarily altered, until now
+(according to The Coal and Metal Miners'
+Pocketbook), we may think of a mine as
+"any excavation made for the extraction
+of minerals." Under this definition, we
+properly think of the rather unusual
+operations of marketing coal right from
+the surface of the earth, in eastern Kansas,
+as mining. There is, in this case, no
+covering of earth above the workmen;
+neither are the operations necessarily
+carried on at night to avoid the illumination
+of the sun.</p>
+
+<p>So, also, placers are now correctly
+spoken of as mines, although but a few
+years ago there was drawn a strict line,
+eliminating such worked deposits from
+the category of mines. One may still
+run across a few men who are sticklers
+upon the point that a placer is not a
+mine. Throughout the world, at the
+present time, there are many places where
+immense deposits of valuable minerals
+are being excavated from open pits by
+out-of-doors methods, and our common
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span>
+term for these places is mines. Thus, in
+Minnesota, in that wonderful Lake Superior
+country, that is famous as the world's
+greatest known producer of iron ore,
+tremendous tonnages are handled every
+year by the modern steam shovel, which
+works in natural light by day and by
+electric lamps at night. In Utah and
+Nevada we find similar operations conducted
+in the excavation of copper ores.
+In Australia, the famous Mount Morgan
+mine is using open air methods in the
+mining of precious metal ore.</p>
+
+<p>But what about quarries from which
+are taken building stone, salt, kaolin or
+clay? Are not such substances of the
+mineral kingdom? Here we run across
+a hitch in the definition quoted above;
+for while we hear of "salt mines" (not
+"salted mines"), our parlance has not, as
+yet, warranted this term except for such
+excavations of salt as are carried on in
+subterranean deposits; and it is quite out
+of place to speak of stone or clay mines.</p>
+
+<p>Evidently we must pass through another
+transition in our conceptions about
+mines, or we must permit quarries and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span>
+pits to be included within our realm of
+mines. At the present time, the prevailing
+practice of the men best qualified
+in such matters is to designate as mines
+those workings from which only coal,
+metallic ores, or gems are extracted.
+Hence, we should not speak of a slate,
+sulphur, mica, clay or phosphate mine.</p>
+
+<p>And yet, with all the above restriction
+in our nomenclature, we have not
+reached one very important consideration,
+one which we have been approaching for a
+number of years and which, of late, has
+been met and forcibly applied by the best
+men in the profession of mining engineering.</p>
+
+<p>An excavation that will produce coal,
+metals or gems is not necessarily a mine.
+The simple fact that a man can get some
+gold-bearing dirt from a hole in the ground
+does not mean that he has a mine. The
+occasional finding of a diamond on the
+sidewalks of a great city does not give
+anybody the impression that city sidewalks
+are diamond mines. There are
+many places in which small amounts of
+combustible coal can be scratched from
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span>
+its natural depository, but no company
+appears to think highly enough of these
+seams to install machinery and to carry
+on operations. In the eastern part of
+Kentucky there are well-defined deposits
+of lead-bearing baryta, though, up to
+date, their development has not proved
+successful. In Brazil there are known to
+be very rich areas of placer ground, and
+still the deposits are not worked. A friend
+of the writer discovered some very good
+gold-bearing gravels in Alaska, but he was
+unable to mine.</p>
+
+<p>There is something besides the presence
+of valuable minerals and the ability to
+win them from their natural matrices that
+is essential to a mine. It is here, in our
+considerations of the mining industry,
+that we come into real economic notions
+for the first time. Yes, according to the
+latest ideas, we are wrong in stating that
+any worked or workable mineral deposit
+is a mine, <i>if it does not contain possibilities
+of profitable working</i>. This is now the
+prime thought of every up-to-date mining
+manager or engineer. It is this notion
+that will distinguish a mine from a prospect.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span>
+The prospect may become a mine
+by proving itself profitably workable: if it
+simply carries values which cannot be
+realized to advantage, then it must continue
+as a mere prospect. There are
+cases of properties which possess rich
+deposits and which are loosely called
+mines. These properties may be observed
+to be erratic in their productiveness,
+owing to the very pockety nature of the
+deposits; and the owners, although they
+do, indeed, strike occasional handsome
+bonanzas, expend all the profits of such
+finds&mdash;or even greater amounts&mdash;in
+searching for other pockets. Is such
+work profitable? Is it mining?</p>
+
+<p>The trouble with the cited placers of
+South America is that climatic, hygienic
+and political conditions have been antagonistic
+to successful working: the ground
+is rich, but it cannot be handled to make
+money. In the case of the Alaska gravels,
+there was no available, though essential,
+water supply. The Kentucky galena
+cannot be economically separated from
+the containing heavy spar. Coal, which
+is sold at comparatively low figures per
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span>
+ton, must be handled at the mines in
+large quantities to pay, so that a thin
+seam or a scattered deposit is not suitable
+for mining.</p>
+
+<p>Under these restrictions of our new
+definitions, we run across many interesting
+points. For instance, one may ask
+the question about the old abandoned
+hole in the ground which is occasionally
+found by prospectors, "Is it a mine?"
+The answer can be simply another query
+as to whether the hole was abandoned
+because it contained no value, or because,
+containing value, it could not be profitably
+worked. As we think of mines nowadays,
+we can conceive several reasons
+why, before the advent of transportation
+lines and the invention of modern metallurgical
+processes and many forms of
+labor-saving machinery now so common
+in and about mines, many very rich
+deposits may have been necessarily forsaken
+by their discoverers. But such a
+property would, if now worked, probably
+prove highly profitable. We thus note
+that there exists some elasticity in the
+meaning of the word mine. An unprofitable
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span>
+project at one time may develop
+into a mine at a later period. Many gold
+mines have become worthless propositions
+merely through changes in the ore that
+have rendered further work unremunerative.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="chap2" id="chap2">II<br/>WHAT IS MINING?</a>
+</h2>
+
+
+<p>Having considered the accepted definition
+of a mine, let us now extend our
+reasoning a little and inquire just what
+is meant by mining. At first thought,
+one would say that mining is, in a broad
+sense, the art or practice of excavating,
+at a profit, the ores of metals, the beds of
+coal, the gravels of placers and the deposits
+containing precious stones. Are we
+justified in letting this definition stand
+as it is? If we do not make any change,
+we must exclude all quarries, sand banks,
+clay pits, and the numerous sorts of
+works that are producing the non-metallic
+minerals of commerce. Very well, since
+we find good usage will warrant us, we
+will do so.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><a name="illus3" id="illus3"><img src="images/illus3.jpg" alt="Hackett Mine and Mill" /></a></p>
+<p class="caption">Hackett Mine and Mill, Joplin, Missouri.</p>
+
+<p>Still, there are other pertinent questions
+arising. Does the practice of mining
+cover the treatment of the excavated
+products? Here we run across a mooted
+point. The British and the American
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span>
+uses of the word mining seem to be a bit
+different in this regard. Upon the Rand,
+South Africa, a territory dominated by
+Englishmen, every mine is equipped with
+its own mill, and all notions of mining
+cover the inseparable idea of local ore
+treatment. Here, in our country, there
+are many, many mines which have absolutely
+no means of treating their own
+products and the managers give no
+thought whatever to metallurgical or
+milling lines. There are, on the other
+hand, many companies that have erected
+private plants at their mines for the
+extraction of metallic contents from the
+ores. Here it may, or it may not, happen
+that the operations of mining are considered
+as distinct from those of treatment.
+In some instances, as at the
+Tonopah Mining Company's plants, there
+is separate superintendence of the milling
+and the mining; but in the Joplin, Missouri,
+zinc region one superintendent
+looks after the running of a mine and
+its omnipresent mill.</p>
+
+<p>There may be drawn a sharp distinction
+between what is really mining and what is
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span>
+the subsequent treatment of the ores for
+the extraction of values. The latter field
+is denoted <i>Metallurgy</i> when the operations
+are of such a nature as to actually recover
+or extract metallic products or metals.
+If the treatment process has for its object
+merely the rejection of some of the worthless
+materials in the original ore, thus
+causing a concentration of the valuable
+minerals, but without actually obtaining
+any metal, then the term <i>Ore Dressing</i>
+is warranted. At some mines, there is
+maintained a practice of culling out,
+often by hand, a certain percentage of
+the obviously worthless ingredients of
+the ore before shipping the products to
+treatment plants. This is neither milling,
+metallurgy, nor ore dressing, but is more
+properly called <i>Sorting</i>. It is one of the
+operations connected with mining. Milling
+may be either ore dressing or metallurgy.</p>
+
+<p>In the operations of placering, there is a
+simultaneous <i>excavation</i> of a deposit and
+an <i>extraction</i> of the valuable contents.
+In this case, shall we call the process
+mining or metallurgy? If it is a gold
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span>
+placer, one may see the recovery of the
+metallic values. Here, the usage of the
+majority of practical mining men will
+uphold us in always speaking of the work
+as mining.</p>
+
+<p>In its original significance and use,
+metallurgy involved the use of fire for
+the concentration and recovery of metals.
+With recent advances in chemistry, there
+have been numerous discoveries of wet
+or fireless methods for arriving at equivalent
+results, so that it is now perfectly
+proper to allow the word metallurgy to
+cover such processes as cyanidation, chlorination,
+electrolysis, and the host of new
+inventions that are continually appearing.</p>
+
+<p>The writer has consulted a number of
+authorities on mining lines to ascertain
+just what sort of a position to give to the
+practice of ore dressing. Prof. Robert H.
+Richards, the head of the mining department
+in the Massachusetts Institute of
+Technology, and the inventor of machines
+which have made him famous among
+mining men, says, "Ore dressing is an
+essential part of mining. The whole
+object of ore dressing is to remove gangue
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span>
+before shipment and so save in freight
+and treatment charges." Mr. A. G.
+Charleton, the eminent English mining
+engineer and author of numerous books,
+in discussing this question, writes, "Personally,
+I am of the opinion that ore
+dressing should be included in mining."
+One has but to look through the catalogues
+of most of the American and
+foreign mining schools to find that little
+or no line is drawn between the courses
+in mining and metallurgy, and almost
+universally the dressing of a mine's product
+is taken up as an inseparable part
+of mining. In a very few exceptions, the
+courses of study are so planned as to
+draw an imaginary line between mining
+and metallurgy, and in these instances,
+ore dressing is placed with metallurgy
+only for convenience in the use and
+arrangement of college laboratories. But,
+since it is a common practice for mining
+companies to install plants right at the
+mines for the purpose of diminishing the
+bulk of ore shipped and to thus save in
+freight and custom treatment charges,
+mine superintendents and even the common
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span>
+miners have become accustomed to
+thinking of such plants as but units of
+the "mining" plants. At bituminous
+and anthracite mines whose products
+contain objectionable amounts of impurities,
+it is a common practice to subject
+the output to a <i>Washing</i> to remove the
+deleterious substances before shipment to
+the market.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><a name="illus4" id="illus4"><img src="images/illus4.jpg" alt="Coal Washing Plant" /></a></p>
+<p class="caption">Coal Washing Plant, Pana, Illinois.</p>
+
+<p>In view, then, of these reasons, it is
+proper to decide that mining is a term
+broad enough to cover the operations of
+extracting coal and metallic ores from
+the ground and of preparing them for
+shipment or metallurgical treatment.</p>
+
+<p>Coal is always coal, no matter in what
+thickness of deposit it is found. It may
+not be minable coal because in thin seams
+or because so intercalated with layers of
+slate or "bone," that the mine's mixture,
+or so-called "run of mine," is not salable.
+But with metallic ores, we run across an
+idea that is occupying the attention of
+many prominent geologists and mining
+men.</p>
+
+<p>What is ore? This is a question to
+which there have been many attempted
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span>
+answers. There has been an evolution
+of ideas, with a corresponding gradation
+of definition. To set a uniform standard
+of thought upon this point, officers of
+the United States Geological Survey, a
+few years ago, proposed the following
+definition. It must be conceded that
+this definition, while embodying many
+splendid features, is not altogether exempt
+from criticism; but in the absence of anything
+better, we shall not be very far in
+error if we use it:</p>
+
+<p><i>Ore</i> is a <i>natural</i> aggregation of one or
+more <i>minerals</i> from which useful <i>metal</i>
+may be <i>profitably</i> extracted.</p>
+
+<p>There is, then, no such thing as "pay
+ore" or "non-pay ore," expressions still
+quite common among miners and prospectors
+of the uneducated types. Prof.
+James F. Kemp, probably America's best-posted
+writer upon the subject, in an
+attempt to formulate one acceptable and
+unchangeable meaning for the word ore,
+says, "In its technical sense, an ore is a
+metalliferous mineral or an aggregate of
+such minerals, more or less mixed with
+gangue, and capable of being won and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span>
+treated at a profit. The test of <i>yielding
+the metal or metals at a profit</i> seems to me,
+in the last analysis, the only feasible one
+to employ." This definition eliminates
+one of the weak points in the first definition,
+namely, that an ore must be an
+association of minerals: there are some
+common ores (as for example, magnetite)
+which are not associations, but single
+minerals.</p>
+
+<p>We now reach certain fundamental
+concepts which must be accepted by the
+mining man who desires to be recognized
+as abreast of modern ideas. Following
+the publication of Kemp's definition of
+ore, there was much comment&mdash;as was
+anticipated&mdash;with the result that there
+has been noted a vacancy in scientific
+matters and it has been thought proper
+to permit another definition for purely
+scientific uses. This other definition of
+ore will cover the materials or aggregates
+of minerals from which gem stones and
+other valuable, but not metallic, substances
+are recovered.</p>
+
+<p>Let us recapitulate. An <i>ore</i> must be
+an aggregate or association of natural
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span>
+minerals, or a single mineral, from which
+metal may be profitably recovered. <i>Mines</i>
+are excavations in the earth from which
+ore, coal or gems are taken. <i>Mining</i> is
+the art or practice of operating mines.</p>
+
+<p>Throughout the subject, we see the
+inseparable idea of <i>profit</i>. The work of
+carrying on operations in a railroad tunnel
+is not mining; the driving of adits through
+barren rocks to reach ore bodies is not
+mining; the sinking of shafts through
+worthless "wash" or rocks with a view
+of opening avenues for the removal of
+ore is not mining. Mining is carried on
+only when ore is being produced. The
+wildcat practice of erecting small, temporary
+plants and digging prospect holes
+can be condemned as not being real
+mining.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><a name="illus5" id="illus5"><img src="images/illus5.jpg" alt="Universal Mine (bituminous), Clinton," /></a></p>
+<p class="caption">Universal Mine (bituminous), Clinton, Indiana.</p>
+
+<p>There is usually little question about
+the validity of a coal mining proposition,
+since "the goods show for themselves."
+Comparatively few cases of fraudulent
+ventures in coal properties are of record.
+The product of a coal mine is ready for
+market just as soon as it is loaded into
+railroad cars, the mining company receiving
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span>
+its pay, commonly, upon its own
+recorded weights. There is no freight
+to pay, no waiting for assays or analyses,
+and no settlements with mills or smelteries.
+There are not the allurements for getting
+rich quickly in coal mining that are so
+beguiling to the class of investors generally
+approached by the promoters of mines(?).
+This must not be construed as stating that
+nobody has ever been deceived in a coal
+mine proposition, for, indeed, there have
+been many failures; however, they have
+been due, chiefly, to auto-deception as to
+area, thickness or quality of the coal
+measures.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="chap3" id="chap3">III<br/>THE ANTIQUITY OF MINING.</a>
+</h2>
+
+
+<p>Mining is believed to have been one
+of man's earliest occupations. In historical
+writings, many of which date back
+into antiquity, there are allusions, as
+well as direct statements, concerning the
+art and tasks of obtaining valuable metals
+from Mother Earth. We are told that
+the very ancient Egyptians made common
+use of metals and that they possessed
+knowledge of certain metallurgical and
+metal-working processes (as for example,
+the tempering of copper) which we, of
+today, cannot claim. Six thousand years
+ago Egypt became a world power through
+her mining of copper in the Sinai Peninsula.
+Iron implements found in the great
+Gizeh Pyramid are supposed to date back
+to 4,000 B.C. Copper tools have been
+found in the ruins of ancient Troy. In
+Assyria, a very good steel saw, 44 inches
+long, was taken from the ruins of Nimrod.
+Iron was utilized by the Chinese some
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span>
+2,000 years B.C. Near Delhi, India,
+there exists an iron pillar, 22 feet long and
+weighing six tons, dating back to 400
+B.C. It is chiefly interesting in exhibiting
+an ancient knowledge of welding which
+is the envy of our modern iron workers.
+If we accept the Hebrew Scriptures, we
+must believe that mining was carried on
+in the time of Tubalcain, spoken of in
+Genesis. The Old Testament contains
+numerous verses referring to the mining
+of metals, the land of perfect abundance
+being paraphrased in Deuteronomy thus:
+"Where the stones are of iron and out
+of its hills are digged mines of brass."
+Coal was mined and used in Greece in
+1330 B.C.</p>
+
+<p>It is quite probable that gold was the
+earliest metal to be worked. There are
+two good reasons for this assumption:
+First, gold was to be found in the native
+state or as nuggets, thus requiring no
+reduction process. Second, the ores of
+gold are usually less refractory than are
+the ores of other metals. This is especially
+true of the oxidized ores such as
+would naturally be discovered by primitive
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span>
+man. These facts, together with
+the further properties of gold, <i>viz.</i>, that
+its color is attractive, that it resists corrosion
+or tarnish, and that it is easily
+worked into ornaments or coin merely
+by hammering, make it highly probable
+that humans early made use of this yellow
+material.</p>
+
+<p>We read in Job 28:1, that "gold is
+refined;" and modern investigations tend
+to prove that the Ophir of Biblical reference
+is the southern portion of Matabeleland
+or the Rhodesia of present fame
+among mining regions. It is possible and
+quite probable that the great quantities
+of gold used in the building and furnishing
+of King Solomon's Temple came from the
+vicinity of the present city of Johannesburg.
+The "golden fleece" of literature
+has been explained as a figure of speech
+for the skins of sheep which were laid in
+troughs to catch gold upon the principle
+of the riffle in a modern sluice-box.</p>
+
+<p>Copper was perhaps the second metal
+to be worked by man. As a rule, it, also,
+is easily smelted from its ores; and, as
+above mentioned, we have relics that
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span>
+give evidence of wonderful skill in working
+this metal in times of remote antiquity.</p>
+
+<p>However, other metals are believed to
+have been mined, upon commercial scales,
+before the Christian era. Silver and lead
+were handled in large quantities from the
+mines of Laurium, Greece, in the sixth
+century B.C., and the same mines are
+being worked to this day, the principal
+values now being in the lead rather than,
+as formerly, in the white metal. The
+Ph&oelig;nicians, about 500 B.C., invaded
+Spain for gold, copper and mercury, and
+Cornwall for tin and copper. The Almaden
+quicksilver mines of Spain have been
+operated, almost incessantly, since 415
+B.C., and in the 16th century, A.D.,
+the wealth of Europe's greatest family
+of financiers, the Fügers, was based upon
+the operation of this remarkable deposit.</p>
+
+<p>Del Mar, in his <i>History of the Precious
+Metals</i>, says, "Desire for the precious
+metals, rather than geographical
+researches or military conquest, is the
+principal motive which has led to the
+dominion of the earth by civilized races.
+Gold has invariably invited commerce,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span>
+invasion has followed commerce, and
+permanent occupation has completed the
+process. It is the history of the past as
+well as of the present. Scipio went to
+Africa, Cćsar to Gaul, Columbus to
+America, Cortez to Mexico, Pizarro to
+Peru, Clive to the conquest and Hastings
+to plunder Bengal."</p>
+
+<p>Our own day has witnessed the subjugation
+of the Boer. Because of Mexico's
+mineral wealth, many optimistic Americans
+are beginning to prophesy the
+annexation of our sister republic. For
+gold, Englishmen populated Australia
+in 1850, about the same time (1849) that
+we witnessed the rush to California gold
+fields. Spaniards settled Central and
+South American countries merely to gain
+the precious metals. It is mining which
+has been responsible for the population
+of the arid, southwestern portion of our
+own domain.</p>
+
+<p>In this, as in every other age of the
+world's development, we shall find that
+the mining industry lies at the heart of
+all commerce. It is well for the student
+of mining economics to fully appreciate
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span>
+this fact, for it will whet his interest in
+this great world industry.</p>
+
+<p>"Truly, it has been a great seeking
+and finding. The story of mining may
+have been staled by commonplace, and
+the romance of it dulled, often enough,
+by greed; yet, in the main, it has linked
+the generations of earth as with a golden
+thread&mdash;and if not golden only, then there
+has been the red glint of copper or the
+white sheen of silver. Mining districts
+may come and go, but mining remains."&mdash;(Editorial,
+<i>Engineering and Mining Journal</i>).
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="chap4" id="chap4">IV<br/>MINING'S PLACE IN COMMERCE.</a>
+</h2>
+
+
+<p>It is said that upon two of the world's
+commercial industries, every other form
+of activity depends. These two fundamental
+industries are agriculture and
+mining. Statisticians prove the above
+statement and the further fact that these
+two dissimilar branches of civilization's
+business are so closely related as to be
+quite inter-dependent. Strides are made
+by one of these industries only when
+advance is noted in the other. While it
+may not be possible to explain just why
+this is so, it is worth our attention to
+consider some brief figures that show
+this condition of affairs.</p>
+
+<p>The agitation conducted during the
+past few years, leading to the establishment
+of a Bureau of Mines in the Department
+of the Interior, attracted the
+thoughts of many students of economics
+who had not previously or seriously considered
+the industry of mining. The
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span>
+delivery of brilliant addresses showed
+that mining had been unjustly retarded.
+While agriculture has for years been
+fostered by the government and with
+remarkably satisfactory results, the great
+sister industry has been required, until
+recently, to struggle along without any
+governmental recognition in the matter
+of support. Yet it has forged its way in
+unmistakable terms of progress and there
+was an insistent demand, among those
+men particularly interested in the welfare
+of mining, for the protection and the
+assistance which would and has now
+come through the establishment of a governmental
+department. Various states
+have long recognized the importance of
+the mining industry by the establishment
+of departments. The Canadian and Mexican
+governments maintain very creditable
+Departments of Mines. It was but
+a question of time until the shortsightedness
+of our politicians (not our statesmen)
+was revealed, and the mining industry
+has now come under the auspices of a
+federal department.</p>
+
+<p>Taking the world as a whole, it would
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span>
+be hard to conceive the sum total of
+annual mineral productions. The middle
+of the past century seems to have been
+a critical period in the mining industry
+of the earth. There was a great impetus
+given to mining by the greed for gold
+which caused the settlement of our western
+states and the Australian states, as
+already mentioned. But there gradually
+followed the opening up of mining in
+many other and hitherto unpopulated
+and uncivilized portions of the globe.
+The search for gold was successful.</p>
+
+<p>Prior to 1850, the production of gold
+had not kept pace with the increase in
+population. Soon, however, it began to
+take leaps, in almost geometrical ratios,
+until, by 1900, the annual production of
+gold throughout the world was some 2,200
+per cent. of the production for 1800 (as
+nearly as may be ascertained). The
+1900 gold production was of a weight of
+about 400 tons, in round figures. During
+1911, the world produced approximately
+$470,000,000 (about 779 tons) in
+new gold bullion. It is estimated that
+with a continuance of the remarkable
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span>
+progress, the next 20 years will duplicate
+<i>the amount of gold now known in the
+world</i>. <i>This means that the amount of
+gold which has been accumulating from
+mining during the world's ages will be
+doubled during a fraction of our lifetime.</i>
+This is significant of the world's progress,
+in gold mining, at least.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><a name="illus6" id="illus6"><img src="images/illus6.jpg" alt="Kennedy Mine, Jackson." /></a></p>
+<p class="caption">Kennedy Mine, Jackson, California.</p>
+
+<p>It seems coincidental that the rush for
+gold in 1849-50 should have been almost
+simultaneous with the remarkable development
+of our other mineral resources.
+All of our great discoveries of coal, oil,
+silver, iron, lead, copper, and zinc can
+be said to have followed closely upon the
+discovery of gold in California. It is not
+supposed that the discovery of iron in
+northern Michigan in the early eighties
+had any connection with the "Pike's-Peak-or-Bust"
+expeditions, nor that the
+opening and development of the vast
+coal beds of Pennsylvania had any bearing
+on the discoveries of lead and zinc
+in the great Mississippi Valley. But, on
+the other hand, there can be traced a
+very intimate relation between the finding
+of gold, silver, copper, and lead in the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span>
+Rocky Mountain states and the search for
+gold in California: the pioneers en route
+to the coast were the discoverers and
+settlers in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and
+Montana.</p>
+
+<p>Figures are not available for arriving
+at such striking or reliable conclusions in
+regard to the world's production of metals
+other than gold, but there is no logical
+reason to doubt that such increases have
+been just as pronounced as in the case of
+the yellow metal. In fact, there are good
+grounds for assuming that the figures for
+silver, lead, iron, and zinc would show up
+even more spectacularly; while with coal,
+we know that we are now in the greatest
+period of the world's production.</p>
+
+<p>The United States leads the world in
+the production of the base metals, such
+as copper, iron, manganese, lead, and zinc,
+taken collectively or separately. Our
+country stands second in the production
+of the precious metals, gold, platinum,
+and silver. We have the greatest variety
+of mineral products, as well as the greatest
+production of complex ores, or those
+carrying more than one valuable metal.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span>
+We produce more copper than the rest of
+the world combined. Although we stand
+in second place when considering the
+production of gold, we still possess the
+Homestake mine in the Black Hills,
+famous as being the gold mine with the
+greatest tonnage in the world; and the
+Camp Bird mine, in the San Juan district
+of Colorado, famous the world over
+for its highest average value of gold ore.
+This great mine is now nearly exhausted
+and is about to close down after making
+a wonderful record.</p>
+
+<p>South Africa produces the greatest
+amount of, and the purest, natural gold
+in the world. Great Britain has an
+insignificant production of both gold and
+copper, and still it is noteworthy that
+the English-speaking nations control the
+world's production of both these metals.
+British and American citizens own seven-eighths
+of the world's gold mines. England
+stands second in the consumption of
+copper, which, of course, is mainly imported.</p>
+
+<p>Russia controls the world's output of
+platinum, with very little competition.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span>
+In a similar manner, Canada has the
+control of nickel production. Mexico,
+although not commonly regarded as a
+gold mining country, is rapidly coming
+to the front and possesses the Esperanza
+mine, said to be one of the most profitable
+gold mines in the world.</p>
+
+<p>To more emphatically show the importance
+of the mining industry, especially
+in our own country, the following facts
+are taken from 1900 census returns:
+Agriculture produces annually about $725
+per capita; mining, $1,910; and manufacturing,
+which is dependent upon the
+others, $760. <i>The National Banker</i> has
+said: "Statistics show that the combined
+dividends paid by the gold and silver
+mining companies of the United States
+are greater than the combined dividends
+paid by all of the banking institutions of
+the country; and the combined dividends
+paid by the copper mining companies of
+the United States exceed the combined
+dividends paid by all of our railroads."</p>
+
+<p>There is one thought that will always
+comfort any person who is engaged in
+furthering legitimate mining: Wealth
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span>
+acquired from a mine is not wrested from
+any being but Mother Earth, and it is
+not, therefore, in the class with the much
+discussed "tainted money" that is said
+to be wrung from unfortunate human
+beings.</p>
+
+<p>The following tables are presented
+to give the reader ideas concerning the
+productions of gold and silver during
+recent years. Among the interesting
+points that may be noted are the following:</p>
+
+<p>The gold production of the world took
+a sudden drop in 1900, but it immediately
+resumed its upward climb. During the
+decade from 1900 to 1910, this production
+increased over 81 per cent.</p>
+
+<p>There is a remarkable similarity noticeable
+in the gold productions of the United
+States during the years 1910 and 1911.</p>
+
+<p>Without the notable increase in the
+gold output of the Transvaal in 1911,
+the world's total gold production for that
+year would have shown a decrease.</p>
+
+<p>The silver production of the United
+States remained practically unchanged
+during 1911.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span></p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">GOLD PRODUCTION OF THE WORLD FOR 20 YEARS</p>
+
+<table style="margin-left: 20%; font-size: 10pt; " summary="Gold Production Statistics">
+<tr>
+<td class="left">1892</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 2%">$146,292,600</td>
+<td class="left" style="padding-left: 25%">1902</td>
+<td class="right" style= "padding-left: 26%" >$298,812,493</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left">1893</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5%">158,437,551</td>
+<td class="left" style="padding-left: 25%">1903</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 30%">329,475,401</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left">1894</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5%">182,509,283</td>
+<td class="left" style="padding-left: 25%">1904</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 30%">349,088,293</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left">1895</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5%">198,995,741</td>
+<td class="left" style="padding-left: 25%">1905</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 30%">378,411,054</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left">1896</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5%">211,242,081</td>
+<td class="left" style="padding-left: 25%">1906</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 30%">405,551,022</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left">1897</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5%">237,833,984</td>
+<td class="left" style="padding-left: 25%">1907</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 30%">411,294,458</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left">1898</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5%">287,327,833</td>
+<td class="left" style="padding-left: 25%">1908</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 30%">443,434,527</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left">1899</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5%">311,505,947</td>
+<td class="left" style="padding-left: 25%">1909</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 30%">459,927,482</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left">1900</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5%">258,829,703</td>
+<td class="left" style="padding-left: 25%">1910</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 30%">469,365,110</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left">1901</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5%">260,877,429</td>
+<td class="left" style="padding-left: 25%">1911</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 30%">473,383,543</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">UNITED STATES SILVER PRODUCTION<br />
+(In Fine Ounces)</p>
+
+<table style="margin-left: 20%; font-size: 10pt; " summary="Silver Production Statistics">
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 25mm"><span style="font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: underline">1910</span></td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm"><span style="font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: underline">1911</span></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >Alabama</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 25mm">300</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">174</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >Alaska</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 25mm">153,900</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">275,691</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >Arizona</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 25mm">2,655,700</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">1,594,428</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >California</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 25mm">1,791,600</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">2,727,336</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >Colorado</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 25mm">8,523,000</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">7,530,940</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >Georgia</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 25mm">300</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">225</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >Idaho</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 25mm">7,027,000</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">7,507,802</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >Illinois</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 25mm">2,100</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">4,648</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >Michigan</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 25mm">262,200</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">507,234</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >Maryland</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 25mm">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">87</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >Missouri</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 25mm">32,200</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">56,228</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >Montana</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 25mm">12,282,900</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">10,651,571</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >Nevada</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 25mm">12,366,000</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">507,234</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >N.Mexico</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 25mm">779,000</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">1,142,335</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >N.Carolina</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 25mm">8,300</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">2,227</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >Oklahoma</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 25mm">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">168,245</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >Oregon</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 25mm">43,800</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">69,116</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >Pennsylvania</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 25mm">700</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">13,262</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >S.Carolina</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 25mm">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">14</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >S.Dakota</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 25mm">120,600</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">206,188</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >Tennessee</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 25mm">69,800</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">126,683</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >Texas</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 25mm">364,400</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">442,486</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >Utah</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 25mm">10,445,900</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">12,679,633</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >Virginia</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 25mm">200</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">45</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >Washington</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 25mm">204,900</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">142,196</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >Wyoming</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 25mm">1,300</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">1,009</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >Porto Rico</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 25mm">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">51</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >Philippines</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 25mm">1,800</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">3,383</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >Miscellaneous</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 25mm">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">826,102</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 25mm">__________</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">__________</td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td class="left" >Total</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 25mm">57,137,900</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">57,796,117</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center">UNITED STATES GOLD PRODUCTION<br />
+(In Value)</p>
+
+<table style="margin-left: 20%; font-size: 10pt; " summary="Gold Production Value">
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 25mm"><span style="font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: underline">1910</span></td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm"><span style="font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: underline">1911</span></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >Alabama</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 25mm">$32,900</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">$18,335</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >Alaska</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 25mm">16,271,800</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">16,002,976</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >Arizona</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 25mm">3,413,200</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">2,954,790</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >California</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 25mm">20,441,400</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">20,310,987</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >Colorado</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 25mm">20,526,500</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">19,153,860</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >Georgia</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 25mm">24,000</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">30,532</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >Idaho</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 25mm">1,035,000</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">1,169,261</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >Illinois</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 25mm">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">5,788</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >Michigan</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 25mm">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">20</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >Maryland</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 25mm">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">20</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >Montana</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 25mm">3,720,400</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">3,169,840</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >Nevada</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 25mm">18,783,700</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">18,968,578</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >New Mexico</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 25mm">477,200</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">639,897</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >N.Carolina</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 25mm">64,500</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">76,693</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >Oklahama</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 25mm">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">30,698</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >Oregon</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 25mm">18,783,700</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">18,968,578</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >Pennsylvania</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 25mm">18,783,700</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">18,968,578</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >S.Carolina</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 25mm">37,800</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">13,437</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >S.Dakota</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 25mm">5,380,200</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">7,430,367</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >Tennessee</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 25mm">2,800</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">14,140</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >Texas</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 25mm">400</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">1,178</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >Utah</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 25mm">4,312,700</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">4,709,747</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >Virginia</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 25mm">900</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">4,300</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >Washington</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 25mm">806,000</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">504,537</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >Wyoming</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 25mm">4,100</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">18,791</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >Porto Rico</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 25mm">1,000</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">2,191</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >Philippines</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 25mm">154,400</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">130,501</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >Miscellaneous</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 25mm">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">265,013</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 25mm">__________</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">__________</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >Total</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 25mm">$96,269,100</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">$96,233,528</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">GOLD PRODUCTION OF THE WORLD</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span></p>
+
+<table style="margin-left: 15%; font-size: 10pt; " summary="World Gold Production">
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm"><span style="font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: underline">1910</span></td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm"><span style="font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: underline">1911</span></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >Transvaal</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">$155,730,260</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">$170,487,900</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >United States including Alaska</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">96,269,100</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">96,233,528</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >Australia</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">65,634,340</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">61,072,409</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >Russia</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">43,168,389</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">40,600,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >Mexico</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">24,073,100</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">19,500,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >Rhodesia</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">12,607,791</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">13,045,100</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >India</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">12,089,400</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">10,505,506</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >Canada</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">10,224,910</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">10,646,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >China</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">10,102,300</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">10,000,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >Japan, East Indies, etc.</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">10,522,437</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">10,600,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >West Africa</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">3,674,087</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">5,268,100</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >Madagascar</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">2,149,721</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">1,900,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >France</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">1,114,700</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">1,275,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >Central and South America</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">14,886,234</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">15,000,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >Other countries</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">7,118,841</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">7,250,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">__________</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">__________</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" >Total</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">$469,365,610</td>
+<td class="right" style="padding-left: 5mm">$473,383,543</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="chap5" id="chap5">V<br/>THE FINDING OF MINES.</a>
+</h2>
+
+
+<p>Mines are discovered in many ways.
+One hears much about prospecting, and
+since this is a practice which is rapidly
+changing from a mystical to a scientific
+basis, a few considerations will here be
+in order.</p>
+
+<p>Persons who have lived in mining
+communities are familiar with two types
+of prospector, the roving and the settled.
+Somehow, when we think of the former,
+there comes to mind a bearded, roughly
+clad man, usually accompanied by a
+"jack" and both packing the outfit consisting
+of a few tools, a pan, some blankets,
+a gun, and a supply of "grub." If
+we have in mind the other type of prospector,
+we imagine him as living an
+isolated life in a log cabin up in the hills,
+spending his daytime in putting in a few,
+short drill-holes and blasting down a ton
+or two of usually worthless rock in a
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span>
+"tunnel" or shallow shaft, confident that
+each succeeding shot will disclose a
+treasure.</p>
+
+<p>Both of these types represent the
+utmost in optimism. These men endure
+many hardships and privations, they can
+have little converse with other humans,
+often they can see no provisions for the
+next day; in fact, they receive few of the
+benefits of modern civilization&mdash;if we
+except the food-preserving features. Still,
+a typical, old-style prospector keeps on
+with absolute faith that fortune will
+smile tomorrow. We must reach the
+conclusion that these uneducated men
+are led on by subtle beliefs which, to a
+technically-trained man, seem like the
+rankest folly. They are diviners, dreamers.
+They are disappearing now and, a
+generation hence, there will be but memories
+of them. They are giving way to
+successors of a different type.</p>
+
+<p>The newer kind of prospector is well
+educated, and, perchance, he is rather
+youthful. His chances of success are
+many times those of the man he supplants.
+Why? Because he is taking
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span>
+advantage of the work that has been done
+by all former prospectors. He is guided
+by theories deduced from observations
+through ages, and he has the advice of
+the best contemporary men of experience
+in matters of geology as applied to mining.
+In other words, he is a scientific
+prospector.</p>
+
+<p>The prospector of today has a general
+understanding of mineralogy and geology;
+he must have knowledge of mining methods,
+so that he may know whether a
+deposit, once found, can be exploited at
+a profit; he must be ready to account for
+all discovered mineral bodies, and he
+must be capable of applying theories to
+actualities.</p>
+
+<p>There are so many metals and minerals
+sought for the markets of the world today
+that we see there are many fields of study
+and practice open to prospectors. It is
+not the purpose here to explain the
+details of scientific prospecting, for the
+study of this one subject would, in itself,
+fill a volume. The object of the above
+remarks is to draw to the attention of the
+economist the propriety (amounting almost
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span>
+to a necessity) of giving heed to the
+findings of the educated, trained searcher
+for mineral bodies, in preference to those
+of the illiterate man who has furnished
+themes for artists, narrators, and dramatists,
+because of his quaint characteristics.</p>
+
+<p>Some writers have classified mineral
+discoveries into Search, Chance and Adventitious.</p>
+
+<p><i>Search</i> discoveries, being the rewards
+of earnest seeking, it is not surprising that,
+under the past guide of notions and
+mysticism, the percentage of such discoveries
+has been small. Under the new
+order of things, with science as a guide,
+the percentage is growing and, in the
+future, this kind of discovery will undoubtedly
+strongly outnumber the others.</p>
+
+<p><i>Chance</i> discoveries are those that are
+made purely without premeditation.
+They have been a dominant factor in
+the mineral development of the past.
+The discovery of <i>gold</i> in California came
+about through the noticing of shiny, yellow
+flakes of metal in a ditch leading to a
+saw-mill. The great <i>iron</i> mines of the
+Mesabi Range were found by the ore
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span>
+clinging to the roots of an overturned
+tree. The Wallaroo <i>copper</i> mine, the
+greatest in Australia, was discovered by
+the green minerals brought to the surface
+in the excavations of a wombat. The
+famous Sudbury <i>nickel-silver</i> ore bodies
+were disclosed when making a railroad
+cut on the Canadian Pacific Railroad.
+The Reddington <i>quicksilver</i> mine, in California,
+was similarly opened in a cut for
+a wagon road. The mining of <i>silver</i> at
+Catorce, Mexico, followed the discovery
+of shining silver nuggets in the camp-fire
+of a native, who had camped right upon
+a rich outcrop. The Kimberly <i>diamond</i>
+mines are said to have been disclosed by
+the burrowings of an ichneumon, which
+fetched a brilliant stone to the sunlight.</p>
+
+<p><i>Adventitious</i> finds are such as occasionally
+occur when, while really searching
+for, or actually mining, one metal,
+discovery is made of a different metal, or
+possibly the same metal is found in an
+entirely different kind of ore. The Comstock
+lode of Nevada was originally a
+<i>search</i> gold discovery, the gold having
+been sought and found by two prospectors
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span>
+with ordinary gold pans. In their
+working to recover gold, a black mineral
+and a yellow sand were discarded from
+the pans and rockers. Curiosity of one
+man resulted in the identification of these
+two minerals as ores of silver which henceforth
+were held as valuable as the native
+gold. The Anaconda mine, at Butte,
+Montana, was located, and for some time
+worked as a silver proposition; but the
+values gradually changed with depth
+from silver to copper, until now silver is
+only a valuable by-product. The rich
+lead-silver ores of Leadville were discovered
+as <i>adventitious</i> to the operation
+of the rich gold placers in California
+Gulch. A heavy, troublesome rock which
+accumulated in the sluices, much to
+the disgust of the miners, turned out
+to be cerussite, a fine ore of lead. This
+same district now produces in commercial
+amounts gold, silver, lead, iron, zinc,
+copper, and manganese. The Treadwell
+mine on Douglas Island, Alaska, was
+first worked as a placer and the values
+were found to extend downward into the
+underlying rock in a place which proved
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span>
+to be an immense deposit of eruptive,
+gold-bearing ore.</p>
+
+<p>As the old-fashioned, venturesome kind
+of prospecting has but recently been
+crowded off the scene by the better,
+scientific kind, let us not overlook the
+great discoveries that were made in the
+past before we had applied "organized
+common sense" to such a field of activity.
+Those original prospectors were searchers,
+hunters. They had no guides, but they
+did accomplish a great deal, and their
+discoveries were rewards for diligence
+and hard labor which were, to a great
+extent, often misdirected.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="chap6" id="chap6">VI<br/>MINING CLAIMS.</a>
+</h2>
+
+
+<p>The process of acquiring title to mining
+property may be viewed from a
+number of points. Such property is real
+estate and, as such, it may be bought
+and sold or otherwise transferred exactly
+the same as farms or city lots.</p>
+
+<p>The United States has constructed an
+elaborate system for the disposal of its
+public lands to individuals, under various
+classifications, such as homestead, desert
+land, timber and stone, timber culture,
+coal, placer, and lode claims. Different
+rules apply to the filing upon, improvement
+and patenting (acquiring deed from
+the Government) of these various kinds
+of claims. The character of the lands in
+the public domain is decided by the surveyors
+who execute contracts from the
+General Land Office for subdividing or
+staking the country off into townships
+and sections, according to our American
+system. In the return of each surveyor's
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span>
+notes, he recommends the sale of the
+land according to his judgment as to its
+highest value. There has naturally been
+a good deal of erroneous conception upon
+these points, with the result that, often,
+land has been later shown to be entirely
+different in its character from the classification
+given to it by the contracting
+surveyor; for the qualifications of such
+a person are not always of a high grade,
+when it comes to geological questions.
+And yet, on the whole, the scheme has
+worked out well and much fraud against
+the Government has been prevented by
+the rigid practice.</p>
+
+<p>The Government prices for some of the
+various classes of land have been as follows:
+agricultural, $1.25 per acre; coal,
+$10 per acre when the land was not closer
+to a railroad than 15 miles, and $20 per
+acre when it lay within this limit; placer,
+$2.50 per acre; lode, $5 per acre. These
+have been the prices demanded for the
+land only; the payment of these amounts,
+in many cases, has constituted a small
+fraction of the expense of securing the original
+deeds from the Federal Government.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Coal lands may be located very much
+the same as a homestead, with the exception
+that residence upon the ground is not
+required, nor are improvements essential.
+In cases of dispute as to priority of location,
+the land office will recognize those
+claimants who have expended the greater
+amounts in improvements. One citizen
+may locate but one claim of 160 acres.</p>
+
+<p>Since April 10, 1909, the Government
+has been disposing of its public coal lands
+under a classification that takes note of
+many details. The kind, grade, thickness,
+and purity of coal; the number of workable
+seams; the depth; the features of
+local supply; transportation facilities; and
+the average prices at which similar private
+tracts are held, are among the items
+recognized in the classification. Probably
+no two tracts will be sold at the same
+rate. In general, the new prices are higher
+than the flat prices that formerly prevailed
+and some pieces of land are now
+estimated as high as $175 per acre. In
+every case of application to purchase
+coal land, hereafter, the area in question
+will undergo inspection by Government
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span>
+experts and a price will then be assessed.
+This law is being severely opposed as
+being unreasonably severe, and its amendment
+may be looked for.</p>
+
+<p>Placer lands were formerly permitted
+to be taken up in any shape, the boundary
+stakes being placed upon the ground in
+such a manner as to include only the
+desirable area, which is usually of an
+alluvial nature along some valley or gulch.
+This practice has been forbidden, however,
+and a locator is now obliged to take
+up his land in quadrilateral tracts conforming
+to the subdivisions of the so-called
+Public Survey. By this rule, it is
+permissible to file upon land which is laid
+off into lots of not less than 1/16 of a
+quarter section&mdash;or ten acres&mdash;and a
+claim may be composed of such lots as
+lie contiguously and which may thus be
+considered as one complete workable area.
+The claims are often of zigzag or L shapes,
+but the locator is enabled, at the extra
+expense of subdivision surveying, to avoid
+filing upon, and paying for, much ground
+that he feels is not desirable in a placer
+claim. The Government does not survey
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span>
+public domain into smaller tracts than
+quarter sections of 160 acres each, so
+that in the taking up of placers it often
+involves a great deal of expense to carry
+the subdivisions upon the ground into
+sufficient detail to ascertain the location
+of boundary corners.</p>
+
+<p>One person is entitled to as many
+placer claims as he desires. Each claim
+of a single individual may contain not
+to exceed 20 acres and, as said, it must
+be of one continuous area. Associations
+of citizens to the number of eight may
+unite in the location of 160 acres, which
+will then be held in equal and common
+interest by the several locators. The
+restraint placed upon greed in the matter
+of locations, either placer or lode, lies in
+certain expenses entailed in work or
+improvements upon the land before patent
+may be issued and the legal requirement
+of the performance of labor upon
+each claim amounting to $100 per annum.
+Also, it is required that <i>bona fide</i> values
+be disclosed upon the ground. For each
+20 acres located under the placer laws of
+the United States, not less than $500
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span>
+worth of improvements must be made
+before the issuance of a patent.</p>
+
+<p>The legal (not the technical) definition
+of lode land covers all grounds containing
+deposits of ore in its natural and original
+place of deposit. Under the laws, therefore,
+a citizen may file upon a tract of
+land to include a vein, lode, mass, chimney
+or any other form of ore body. The
+laws were framed at a time when miners
+were familiar only with the steep, tabular
+forms, synonymously termed veins or
+lodes in their nomenclature, and there
+were introduced features which time and
+progress in geological investigations have
+proved to be entirely unsuited to the
+needs of locators in many districts.</p>
+
+<p>Our statutes provide that a lode claim
+may not exceed an area of 20,662 acres,
+this being the area of a parallelogram
+1,500 feet long by 600 feet wide. The
+intention is to permit a discoverer to lay
+off a "lode line" along the outcrop of
+his vein for a distance of 1,500 feet and,
+at each end, to measure off, at right
+angles, a distance of 300 feet each way,
+merely as assurance that he covers the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span>
+entire thickness of his lode. Since the
+surface contours of rugged country will
+crook the outcrop of a dipping plane (such
+as we may imagine a vein to be) the laws
+were constructed to permit a claim being
+laid off with angles or bends in the boundaries
+so that the outcrop might be kept
+closely along the middle of the claim.</p>
+
+<p>The above dimensions and area are
+the maximum permissible under the Federal
+laws. The Government does not
+say that claims may not be less in extent,
+anywhere, nor does it prevent states,
+counties or even mining districts from
+making further limitations. In most of
+the western mining states and territories
+that have applied the mining law, the
+full maximum is allowed; but in Colorado
+no claim is legal if it exceeds a
+width of 300 feet, while in four counties
+of the same state claims have been
+restricted in width to 150 feet. By legislative
+enactment, since September 1,
+1911, claims in all counties of Colorado
+are permitted to be taken up 300 feet
+in width. The citizens or miners of any
+new district, in any state or territory,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span>
+may elect to limit claims to any size less
+than the maximum granted by the statutes
+and such a decision will be recognized
+by courts as binding upon all comers.
+This is an example of the rights of custom
+in establishing common law. In all
+shapes and widths of lode claims, there is
+now the rigid restriction that the two
+end-lines must be laid off exactly parallel.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><a name="illus7" id="illus7"><img src="images/illus7.jpg" alt="A Gilpin County, Colorado, Scene" /></a></p>
+<p class="caption">A Gilpin County, Colorado, Scene,<br />
+Showing the Prize, Gunnell, Concrete, Gold Collar, and Eureka Mines.</p>
+
+<p>The laws of our country contemplate
+the right of any locator of a vein to follow
+such vein down upon its dip, even if it
+extends beyond vertical planes passed
+through the side boundaries. The vertical
+planes through the end-lines, however,
+may not lawfully be penetrated in
+the extraction of ore bodies. The application
+of this doctrine of "extra-lateral
+rights" has led to innumerable controversies
+that have crippled many worthy
+mining enterprises. The inevitable habit
+of different veins to intersect, branch,
+unite, and in many other ways to cause
+complications, has served no purpose but
+to delay operations, cause legal warfare
+and embitter neighbors. So unjust have
+been courts' decisions in interpreting<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span>
+the lax laws that various mining districts
+have taken unto themselves the prerogative
+of deciding for themselves what is
+justice to all concerned; and we therefore
+find that many "camps" have unwritten
+laws under which claimants are restrained
+in their underground operations, to the
+ground contained between vertical planes
+<i>through all boundaries</i>, whether end or side.
+This is obviously the only fair plan, and it
+is hoped that, whenever the legislators at
+Washington get time to give to the matter
+the attention it deserves, our nation will
+be favored with a revision of this and a
+number of other objectionable mining laws
+which have retarded the industry. Ours
+is the only country having laws permitting
+extra-lateral rights and, upon this score,
+we are criticized by all foreigners.</p>
+
+<p>The Canadian government appears to
+leave the framing of mining laws to the
+several provincial governments. Ontario
+and Quebec have very good and simple
+laws relative to mining claims. In some
+respects the laws of the two provinces
+are similar. For example, in each province
+a claim must be laid out as a subdivision
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span>
+of the usual public survey and is
+normally 40 acres in extent. Again, no
+prospecting or locating may be done except
+by persons holding so-called miners'
+licenses or miners' certificates, which
+cost $5 to $10 per year. No extra-lateral
+rights are recognized.</p>
+
+<p>In Ontario, a patent may be applied
+for any time within 3-1/2 years of the date
+of certificate of record, and the land is
+purchased outright by the payment of
+$3 per acre. The patent thus obtained
+conveys no rights to timber or water on
+the property. In Quebec, patents are
+never issued and mining claims are held
+by a sort of lease, as it were. A license
+to hold a mining claim costs a flat fee
+of $10, plus an extra fee of one dollar
+per acre. At times, arrangements are
+made for holding and working mining
+property upon a 3 per cent royalty basis.</p>
+
+<p>The Mexican laws permit the location
+of any number of claims by individuals.
+A locator is required to employ an expert
+(<i>perito</i>) to make a careful survey of his
+claims (<i>pertinencias</i>), which are taken up
+in rectangular form. Measurements are
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span>
+according to the metric system, and the
+unit of area is the <i>hectara</i>, which is the
+area of a square with 100-meter (328-feet)
+sides, and is equivalent to 2.471 acres. The
+government's sale price for mineral ground
+is 5 <i>pesos</i> (about $2.50) per hectare, or
+approximately one dollar, United States
+money, per acre. The unit size of a claim
+is a hectare, and it thus comes about that
+the words <i>pertinencia</i> and <i>hectara</i> are used
+somewhat synonymously.</p>
+
+<p>Under United States laws, the owner
+of agricultural land, if he has not committed
+perjury in perfecting his title,
+will hold all minerals which may be disclosed
+subsequently to the granting of
+his deed. The proof of false representations
+will rescind any such patent and
+the ground will revert to the Government
+and be again open to location.</p>
+
+<p>In the surveying and laying off of
+mineral claims for patent purposes, the
+United States laws require the claimant
+to put the work into the hands of a
+mineral surveyor. Such a surveyor may
+usually be engaged in any mining district
+and he will hold a commission from the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span>
+Department of the Interior authorizing
+him to do this sort of work. He will have
+passed certain examinations as to his
+capabilities and he will have filed bonds
+in the sum of $5,000 for the faithful
+performance of his duties to both the
+Government and his client. He receives
+no compensation from the Government,
+and each claimant may make such terms
+with him as are equitable. He must hold
+no interest, directly or otherwise, in the
+property he surveys, nor is he permitted
+to file upon any mineral land. If he
+undertakes a case for a client his duties
+require him to survey the boundaries of
+every other mineral claim which may be
+contiguous to, or conflicting with, the
+one in question, and his maps must
+accurately show all such claims. His
+notes will contain sufficient data to accurately
+convey the exact location, the
+chief topographical features, the conflicts
+with all other locations, the position,
+and description of all mining improvements,
+and many other details which
+will be required in the final purchase of
+the land from the Government. The
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span>
+surveyor's fee will vary from $50 to
+possibly $200 for a single claim, much
+depending upon the nature of the survey,
+whether simple or difficult, and upon local
+financial conditions and competition.</p>
+
+<p>After the filing of the mineral surveyor's
+notes and plats with the Surveyor-General,
+critical examination of the documents
+is made, and if they are found to
+conform with all requirements, the case
+is "approved" and it may then pass to
+the local land office of the district. Next
+begins a publication period of sixty days,
+during which opportunity is offered the
+public to enter objections to the issuance
+of a patent, either for reasons of conflict
+or because of fraud. If no such adverse
+proceedings are instituted, the patent
+will follow, in due time.</p>
+
+<p>The ultimate expense of securing a
+patent to a claim of, say, the maximum
+area will not be less than $225, and it
+may run as high as $300 if in a region
+difficult to survey or if there are a good
+many conflicting surveys.</p>
+
+<p>A mineral surveyor is prohibited from
+acting as attorney for the claimant in
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span>
+presenting his claims before the Land
+Office, so an attorney's fee must be added
+to the above rough estimates. As a
+matter of fact, although the surveyor
+does not nominally appear as the attorney,
+in many a case it is he who makes out all
+of the documents to be then signed by an
+attorney in fact. The laws are faulty in
+this respect. The lawyer recognizes this
+fact and he asks the surveyor to make
+out the many legal forms; for who is so
+fully cognizant of the property and the
+desires of the claimant as the surveyor
+who has become intimately acquainted
+with the premises, its workings, its desirable
+features and everything concerned
+with the adjustment of conflicts? It is
+to be expected that he could best protect
+the claimant's interests, and it is wrong
+to retire him at this very critical time
+prescribed by a foolish law. The fee of
+an additional man in the case is an unjust
+burden upon the client. Land Office
+officials have recognized this fact. They
+know that the best documents reaching
+their offices are those prepared by mineral
+surveyors.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="chap7" id="chap7">VII<br/>PLACERING.</a>
+</h2>
+
+<p>Different writers hold the following
+slightly different definitions of a placer:
+One says, "a placer is a surface <i>accumulation</i>
+of minerals in the wash of streams
+and seas," while another writes that a
+placer is "a <i>place</i> where surface depositions
+<i>are washed</i> for valuable minerals,
+such as gold, tin, tungsten, gems, etc."
+One definition conveys no notion of the
+operations of mining, but is merely geological,
+while the other involves the
+thought of the recovery of values.</p>
+
+<p>No matter how or where found, placers
+were all originally of surface deposition.
+They are now found in gulches, cańons,
+valleys, ocean and lake beaches, glacial
+drifts, and sometimes beneath eruptive
+flows. Such placers as occupy the courses
+of streams are spoken of as gulch, valley,
+bar, and bench placers. The meanings
+of the first three names are obvious. By
+a bench placer is understood a deposit
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span>
+that was originally the bed of a stream,
+but which, in the course of time, has
+been cut down, or through, in such a
+manner as to leave a shelf or bench of
+the "wash" hanging up some distance
+above the present base of the gulch or
+valley.</p>
+
+<p>When such deposits that have been
+covered by lava flows are disclosed and
+worked, they go by the name of "buried
+placers." They are, by no means, uncommon,
+and typical "drift mines" of
+this sort are operated in California and
+New Zealand. They present the novelty
+of working alluvial deposits under cover
+of solid rocks, and they thus conform to
+one of the early definitions of a mine, as
+previously given. Since the workings of
+such subterranean placers are generally
+confined to an approximately horizontal
+zone, the mine passages, to a certain
+degree, resemble those of a coal mine.</p>
+
+<p>Placer deposits, being of a secondary
+nature, the materials are not in the place
+nor form of the original components.
+The gravels and sands, together with the
+valuable contents, probably originally existed
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span>
+in some solid forms such as rocks
+or massive minerals. The primary structures,
+in the course of ages and by
+atmospheric agencies, have been disintegrated
+and carried by gravity and flowing
+water to lower levels. The finer the
+decomposed material, the further it has
+been transported.</p>
+
+<p>If the original rocks carried gold, the
+flakes of the metal, being of high specific
+gravity, would tend to settle to the
+bottom of the channels and to be carried
+shorter distances than would the lighter,
+non-metallic particles. The finer the
+gold, the more evenly will it be distributed
+in the bed of gravel. Likewise, placers
+near the heads of gulches, as a rule, carry
+coarser gold than those farther down
+stream.</p>
+
+<p>The valuable materials found in placers
+must, of necessity, be those that possess
+the property of resisting corrosion and
+disintegration. The minerals and metals
+are, therefore, of a very permanent
+character.</p>
+
+<p>Every find of "values" in a placer is
+unquestioned evidence that somewhere,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span>
+above the present deposit, there originally
+existed primary depositions containing
+the valuable metals or minerals. The
+trail can frequently be traced back to
+them. These so-called "mother lodes"
+are not necessarily rich. In the case of
+gold, for instance, these original deposits
+of ore may not carry the metal in coarse
+enough particles to be visible and yet
+the placers may contain nuggets. There
+are numerous theories proposed to account
+for this observed phenomenon,
+but we will not discuss them here. The
+fact remains that nuggets have been
+actually produced artificially in flowing
+water under conditions similar to Nature's.</p>
+
+<p>The methods of prospecting and working
+placer ground have undergone many
+improvements, but there are still many
+men practicing the primitive ways of a
+generation ago. The use of devices of
+simple construction and for operation by
+muscular effort is still familiar in many
+regions; and there are good miners who
+cling to such practice in the belief that
+it is the cheapest and truest way in which
+to ascertain the values of wash deposits.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span>
+Also, there are many placers of limited
+areas and irregular shapes that cannot
+be well handled in any other manner.</p>
+
+<p>With a "pan," a man can wash, in
+ten hours, not over one cubic yard of
+dirt; and to accomplish this amount of
+washing the ground must be very loose
+and favorable. An ordinary ten-hour
+day's work is about 100 pans. This is
+equivalent to about one-half of a cubic
+yard, which is the unit of volume in all
+placering operations. One may thus
+readily arrive at the cost of carrying on
+operations in this way. A cubic yard of
+ordinary placer dirt is the equivalent of
+less than two tons. A <i>batea</i> is the Mexican
+equivalent for the American iron gold
+pan. It is a sort of broad, conical,
+wooden bowl and its capacity is not
+equal to the pan.</p>
+
+<p>A "rocker" or "cradle" is a trough on
+rockers somewhat like the old-fashioned
+child's cradle. In using it, a stream of
+water is caused to flow into the device
+which has been nearly filled with gravel
+and the miner gives it a rocking motion
+that causes the contents to classify or
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span>
+stratify according to the laws of specific
+gravity. The valuable particles, being
+the heaviest, will settle to the bottom,
+whence they may be subsequently removed.
+A "long tom" is an inclined,
+narrow box set stationary with a constant
+stream of water entering at the upper
+end. Gravel is also shoveled into the
+device at the same point. The process
+is more continuous than the preceding
+ones, the values accumulating at the
+bottom of the lower end, while the upper
+layers of gravel are carefully removed by
+skimming with shovels. The work will
+keep two men busy and the capacity is
+correspondingly greater. With a long
+tom, two men will ordinarily handle
+about five or six cubic yards in ten hours.</p>
+
+<p>Whenever deposits of a broad area,
+with considerable and uniform depth,
+are thought to be valuable, it has become
+a practice to prove their value by "prospect
+drilling." This is a mechanical
+method and one form of apparatus employed
+is of the churn-drill type common
+throughout oil and coal regions. With
+these portable machines, holes are put
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span>
+down to bed-rock at intervals across the
+ground. As they are sunk, the holes are
+cased with iron pipes, the drillings are
+carefully saved and washed, and the
+values are estimated for each foot of
+descent. From the summation and averages
+obtained from all the holes, a very
+fair knowledge of the ground's worth
+can be obtained.</p>
+
+<p>Intensive placering is now the order
+of things and the marvelous increase in
+the use of dredges attests the success
+which these "gold ships" have attained.
+It is very interesting to watch the operations
+of these huge boats loaded with
+ponderous machines, especially when they
+are installed in inland regions or up in
+high mountain gulches. Yet numbers of
+them are thus in steady use. Wherever
+suitable beds with a tolerably uniform
+size of boulders and gravel are found,
+dams are built to retain the flows of
+streams until ponds are created of sufficient
+size to contain and float the
+barges.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><a name="illus8" id="illus8"><img src="images/illus8.jpg" alt="Dredges of Yuba Consolidated Goldfields, Hammonton." /></a></p>
+<p class="caption">Dredges of Yuba Consolidated Goldfields, Hammonton, California.</p>
+
+<p>Continual improvements are being
+made in the construction of these mammoth
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span>
+machines with a view to economy
+in operations that will result from greater
+capacities. All costs of placering are
+reckoned per cubic yard washed. Costs
+have been rapidly dropping during the
+past decade until now some companies,
+with extensive operations, are handling
+dirt at not to exceed three cents per
+cubic yard for excavating, washing, wasting
+the refuse, maintenance, repairs, labor,
+taxes, interest on investment, and the
+depreciation of equipment. Such figures
+will hold good only under very favorable
+natural conditions of ground and climate
+such as prevail in California; they have
+not been attained in the frigid regions of
+Alaska nor in the torrid South American
+interior. In view of the wonderful improvements
+brought forth by mechanical
+engineers, it is improper to deny that
+the future will bring still further reductions
+in placer costs. On the contrary,
+the signs are good for material reductions.</p>
+
+<p>Dredges are very costly in their installation.
+They are usually designed to
+handle so many thousands of cubic yards
+per day. It has been stated, as a fair
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span>
+but rough rule, that "bucket" dredges
+will average, in initial cost, one dollar
+for every cubic yard the boats will handle
+per month. Thus, if a dredge of this type
+is built to treat fifty or seventy thousand
+cubic yards in a month, working steadily,
+the costs will be respectively $50,000 or
+$70,000. Other types of dredges, known
+as the "dipper" and the "suction," will
+cost less than the bucket type, but have
+not gained general usage.</p>
+
+<p>"Hydraulicking" is extensively practiced.
+This term signifies the working
+of placer deposits by water which is
+conducted through flumes and pipe-lines
+and, by means of nozzles called "giants"
+or "monitors," is directed, in huge jets,
+against the banks of gravel. These
+banks or walls are thus torn down and,
+by the same water, the loosened, disintegrated
+materials are caused to flow
+into and through long, wooden, box-like
+troughs known as "sluices." The floors
+of these sluices are paved with ribs,
+cleats or other obstructions termed "riffles"
+whose function it is to retard and
+collect the heavy particles which may,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span>
+later, during the process of cleaning up,
+be removed as the valuable product. The
+word "sluicing" is frequently used quite
+synonymously with hydraulicking.</p>
+
+<p>Costs of this latter sort of placering
+are considerably higher than those of
+dredging; but there are many deposits
+not adapted to dredging operations that
+may be nicely worked by sluicing, so
+that there will always be a field for this
+scheme. Average costs are difficult to
+obtain since it happens that most of the
+companies now operating hydraulically
+are secretive in their accounts. More
+labor is entailed, more time is required,
+greater delay is occasioned in cleaning
+up, and the amount of water used is
+much greater. Where water is abundant,
+this last item need not be considered.
+It is well to remember that even a very
+large dredge, while requiring a continual
+and large flow of water through its
+devices, can still operate with just the
+water in which it floats, this water being
+pumped and used repeatedly; whereas,
+in the case of hydraulic mining, the
+water may be used but once and, consequently,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span>
+there must be a large supply
+and at a good head or pressure.</p>
+
+<p>But, in spite of these disparaging
+points, we find instances in which, under
+peculiarly favorable conditions, hydraulicking
+has been carried on at very low
+figures. E. B. Wilson says: "The yield
+of the gravel at North Bloomfield was
+7.75 cents per cubic yard; the cost of
+mining, 4.1 cents per cubic yard. The
+yield per cubic yard of gravel at La
+Grange was 10.19 cents, the cost of
+mining, 6 cents. The costs of mining at
+these two mines would analyze about as
+follows: Labor, 60 per cent; supplies,
+17 per cent; water, 13 per cent; office,
+10 per cent. Ground carrying but 3.99
+cents per cubic yard has been worked at
+a profit at the first mine. With such a
+small margin to work on, it is evident
+that skill and executive ability must be
+provided from the pipemen up." It is
+claimed that an Idaho mine was worked
+profitably with less than two cents value
+in the dirt, but this is to be regarded
+with some doubt.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><a name="illus9" id="illus9"><img src="images/illus9.jpg" alt="The Snowstorm Placer, Fairplay, Colorado." /></a></p>
+<p class="caption">The Snowstorm Placer, Fairplay, Colorado.<br />
+A typical Hydraulic Mine.</p>
+
+<p>There are large deposits in the arid
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span>
+portions of the globe where water for
+working is not obtainable. To meet such
+conditions, numerous inventions continue
+to be placed upon the market. These
+devices are all planned in such a way as
+to use very little or no water. If water
+is required at all, the machines are expected
+to use it repeatedly. The machines
+are built to effect the segregation of the
+precious contents gravitationally, electrostatically,
+pneumatically, and by amalgamation
+with mercury. It is too early to
+say how successful such devices will prove
+in commercial operations. Because some
+of them have not "made good" does not
+mean that genius will not yet cope with
+the situation; and we look into the future
+to see large operations efficiently and
+economically conducted by dry placer
+machinery. There are now no authentic
+figures obtainable upon this question of
+dry placering costs.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="chap8" id="chap8">VIII<br/>OPEN MINING.</a>
+</h2>
+
+
+<p>Some mention has been already made
+of open mining. The greatest development
+of this sort of mining has come about
+since the application of the modern steam
+shovel to the excavation of ore. This
+practice was an American innovation
+and it is being adopted throughout the
+world wherever natural conditions will
+warrant.</p>
+
+<p>Within the past few years, immense
+bodies of iron ore have been discovered in
+northern Minnesota and the adoption of
+these immense, mechanically operated
+shovels has worked such economies in the
+mining of this kind of ore that entirely
+new cost figures have been established
+and tonnages are being produced which,
+a few years ago, would have seemed
+unbelievable. There are about a dozen
+mines of this "open pit" type that have
+each produced over a million tons of ore
+per year in a season that must cease with
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span>
+the close of navigation on the Great
+Lakes. One mine has shipped over three
+million tons a season.</p>
+
+<p>At the Utah Copper Company's mine
+in Bingham Cańon, Utah, a great deposit
+of low grade, copper-bearing eruptive
+rock is being handled upon a steep mountain-side
+by this same scheme. This ore
+averages a little less than two per cent. in
+copper, but so economical is the handling
+of it in such vast amounts that a neat
+profit is made above all mining, transportation
+and milling charges. When the
+red metal sells at thirteen cents per pound,
+the gross value of this ore is about $5.20
+per ton. This mine has maintained an
+output of ten thousand tons or more per
+day over long periods.</p>
+
+<p>A famous gold mine in Queensland,
+Australia&mdash;the Mount Morgan&mdash;is also
+being worked by steam shovel methods.
+The deposit is here in the form of a small
+mountain and the operations are gradually
+razing this landmark to the level
+of the surrounding plains.</p>
+
+<p>The mining of low-grade <i>gold</i> ores by
+open-pit methods has taken hold in America,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span>
+and an example of the practice may
+be found at the Wasp No. 2 mine in the
+Black Hills. According to published accounts
+of the operations of this company,
+all of the costs of mining and treating the
+ore amount to only $1.02 per ton. The
+ore body is a bed of quartzite lying nearly
+flat, and averaging in the neighborhood
+of only $2.50 per ton in gold, the only
+mineral of value. The recovery of this
+metal is at the rate of between 75 and 80
+per cent. efficiency, or about $2 from each
+ton. The net profit is therefore close to
+one dollar per ton. This very modern
+scheme of mining has been made possible
+through the recent advances made in the
+cyanidation of ore, and it is going to pave
+the way for many more such mining
+plants.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><a name="illus10" id="illus10"><img src="images/illus10.jpg" alt="Steam Shovels and Churn Drills, Copper Flat, Ely." /></a></p>
+<p class="caption">Steam Shovels and Churn Drills, Copper Flat, Ely, Nevada.</p>
+
+<p>The Nevada Consolidated Copper
+Company has conducted vast mining
+operations "in the open" at Ely, Nevada,
+by the use of 95-ton shovels having a
+capacity of two and one-half cubic yards
+per dip. One shovel has handled as high
+as 2,800 cubic yards (the equivalent of
+about 5,500 tons) in nine hours; but this
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span>
+must be recognized as an exceptional run,
+and cannot be taken as an average. The
+ore has a thickness of about 200 feet and
+covers many acres. As in the majority
+of such properties, there is here a large
+amount of "overburden" to be removed
+and disposed of before the ore can be
+excavated. This process of uncovering
+the ore body by the removal of the overburden
+is called "stripping." The cost
+per ton of ore mined is said to average
+55 cents.</p>
+
+<p>In an open mine there must be maintained
+a system of continually changing
+tracks placed upon grades (sometimes
+rather steep) and with sharp curves.
+With multiple switches, numbers of small
+locomotives are kept busy pulling and
+pushing up and down the tracks with
+their strings of loaded cars and replacing
+the "loads" with "empties." When
+such operations are upon a mountain-side,
+a very beautiful panoramic view
+may be had from the opposite side of
+the gulch.</p>
+
+<p>Generally, the ore material is disintegrated
+to some extent. In some cases, it
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span>
+will actually crumble down before the
+advance of a steam shovel. In other
+mines, it is necessary to drill large holes
+which are loaded and blasted.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>In consequence of the success attained
+by the pioneers in this kind of mining,
+there has been created a demand for
+properties possessing large deposits of low
+grade ore that is workable on this intensive
+scale. Copper properties have been
+holding a prominent place recently and
+stockbrokers carry regular lists of "Porphyries,"
+this nickname having been
+coined to cover the companies operating
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span>
+in the low grade porphyry ores of the
+Western United States. Not all of these
+porphyry companies will use surface mining
+methods. Some companies in the
+Globe District of Arizona have started
+extensive underground schemes for mining
+large tonnages very cheaply by "caving"
+methods.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="chap9" id="chap9">IX<br />CONSIDERATIONS PRECEDING<br />THE OPENING OF MINES.</a>
+</h2>
+
+
+<p>The word "exploitation" is used by
+many mining men and engineers to signify
+a plan of so opening up ore deposits
+as to render the contents removable. The
+same persons use the word "mining" to
+mean the operations involved in the
+actual extraction of the ore exploited.
+It is sometimes difficult to draw any line
+between the meanings of these two words
+for, as handled by different men, with
+varying shades of intention, they are
+sometimes synonymous. Thus, if exploiting
+an underground mine, which
+carries ore right from the surface, means
+developing the mine in such a way as to
+provide for a large, steady production,
+it is difficult to see why the ore taken out
+in this process cannot be said to be
+"mined."</p>
+
+<p>By "dead work" is usually meant that
+work of opening up a mine which will put
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span>
+or keep it in a producing condition but
+which does not supply any remuneration
+in the shape of ore (or coal). Again, as
+used by some men, there is little distinction
+between this work and exploitation.
+There may, however, be lines reasonably
+drawn between these three terms, and
+therefore the following definitions are
+proposed:</p>
+
+<p><i>Dead work</i> is such work as is necessary
+to develop an ore body, but it does not
+produce any ore. It may be prosecuted
+for drainage or ventilation purposes or
+for creating passage-ways for men and
+products.</p>
+
+<p><i>Exploitation</i> is also work performed in
+opening up or developing a property, but
+it does not contemplate the value of the
+extracted materials which may, or may
+not, be of any commercial importance.
+Indeed, much ore might be extracted
+during work which was carried on merely
+to define extents or boundaries of ore
+bodies. In this last supposition, the original
+sense of exploration is brought out
+and this should serve to fix the definition
+clearly in mind.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>Mining</i> may be restricted to mean the
+methods and work involved in the profitable
+production of the mine's ore (or coal).
+The term would not be used to cover operations
+of shaft-sinking, tunneling, and
+the like, unless such work be in the valuable
+materials. 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&mdash;or of
+entries in a bed of coal&mdash;produces the
+valuable products of the mine, and we
+may, therefore, consider that mining is
+taking place.</p>
+
+<p>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 <i>no</i> ore. Exploitation
+may, or may not, produce ore. Mining
+must produce ore.</p>
+
+<p>Throughout all of the above and the
+following discussion of this chapter, the
+reader should bear in mind the point that
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span>
+the word "coal" may be substituted for
+the word "ore" without altering the substance
+of the definitions or the conclusions.</p>
+
+<p>Before a mine is opened up, the economist-manager
+will consider many items.
+In the first place, care must be exercised
+in the <i>examination of the title</i> to the property.
+A mineral property may have
+passed through the most complicated
+kind of transfers of fractional interests
+in the title, just as is true with ordinary
+real estate. The abstract must be traced
+back clear to the issuance of patent from
+the Government, and then on back to the
+original location. With an undeveloped
+property (a prospect), this precaution is
+essential to estop any possible pretensions
+to ownership, by outside parties, in case
+the ground subsequently turns out to be
+exceptionally valuable. It has often been
+the case that no obstructions from any
+adverse claimants have been met until
+owners have, in good faith and at great
+expense, developed splendid mines. Then
+suits for possession or partial ownership
+have been instituted, sometimes with
+marked success for the plaintiffs. There
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span>
+are persons who make it a special line of
+business to examine titles to mining property,
+and it is economy for the average
+manager to employ such experienced men
+to attend to these matters.</p>
+
+<p><i>Topographical considerations</i> will hold a
+place in the study preceding the opening
+of a new mine. The nature of the surface
+of the property and the surrounding country
+will largely influence in the selection
+of the proper site for the mine's mouth.
+Neglect upon this point has been a common
+cause of failure in mining operations.</p>
+
+<p>A mine opening must be away from
+all dangers of snow-slides, rock-slides,
+cloud-bursts and deluges from overflowing
+streams or breaking dams. It may make
+a difference in the mine's ventilation as
+to which direction the prevailing winds
+blow and therefore upon which side of a
+hill the mouth be opened.</p>
+
+<p><i>Transportation</i> facilities must be given
+due thought. If means are not already
+at hand, one must inquire into the feasibility
+of constructing some form of carrier;
+and here, again, will enter the question of
+the surface's contour. If a railroad is out
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span>
+of question, possibly an aerial tramway
+may be constructed. These modern conveyances
+stop at no obstacles of surface
+configuration and are dependent only
+upon the necessity of having the point
+of delivery lower in altitude than the
+point of loading at the mine. With some
+of the modern improvements in these installations,
+mine products are being transported
+up-hill as well as down-hill through
+the application of power. In mining
+regions, it is generally the case that the
+mines, themselves, are above the settlements
+in which are the railroads or treatment
+plants, so that the mine products
+will transport readily by the natural force
+of gravity.</p>
+
+<p><i>Climate</i> holds an important place in
+the economics of mining. The working
+of very rich pieces of ground may prove
+a losing proposition in some portions of
+the world where the climatic conditions
+are such as to render operations possible
+during only a very small portion of the
+year. Extremes of heat or cold, malaria
+or other pestilential obstacles, long rainy
+seasons with floods, and the hostility of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span>
+native humans, beasts or insects have
+accounted for the abandonment of seemingly
+attractive mining projects.</p>
+
+<p>The question of <i>labor</i> must be given due
+thought. It is true that the best miners
+on earth are Americans. We do not deny
+that many of our miners are of foreign
+birth, but the fact remains that they
+perform better and more intelligent service
+than do their fellow countrymen
+who have not been adopted into our
+country. Our men are in demand in the
+mining development of foreign countries.
+An American mine manager will always
+experience dissatisfaction while endeavoring
+to get, from natives in foreign parts,
+the same efficiency that he is accustomed
+to receive from the miners "at home."
+He may be paying a good deal less per
+capita for such labor, but he finds he is
+actually paying more per ton of output.</p>
+
+<p>Even within a single country, there are
+notable differences in the worth of labor.
+The natives of some of the Mexican states
+are far preferable to those of other states.
+Within the United States, there may be
+discerned material differences between the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span>
+efficiencies of the citizens of various sections,
+when it comes to mining. One
+cannot procure as competent miners in
+some of the agricultural states as in the
+typical mining states. This is but to be
+expected. For instance, there are deposits
+of lead ore in the "moonshine" regions
+of Kentucky which have never been successfully
+worked, and the real cause of
+failure, in the writer's belief, lies in the
+inability of superintendents to obtain real
+miners either in that region or from the
+outside. The residents will never become
+miners; outsiders will not enter for work
+under existing sociological conditions.</p>
+
+<p>The question of <i>unionism</i> is sometimes
+held by managers as a deciding one when
+debating the opening of a mine. While
+there are those who will broadly denounce
+such organizations, there may be found
+other and just as successful mine operators
+who declare that the effects of union
+control over their miners are beneficial to
+their companies' interests. Probably the
+greatest objection to unionism raised by
+operators is that they resent the dictation
+that accompanies the inauguration
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span>
+of union rules in their mines. The owners
+and managers prefer to run their own
+business to suit themselves. Some managers
+are so imbued with this conviction
+of their own rights that they will refuse
+to open up mines or, if they are operating,
+they will close down their mines before
+they will submit to the demands made
+upon them by the union officials.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand, there are mine managers
+who prefer the presence of some
+central, labor-controlling body; for they
+believe that the men who belong to such
+a large federation or organization will,
+and do, have less complaint to make and
+therefore work more freely than is the
+case with the independent laborers. The
+argument is that these union men are
+satisfied because they feel that their
+interests are being looked after with a
+sort of attention that they, individually,
+could not give.</p>
+
+<p>This is not a place to discuss the crimes
+that have been laid at the doors of both
+the labor organizations and the mine
+owners' associations. It is safe to assume
+that wrong has probably been done by
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span>
+both sides. But it is furthermore right
+to believe that most of the crimes were
+not authorized, nor recognized, by the
+officers or the majority of members of
+either side. Individual members must
+not be taken as averages of the membership
+in any kind of civil, social or political
+organization.</p>
+
+<p>It seems entirely wrong that <i>politics</i>
+should enter into the considerations of a
+mine manager whose operations are apparently
+so apart from affairs of state;
+but the fact remains that there are places
+where mining operations cannot be carried
+on without the good will of certain
+officials of the state or national governments.
+It is not advisable to enter into
+any compromising terms to gain privileges
+for carrying on any legitimate
+business for there are other, better ways,
+generally, of attaining the justice that is
+deserved.</p>
+
+<p>One must not omit to investigate the
+<i>sources of supply</i> for all the needs of a mine
+and its camp. There are many kinds of
+materials needed to keep a mine going.
+Fuel, machinery, timber, water, food for
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span>
+men and beasts, lumber, and all household
+furnishings and necessities must
+come from some markets or natural
+sources. It behooves the cautious manager
+to see that all these things may be had in
+ample amount and at figures which will
+not prove annihilating to his business.</p>
+
+<p>In Utah, there are mines which have
+all their timbers framed in and shipped
+from the forests of Oregon, the sawing
+and framing being done before shipment
+to save on freight. The fir of Oregon is
+shipped to distant Australia for mining
+purposes. The arid camps of Nevada get
+their supplies of timber from the sister
+state, California. The Michigan mines
+are fortunate in being in a lumber region.
+Colorado's metal mines are more favored
+in the matter of timbers than are the coal
+mines of the same state. Most of the coal
+mines are upon the barren plains, while
+the metal mines are chiefly in the wooded
+mountains.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><a name="illus11" id="illus11"><img src="images/illus11.jpg" alt="Mill of the Pittsburg-Silver Peak Gold Mining Co., Blair." /></a></p>
+<p class="caption">Mill of the Pittsburg-Silver Peak Gold Mining Co., Blair, Nevada.</p>
+
+<p>Water may be too scarce for the needs
+of a mine or its community. There may
+not be sufficient to supply boilers or a
+mill, or for the domestic purposes of the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span>
+workers. On the other hand, water may
+be so abundant in the mine workings as
+to prove a deterrent factor in profitable
+operation. With shaft mines, having
+deep workings and low grades of ore, if
+water must be delivered mechanically,
+the costs for such drainage are frequently
+prohibitive of mining. Some mines, in
+arid regions, have been fortunate in striking
+such flows of underground water that
+it has been possible to operate mills right
+at the mines. In this way, the cost of
+water hoisting has been more than compensated
+in the milling benefits which,
+in turn, have decreased freights and
+treatment charges.</p>
+
+<p><i>Machinery</i> is usually purchased at centres
+of mining supplies and manufactures.
+San Francisco, Los Angeles, Salt Lake
+City, Denver and Chicago are the principal
+<i>rendezvous</i> in the West for mining
+men in need of machinery. Mexico City
+is, similarly, the outfitting point for the
+mines of southern Mexico. The United
+States holds the supremacy of the world
+in the matter of equipping mines and
+mills, large orders of American-made
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span>
+mining machinery being shipped to even
+the antipodes.</p>
+
+<p>The nearer a property is to a depot of
+supplies, the less is bound to be the cost
+of getting goods onto the ground. It is
+this last item&mdash;the delivery of goods&mdash;that
+must be recognized as a very pertinent,
+and sometimes a critical, factor
+upon the cost side of mining accounts.
+Mines that are remote or in rugged
+countries are frequently dependent upon
+animal transportation. In some cases,
+machinery going to the mines must be
+so built that it may be taken apart into
+small portions suitable for loading upon
+the backs of horses or burros, or even,
+in the Andes, upon the frail llamas.</p>
+
+<p>Operations, if planned to be conducted
+for a long term of years and therefore
+warranting the installation of large and
+expensive plants, should be based upon
+the holding of extensive ore-bearing
+ground. Here enters the notion of the
+<i>shape and size of a mining property</i>.</p>
+
+<p>With some kinds of mining ground,
+the best form for the holdings would
+probably be a compact, approximately
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span>
+equilateral tract, covering a reasonably
+large acreage. This would be the case
+with ores that occur in sedimentary beds,
+for instance, where it is advisable to have
+the mining plant centrally located so as
+to work expeditiously the entire area.
+This would apply to a region like the
+Cripple Creek District, which contains
+innumerable veins running in all directions
+but displaying no outcrops.</p>
+
+<p>In other instances, the most desirable
+shape might be long, narrow strips so
+laid off as to contain the strikes of persistent
+lodes or veins, as those of the wonderful
+Comstock Lode region. It is not acreage
+that counts here so much as lineal
+extent.</p>
+
+<p>In the Transvaal, land is held in rectangular
+blocks. The first owners of the
+ground took it up for agricultural purposes.
+This same statement is also true
+of the mining properties in the Joplin
+District of Missouri and Kansas.</p>
+
+<p>In the case of the South African properties,
+every company has definite boundaries
+to which operations may be planned.
+Hence it is possible for the management
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span>
+to so plant any mine as to operate it at a
+given rate for a predetermined life of
+the enterprise. The work is planned to
+maintain a certain output that will exhaust
+the ore bodies in just so many years,
+and all the equipment may thus be purchased
+with the forecast that it will serve
+its purpose and perform its economic
+share within the prescribed time.</p>
+
+<p>This notion will be more readily understood
+when we consider the various types
+of ore bodies. With properties wherein
+there is no possible way of predicting the
+number, size, and worth of discoverable
+ore bodies, the life is wholly problematical
+and it is therefore difficult for a manager
+to decide how much he should expend in
+the initial equipment.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="chap10" id="chap10">X<br/>MINE OPENINGS.</a>
+</h2>
+
+
+<p>In every new mining project, there is
+much to be considered concerning the
+expediency of opening up through shafts,
+inclines or adits. More attention has
+lately been given to this subject than
+formerly. There are very good reasons
+for the selection of any one of these kinds
+of mine openings.</p>
+
+<p>The words shaft, incline, and tunnel
+have been handled with careless meanings
+by mining men. It is time that some
+definitions be accepted so that everybody
+will use these terms with the same
+meanings.</p>
+
+<p>A shaft has loosely been any steep opening
+sunk through the ground. An incline&mdash;sometimes
+spoken of also as an incline
+shaft&mdash;has been taken to mean an opening
+resembling a shaft, but not very steep
+and not approaching verticality. Right
+here, there has been too much latitude
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span>
+of speech and it has entailed the necessity
+of many awkward explanations.</p>
+
+<p>By a tunnel has been intended any
+(approximately) horizontal passageway
+driven from the natural surface. Objection
+to this use of the word rests in the
+strict definition of a tunnel, which states
+that it must have both ends open to the
+natural surface of the earth, as for example,
+an irrigation or a railroad tunnel. A
+level passageway which has but one end
+open to daylight is not properly spoken
+of as a tunnel. In mining practice, practically
+every horizontal opening of this
+nature is open at only one end, and it is
+an adit rather than a tunnel. If the
+precaution of speaking of it as a "mining
+tunnel" is observed, very well, for this
+may be taken to be an expression synonymous
+with adit. The latter term is, however,
+shorter and more correct.</p>
+
+<p>For the sake of a uniform usage, the
+following definitions are proposed. Their
+use will conform with the usages of those
+well-informed persons who adhere to correct
+speech.</p>
+
+<p>A <i>shaft</i> is a truly vertical mine passage
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span>
+which may, or may not, be sunk in or
+along an ore or a coal body.</p>
+
+<p>An <i>incline</i> is any mine passage which
+occupies a sloping position and which
+may, or may not, maintain a uniform
+inclination throughout its length. It
+may be sunk along, or in, a pitching vein
+or seam and it may thus conform to the
+irregularities of the dip of such body. It
+is neither horizontal nor vertical. Such
+an inclined passage following a seam of
+coal is known as a <i>slope</i>.</p>
+
+<p>It sometimes happens, especially in
+coal mining, that a sloping passageway
+is driven through barren rock either to get
+at known bodies by the shortest means or
+to establish uniform grades for tracks. In
+a strict sense, these are not inclines or
+slopes, for they do not even approximately
+follow, nor parallel, bodies of value. The
+miner's term for such an opening is <i>rock
+slope</i>.</p>
+
+<p>An <i>adit</i> or <i>mining tunnel</i> is a horizontal
+opening driven from the surface. If it be
+driven along an ore body, as a vein, it is
+properly called a <i>vein adit</i>; if it is driven
+<i>across</i> barren country to intercept presumed
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span>
+or known bodies, it is spoken of as
+a <i>crosscut adit</i>. All adits must be given a
+small amount of grade for drainage necessities.</p>
+
+<p>Before getting underground we should
+consider what is required in the way of
+opening our mine; what is positively
+known about our body of coal or ore;
+and what conditions are liable to confront
+us later on. We must consider the
+type of ore body; character of material to
+be extracted; average thickness and hardness
+of the body; desired tonnage; power
+facilities; probable surface and underground
+drainage to be maintained; and
+dozens of other things which only the
+experienced man will think of and appreciate.
+The right kind of a manager will
+know that he cannot afford to overlook
+such points.</p>
+
+<p>Every case involves different contingencies,
+and therefore extreme forethought
+must be given to the subject before deciding
+upon any particular kind of an opening
+into the ground for mining purposes.
+This remark does not apply to such openings
+as prospect drill-holes, openings
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span>
+which are not for mining purposes, but
+for exploitation. Assuming that sufficient
+data are known concerning the property
+to warrant the expenditures incident
+to the making of a mine, the question
+remains as to the best way of proceeding.</p>
+
+<p>It is a well-established fact that it is
+much cheaper to drive an adit than to
+sink a shaft of equal transporting capacity.
+It is also cheaper to drive an adit
+than to sink an incline. If the topography
+is such that an adit can be driven into or
+beneath an ore body and thus expose it
+from a low elevation, the temptation is
+strong and along lines of good practice
+to do so. If the country is quite flat or
+nearly so, or, if the surface is such that,
+while rough, an adit of reasonable length
+cannot be driven to tap the valuable
+mineral and handle it economically, then
+it is good practice to decide upon a shaft
+mine.</p>
+
+<p>An adit will not only be cheaper, foot
+for foot, than a shaft or incline, but, if
+given the proper, slight grade, it will
+afford a natural drainage outlet for all
+subsequent workings above its level. The
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span>
+cost of pumping, as already suggested,
+may be a considerable item and it may be
+a deciding factor in favor of an adit when
+this form of opening is possible.</p>
+
+<p>Furthermore, an adit will obviate the
+installation and use of hoisting machinery,
+and thus there may be maintained a
+greater efficiency in the operating expense
+of the mine than would be possible with
+a shaft.</p>
+
+<p>Again, it is a simpler and cheaper
+matter to maintain a mining tunnel in
+working shape than it is a shaft, particularly
+in bad ground. By the settling or
+"working" of the ground, a shaft may
+be thrown perhaps but slightly out of
+alignment and annoying interferences will
+be experienced in hoisting, especially
+when rapid and uninterrupted hoisting is
+necessary to maintain the desired output.
+While the same amount of disturbance
+does take place in an adit, it is an easy
+matter to readjust track grades while continuing
+regular haulage operations.</p>
+
+<p>The timbers, in the case of either a shaft
+or an adit, will require occasional renewal,
+but the expense of such repairs is less in
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span>
+adits than in shafts or inclines, while
+the delay to other operations of mining,
+in the case of the adit, will be inappreciable.</p>
+
+<p>Topography has been referred to above,
+but it must be again briefly mentioned.
+There are some places in which ore bodies
+extend to, or exist at, such depths that
+adits could not be projected to get beneath
+enough of the ore to warrant their
+construction. An adit mine is not a practicable
+thing in a flat country like Nevada
+or the Rand, but in the rough country of
+the San Juan it is the customary kind of
+a mine. In the very early days of Comstock
+Lode mining, shafts were sunk by
+each of the hundreds of companies. Before
+a great while, the advantages that
+would accrue from having a deep "tunnel"
+became evident, and the famous
+Sutro Tunnel, with its historic, checkered
+career, was driven. Although it loomed
+up like a gigantic undertaking for that
+period, the immense prospective or future
+value of it could not be denied.</p>
+
+<p>The following relative advantages of
+the several types of mine mouths are in
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span>
+addition to those already given and are
+worth consideration:</p>
+
+<p>With an incline, the value of a tabular
+deposit is determined as work progresses;
+the course and dip of the body will be
+known at all depths along the incline;
+the body may be explored from the incline
+in both directions, simultaneously, with
+a resulting doubling of the development
+and production; all, or nearly all, the
+material removed is "vein stuff" and its
+value may repay the sinking expenses;
+there is no losing of the ore body unless
+a geological fault is met.</p>
+
+<p>With a shaft, more rapid hoisting is
+possible than with an incline; the timbering
+labor is less than in the case of an
+incline, but greater than in the case of an
+adit; with ground containing ore bodies
+in irregular masses and at no uniform
+intervals, vertically or horizontally, stations
+and levels may be started wherever
+desirable; the crosscuts which are usually
+necessary to reach the bodies may disclose
+otherwise unknown bodies.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><a name="illus12" id="illus12"><img src="images/illus12.jpg" alt="Mills and Shaft House of Daly West Mine, Park City, Utah." /></a></p>
+<p class="caption">Mills and Shaft House of Daly West Mine, Park City, Utah.</p>
+
+<p>With a vein adit, the vein is prospected
+as work advances; the ore removed may
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span>
+pay its own way, as it were; the drainage
+is automatic; ore is transportable from
+the mine by haulage rather than by hoisting;
+the ore in place is above the level
+and will handle itself to the outgoing
+passage by gravity.</p>
+
+<p>With a crosscut adit, in addition to
+the last three advantages noted for the
+vein adit, there is bound to be exploration
+of the ground upon at least one side
+of the known body; there will generally
+be easier haulage because of the straighter
+track, since an adit driven along a vein
+will conform to the geological irregularities
+and the track is bound to be more or
+less crooked.</p>
+
+<p>Without counting upon the doubtful
+success of the numerous propositions in
+tunneling machines, but judging only
+from past experiences, we may say that
+a shaft will cost about three times as
+much as a "tunnel" of equal transporting
+capacity. If the ground is wet, the
+discrepancy in first costs becomes much
+larger. In a remote region, with difficult
+transportation of machinery and fuel, it
+may be better to drive and use a long adit
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span>
+rather than a shallow shaft. An adit will
+transport more product than will a shaft
+of equal dimensions.</p>
+
+<p>An adit may be driven to intercept a
+shaft and to serve as a sort of artificial
+surface, as it were, and thus save expenses
+in pumping and in hoisting up to the
+original collar of the shaft at the surface
+of the ground.</p>
+
+<p>No matter how crooked an incline may
+be, it is possible to hoist ore in conveyances
+known as skips, although the hoisting
+may be necessarily somewhat slow.
+These same conveyances are useful for
+lowering and hoisting men, and the parody,
+"Men go down to the mine in
+skips," here finds its significance. The
+usual hoisting conveyances used in shafts
+are known as cages. They usually produce
+less friction than do incline skips.
+A skip in an incline must travel upon a
+track, while a cage, somewhat resembling
+a passenger elevator, has no wheels,
+but slides upon guides. However, an
+incline skip, because of the inclination of
+the passage, does not exert the same
+dead weight upon the cable and hoisting
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span>
+engine and hence these parts of the
+equipment may be made correspondingly
+lighter. Skips for shafts are similar to
+cages in their lack of wheels.</p>
+
+<p>Complete estimates of probable future
+requirements should be made before a
+shaft is sunk. When it becomes necessary
+to enlarge a single-compartment
+shaft to one with two compartments, the
+expense has been found to exceed one-half
+the original cost of sinking; while, to
+convert a one-compartment shaft into a
+three-compartment shaft costs fully three-fourths
+of the original sinking expense.
+Approximately the same ratios of cost
+will hold in the case of enlarging inclines.</p>
+
+<p>Character of ore sometimes influences
+the selection of the kind of passageway.
+Some high grade, brittle ores must not be
+dumped nor handled repeatedly, since
+values are lost in the "fines." Iron and
+copper ores will not probably be injured
+by any amount of dumping. Coal should
+be handled as few times as possible. In
+view of this fact, other things being equal,
+adopt that system that will injure the
+ore or coal the least.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>As a rule, workmen are safer in tunnels
+than in shafts, since there is little danger
+from objects falling any great distance.
+Tiny bits of rock have been known to kill
+men in shafts. On the other hand, there
+is less liability of injury from falls of
+large rocks in shafts than in adits. Roof
+falls are a very prolific source of mine
+accidents.</p>
+
+<p>The workmen of neighboring mines will
+often be able to give much valuable information
+as to the proper procedure in
+opening a new property. For instance,
+water levels, amounts and kinds of gases
+that may be expected, the nature of the
+wall rocks, and other pertinent points
+may be learned by interviewing the men
+who are employed in adjacent mines.
+Still better information may be obtained
+by personal visits to the underground
+workings of the nearby mines. In this
+connection, one must not permit himself
+to be unduly influenced by the prejudices
+or hobbies of the neighboring operators
+or their employés if there is reason to
+suppose that such notions are contrary
+to good practice.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>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&mdash;not the hoped-for&mdash;bodies
+of coal or ore; but have a certain
+feature of elasticity about the plans that
+may take care of future increase in business
+if found desirable. Do not "over-plant."
+Never plant, at all, <i>prematurely</i>.
+It is better to postpone the installation
+of the equipment until some specific facts
+are available. Many companies have met
+defeat in the exhaustion of capital through
+the purchase and installation of elaborate
+plants which were never warranted.</p>
+
+<p>After a mine is once opened and preparations
+have all been perfected to operate
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span>
+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>i.e.</i>, 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.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="chap11" id="chap11">XI<br/>TYPES OF ORE BODIES.</a>
+</h2>
+
+
+<p>It has been necessary, a number of
+times in this discussion, heretofore, to
+make mention of kinds of ore bodies. It
+is well, at this time, to get some fixed
+ideas concerning the leading types of
+bodies of minerals which are extracted
+as ores.</p>
+
+<p>Because of the laxity in type differentiation
+which has prevailed among miners
+and writers, the same geologists who have
+framed definitions of ore, have also defined
+the various types of ore bodies. The
+definitions, having been accepted by the
+leading mining geologists and engineers
+of the present day, it is well for us to fall
+into line and to agree with the authorities
+in such matters.</p>
+
+<p>A <i>vein</i> is a <i>single, ore-bearing fissure</i>,
+generally, though not necessarily, with
+at least one well-defined wall.</p>
+
+<p>When we run across a tabular-shaped
+deposit of ore that looks as though it may
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span>
+have been put into a pre-existing fissure
+or chasm, the chances are that it is a
+vein. But a vein must not be confounded
+with a dike. A dike is a filling that has
+been injected, while molten or fluid, into
+an open passageway or rupture across
+rocks, or into an opening which it created
+for itself. A little examination of the
+material should tell, to even the novice,
+whether or not the substance is of plutonic
+origin. The filling of a vein is not
+eruptive, at all. Veins have been filled
+from circulating aqueous solutions, by
+slow depositions, that have occupied very
+long periods.</p>
+
+<p>A vein may be any thickness, since a
+fissure may have been opened to any
+width. Hence, a vein may be as thin
+as a sheet of paper, or it may be a hundred
+feet across. However, it is true that some
+wide veins have resulted by a sort of enlargement
+from original thin seams. Very
+few of the notable wide veins of the world
+are believed to have been created by the
+filling up of chasms originally as wide as
+the present ore bodies. But, in all cases
+of real veins, there were original fissures,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span>
+fractures or crevices which acted as channels
+for circulating solutions that contained
+the materials which were left to
+make the vein matter.</p>
+
+<p>A <i>lode</i> is an <i>assemblage of veins</i> so closely
+spaced that the ground between the veins
+becomes, in places, ore-bearing, and the
+entire width of the aggregation becomes
+an ore body.</p>
+
+<p>A zone of sheeted rocks like schist or
+slate, if sufficiently mineralized to warrant
+mining, would be a lode. Sometimes, in
+certain districts, the earth's crust has been
+subjected to many approximately parallel,
+closely-spaced fractures, and by the subsequent
+filling of these cracks, with the
+accompanying corrosion of the walls and
+their replacement by ore, extraction of
+the entire mass of rocks across a considerable
+distance will be found to yield a
+profit. Any such body is a lode.</p>
+
+<p>In the Cripple Creek District, the
+ground is criss-crossed in every direction
+by tiny fissures which have resulted from
+the contraction of the country rock, just
+as a bed of mud is fissured in the process
+of drying up after a rain. Wherever these
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span>
+fissures are found in aggregates that are
+closely spaced and in which a majority of
+the cracks have a general trend so that
+the whole assemblage can be readily
+worked as one mass, this whole body of
+fractured rock may be found worth mining
+and it will then constitute a lode. It
+may be mentioned here that the so-called
+ore of this district is not really ore according
+to the accepted definition. The true
+ore, the filling of these innumerable, tiny
+cracks, really constitutes but about five
+per cent. of the material that is shipped
+as ore, but which is principally the "country
+rock" broken down with the small
+volume of ore.</p>
+
+<p>In <i>legal</i> phraseology, the word lode has
+come to include all sorts of ore bodies.
+When the word is thus used, in a legal
+sense, it should not be confused with the
+strictly technical meaning.</p>
+
+<p>It has been the fashion for prospectors
+to dilate upon the fact that they have
+located "true fissure veins." This expression,
+formerly on the tongues of most
+mining men in districts possessing veins
+at all, is now obsolete and hence should
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span>
+be placed in the discard. There can be
+no such thing as an "untrue" vein nor an
+"untrue" fissure. Neither can there be
+any vein without a fissure. Therefore,
+if there is any vein, it must be a real
+or true vein. Accordingly, the verbiage
+is to be discouraged. The intention of
+a miner, in using this pet phrase, has
+been to convey the impression that his
+vein extended downward, indefinitely;
+there having arisen a notion that some
+veins are rather superficial and liable to
+"peter out" at slight depths, while others&mdash;the
+kind he invariably has located&mdash;persist
+both in size and value to extreme
+depths.</p>
+
+<p>There are districts in which are found
+short fissures, generally confined to certain
+horizons in sedimentary rocks, such
+as the limestones of the great Mississippi
+Valley, from which are mined lead and
+zinc ores. These are called "gash veins."
+These are always readily recognized and
+there is not the slightest excuse for confusing
+them with the fissures which are
+common to other kinds of rock formations.</p>
+
+<p>A <i>bed</i> or <i>blanket vein</i> is the term applied
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span>
+to any nearly flat deposit conforming to
+the bedding. Such a body of ore must
+be in a sedimentary series of rocks. Coal
+bodies are all of this type. Many bodies
+of iron ore are also of this type.</p>
+
+<p>A <i>chimney</i> is an ore body which has not
+the tabular form of a vein but is rudely
+elliptical in outline, horizontally, and
+with a very considerable vertical extent.
+A <i>stock</i> is a similar body but it is of still
+greater irregularity of boundary.</p>
+
+<p>These bodies are usually the filling of
+extinct volcanoes or geysers, and therefore
+they are presumed to extend to very
+great depths. The diamond mines of
+Kimberly, Africa, are of this type and
+the ore is a sort of hardened geyserite or
+mud in which are enclosed the precious
+gems. In Custer County, Colorado, the
+ore body of the Bassick Mine is a conglomerate
+of rounded boulders of all
+sizes cemented together, somewhat like
+concrete, by the materials which really
+carry the values. This mass occupies
+an ancient volcanic neck or throat of a
+geyser, probably the latter. The main
+portion of the Cripple Creek District is
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span>
+the crater of a great prehistoric volcano.
+It might be called a great chimney, but
+custom seems to limit the use of the word
+chimney to a smaller body such as might
+be included in a single mining property.</p>
+
+<p>A <i>mass</i> is a deposit whose irregularity
+of shape is so great that it cannot be recognized
+as belonging to any of the types
+already mentioned. Masses conform to
+no rules as to shape or size. They are
+usually the result of a chemical dissolving
+of the original barren rocks with a
+simultaneous or subsequent substitution
+of valuable materials. There are many
+instances of ores that have been deposited,
+molecule by molecule, replacing equal volumes
+of the previous rock, much upon
+the order of the petrifaction of wood.
+Again, there are immense masses which
+are believed to have accumulated in caves
+already dissolved out of the containing
+rocks.</p>
+
+<p>While recent geological study of the
+districts in which such ore bodies abound
+have disclosed numerous facts about their
+occurrence, there still remains much conjecture
+concerning their origins, and we
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span>
+may still believe that they do not conform
+to any rules as to regularity or size.
+The ore bodies of Leadville are of this
+type, and they may be described by the
+homely similes that they are as like and
+as unlike, and their occurrences are about
+as regular, as potatoes in a hill. The
+potato-tops give the farmer a suggestion
+as to where to dig. So, also, do certain
+geological relations guide the miner. And
+yet a shaft may be sunk hundreds of feet
+down among masses and not happen to
+penetrate a single one.</p>
+
+<p>There are numerous recognized types
+of ore body not enumerated here; but it
+is sufficient for the average layman in
+mining matters to understand these few
+distinct types and to believe that all
+other types are rarities, and are, as a general
+thing, but intermediate forms of
+those defined.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><a name="illus13" id="illus13"><img src="images/illus13.jpg" alt="Shaft No. 3, Tamarack Mining Company, Calumet." /></a></p>
+<p class="caption">Shaft No. 3, Tamarack Mining Company, Calumet, Michigan.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><a name="illus14" id="illus14"><img src="images/illus14.jpg" alt="Smeltery of the Balaklala Consolidated Copper Co." /></a></p>
+<p class="caption">Smeltery of the Balaklala Consolidated Copper Co.,<br />
+Coram, California.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="chap12" id="chap12">XII<br/>THE QUESTIONS OF DEPTH AND<br />GRADES OF ORE.</a>
+</h2>
+
+
+<p>The prevailing belief of a few years ago
+that ore bodies always improve with depth
+has been discredited. Not a single mining
+geologist will longer maintain such a
+notion. The evidence of many thousands
+of mines has refuted this older belief and
+it has been proven that quite the opposite
+view is the correct one concerning changes
+of value with depth. Values, instead of
+getting better, do actually, in the majority
+of cases, grow poorer as depth is gained.</p>
+
+<p>President C. R. Van Hise, of the University
+of Wisconsin, was among the
+early expounders of the newer theories to
+account for this fact. The writer heard
+him state, years ago, before a scientific
+gathering (which, at that time, was not
+quite ready to agree with him), that if he
+were given his choice, he would much
+prefer to own the upper thousand feet of
+the earth's crust than all the rest of the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span>
+globe. In this remark, he was referring
+only to mineral values, of course.</p>
+
+<p>This belief that the best values are to
+be found not far from the surface has
+since become popular, for it is based upon
+proven facts. It is not claimed that
+values are never mined below an elevation
+that is a thousand feet from the
+surface. There are many mines, and
+great ones, too, that are operating at
+depths greatly exceeding this distance;
+but in these same mines there will be
+found valid reasons for not applying the
+general statement to their particular cases.
+For instance, the great copper mines of the
+Keweenaw Peninsula are productive at
+depths of a mile or more from the surface;
+but we believe that here the ore must
+have been originally deposited at, or near,
+the surface, that it was then overlain
+with rock strata; and subsequently steeply
+tilted by earth movements which carried
+some of the ore bodies down to the depths
+where they are now found.</p>
+
+<p>The "reefs" or bankets of the Rand
+are so termed because these ore bodies
+were undoubtedly ancient coast beaches
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span>
+or sea placers. The gravel, sand, and
+gold particles were cemented together
+into a conglomerate, then covered with
+many later sedimentaries, and finally the
+continent of Africa was so raised or
+altered in some manner as to bring these
+gold deposits into their present inland
+and tilted positions.</p>
+
+<p>In veins or lodes, it is not supposed that
+ore-making minerals could have been precipitated
+from solutions travelling either
+upward or downward and obeying chemical
+laws if the depth were sufficient to
+furnish great temperature or high rock
+and hydrostatic pressures. Therefore minerals
+which were deposited from aqueous
+solutions rising from depths, for example,
+must have retained their dissolved condition
+until they ascended to horizons
+in which both pressure and temperature
+were low enough to permit the precipitation
+and crystallization that create ores.
+Contrarily, descending solutions must
+have given off their contents before
+reaching the deep zones of heat and pressure,
+or not at all.</p>
+
+<p>It is a quite common phenomenon to
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span>
+observe that the richest <i>gold</i> ore in a
+mine is found close to the surface, if not
+actually at "grass roots." The explanation
+is simple. The gold, being the most
+stable of the aggregate of minerals composing
+the original ore, has the better
+resisted the corrosive attacks of atmospheric
+agencies and has remained nearly
+intact, while its associated minerals have
+been dissolved or altered and carried
+away. The same amount of gold remaining
+with a diminished quantity of
+the worthless, non-metallic minerals&mdash;the
+"gangue"&mdash;inevitably renders the ore
+richer per unit of weight (such as a ton),
+although per unit of volume the value
+remains constant, or nearly so, so far as
+the gold is concerned.</p>
+
+<p>But with other kinds of ore, as, for
+example, copper, the best grades are
+found, not close to the surface but some
+two hundred or more feet down. The
+explanation is that the minerals of copper
+are considerably more soluble than the
+ordinary gangues and therefore the weathering
+and oxidation that takes place in
+the upper horizons of ore bodies will dissolve
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span>
+out the cupriferous compounds and
+thus deplete the superficial ore. But, by
+the flowing of the copper solutions to a
+lower zone, there occur certain reactions
+that reprecipitate the salts of copper
+upon compounds of the metal already
+formed and we have instances of the phenomenon
+known as "secondary enrichment."</p>
+
+<p class="center"><a name="illus15" id="illus15"><img src="images/illus15.jpg" alt="Concentrator Division, Washoe Reduction Works of the Anaconda Copper Mining Co." /></a></p>
+<p class="caption">Concentrator Division, Washoe Reduction Works of the Anaconda Copper Mining Co.,<br />
+Anaconda, Montana.<br />Largest Copper Works in the World.</p>
+
+<p>It was this very process that effected
+the changes in the character of the ore in
+the famous Anaconda Mine, previously
+mentioned (page 44). The locator's discovery
+was upon an outcrop rich in
+silver. Probably the original compounds
+of the vein were of both silver and copper.
+The silver was more stable against dissolution
+than was the copper, with the
+result that the base metal was removed
+more rapidly and completely than was
+the precious metal. The upper portion
+of the vein was therefore left rich in silver,
+and low in copper. But, as depth of mining
+increased, there was found a gradual
+diminution of the silver content with a
+simultaneous increase in the copper. The
+mines of Butte have become known as
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span>
+copper mines, and the wonderful records
+they have made are ample testimony to
+the fact that the change in the prevailing
+metallic values has not wrought serious
+havoc in the mining industry of the
+district.</p>
+
+<p>Regarding the probability of veins persisting
+to great depths, there is this
+thought suggested by J. E. Spurr: "Owing
+to the pressure exerted by gravity, it
+is doubtless more difficult for a fissure to
+stay open in depth than near the surface.
+The tendency is to press the sides together.
+At a certain depth, it is probably
+the case that the pressure and the plasticity
+resulting from this, together with
+the increase in heat, makes it impossible
+for fissures, fractures or any openings to
+exist."</p>
+
+<p>There are still many persons who are
+reluctant to let go of the cherished notion
+about the improvement of ores
+with depth. But there is no economy
+in deceiving one's self, and the wise thing
+to do is to accept the truths as they
+are daily proven. It may be worth
+while to again refer to the wonderful
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span>
+Camp Bird Mine. This mine was discovered
+in its true worth years after it
+had been abandoned by early prospectors
+because it lacked showy, base-metal minerals.
+However, since its true merit
+has been recognized, it has maintained
+large and remarkably rich annual outputs.
+As values were beginning to show a material
+decrease, about five years ago, an
+experienced mining engineer of recognized
+standing was engaged to give advice concerning
+the future exploitation of the
+property. After exhaustive investigation
+of the ground, and in the face of
+adverse opinions, he recommended the
+discontinuance of further development
+in depth. At the same time, however,
+he advised the exploitation of the ground
+laterally or along the strike of the very
+persistent vein. His advice was followed
+and the company's stockholders had
+reason to be advocates of the new theory;
+for a very reasonable amount of horizontal
+development work opened up vast
+stores of rich gold ore.</p>
+
+<p>And yet, notwithstanding this disquieting
+feature that seems to apply to mining,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span>
+there is comfort to be found in the consideration
+of the exceptional cases. Every
+man may hope that when he locates a
+new mine he is taking possession of a
+property that will have as extensive ore
+bodies as those that have been proven to
+exist in the lead-silver mines of Laurium,
+Greece, the quicksilver mines of Spain,
+or the copper and tin mines of Cornwall.
+These mines are in lodes which have
+persisted and have been mineralized to
+comparatively great depths, so that their
+bottoms have not been reached.</p>
+
+<p>There is a modern idea that has taken
+root in the minds of mining men of the
+last generation to the effect that the mines
+with rich ore are not necessarily the ones
+with big profits. There are many men
+looking for investments in mines whose
+contents are of low grade but in large
+bodies readily worked. If a mine with
+rich ore can be found and the ore abounds
+in such liberal amounts as to warrant
+the inauguration of a company with the
+essential working equipment, such a proposition
+will naturally not be turned down.
+However, the faith of some men is placed
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span>
+in those mines that may be operated
+upon very large scales for long periods
+even if the profit per ton be very small.
+With a large plant, the unit of expense,
+<i>i.e.</i>, the cost of mining per ton, is less
+than with a small mine. With the assurance
+of regular outputs of ore of a reasonably
+uniform grade, the milling equipment
+can be planned to handle a mine's
+product to the greatest advantage. The
+Alaska-Treadwell Mine, on Douglas
+Island, is an instance of a splendid
+property that has been continuously
+operated for about a third of a century.
+The ore is low grade in gold but immense
+dividends have been declared because
+the ore body, a tremendous mass of eruptive
+rock, has lain in such a position
+that the owners found it possible to
+excavate the stuff, to a great extent, by
+open-pit methods, although not by using
+steam shovels. The ore is treated in a
+vast mill contiguous to the mine.</p>
+
+<p>The Homestake, another gold mine,
+has an ore body quite dissimilar geologically
+from, but of dimensions approximating
+those of, the Treadwell. It is a great
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span>
+body of mineralized, crushed shales, standing
+steeply in the shape of a lode and
+carrying about $3.75 per ton. It has
+been followed down considerably over
+one thousand feet and although the grade
+has dropped somewhat with depth, there
+are known to still be millions of tons in
+reserve. According to estimates, the
+mine has enough positive ore in reserve
+to keep the mill running at the rate of
+4,000 tons per day for several years even
+if no more ore were to be opened up.
+This ore nets but 53 cents per ton above
+all mining and milling expenses; but a
+little arithmetic will show that this mine
+is worth twice as much as the mine that
+is producing, with more or less regularity,
+an average daily output of, say, forty
+tons of high grade ore upon which there
+is a net gain of $25 per ton, a figure that
+is rather high for the average of so-called
+"high grade" mines.</p>
+
+<p>We must, therefore, decide that it is
+always wise to think twice before condemning
+a mine because its grade of
+product is low. It is only recently and
+by virtue of marked improvements in
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span>
+metallurgical processes that many bodies
+of mineral have become "ore." Hence
+it is but natural that many of the older
+miners fail to grasp the possibilities that
+lie in such deposits.</p>
+
+<p>What is the line of value separating a
+low grade from a high grade of precious
+metal ore? There is no uniform practice
+along this line. One will notice that ores
+are nowadays spoken of as high grade
+that, before the practice of mining these
+described meagre deposits, were reckoned
+as low grade. This fact is due to two
+reasons, viz., the cheapening of metallurgical
+operations, and the greater respect
+that is entertained for ores of low
+metallic content. The Esperanza Mine,
+in Mexico, is called a high-grade gold
+mine. Its ore has averaged about $33
+per ton and the profit therefrom about
+$19. The Oroya-Brownhill Mine, in
+western Australia, has had ore that carried
+a value of about $22 per ton and
+from it a profit of about $15 per ton was
+made. In the Cripple Creek District,
+ores that run above $30 per ton are considered
+high grade. This means that
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span>
+the average rich ore shipments of the
+district have a gold content of about 1-1/2
+ounces per ton. The expenses of mining,
+freight, and treatment will probably
+total close to one-half the gross
+value, or about $15 per ton.</p>
+
+<p>When one speaks of $30 or $40 ore as
+rich or high grade, it is not to be inferred
+that there is no ore in the shipments
+which is not worth a great deal more than
+this amount per ton. Such lots of ore
+will, no doubt, contain a great many
+chunks that would assay many times the
+average value. Such selected materials
+would not, however, be samples; they
+would be what are called "specimens."
+The specimen has its place in mine economic
+discussions because it furnishes
+the basis of operations for the ubiquitous
+"high grader" with which nearly
+every new and rich mining camp must
+contend.</p>
+
+<p>Some writers claim that the high grader
+is a product of modern conditions; but
+we find that he has existed for such a long
+time that he was given mention by the
+Scotch historian and scientist Andrew
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span>
+Ure, who wrote of the precautions that
+were exercised in working the graphite
+mines of England, a century ago, to prevent
+the pilfering of even this comparatively
+low-grade material. Even the
+ignorant African natives of today cannot
+be trusted to wear clothing while
+working in the diamond mines. No,
+the cause of high grading is the innate
+greed of human beings and it has existed
+from prehistoric time and among
+all peoples.</p>
+
+<p>In this discussion as to grades of ore,
+the question may arise as to what might
+be reasonably considered the most attractive
+kind of a mining proposition. This
+is too knotty a query to be answered in a
+few words. There are so many different
+phases that must be given due weight.
+Every mine is a problem in itself. The
+Minnesota mines afford the best examples
+of profitable iron mining. Under the
+classification of underground, tabular deposits
+such as veins or lodes, no matter
+in what metals their values are found,
+Mr. T. A. Rickard believes that the ideal
+mine would be one carrying ore worth
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span>
+$10 per ton, in a body five feet thick, with
+costs not exceeding $5 per ton, and so
+mined as to keep one million tons continually
+in reserve. According to these
+restrictions, he thinks the Robinson Mine,
+of Johannesburg, will about fill the bill as
+an ideal <i>gold</i> mine. It has a deposit of
+about the right thickness to avoid excessive
+timbering expense and this ore body
+is in such a vast, continuous sheet that
+its superintendent can depend upon maintaining
+a systematic development that
+will assure a constant supply of ore to the
+immense mill for ten or twelve years in
+advance. This same ore averages about
+fourteen pennyweights (approximately
+$14) per ton and upon this there is assured
+a profit of over five dollars per ton.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="chap13" id="chap13">XIII<br/>VALUATION OF MINING<br /> PROPERTY.</a>
+</h2>
+
+
+<p>Whenever a piece of mining property
+is to change hands, it is the proper procedure
+to employ an expert engineer to
+investigate the ground and the improvements
+and so arrive at some estimate
+concerning its intrinsic value. Nobody
+is infallible and it is a trite saying that
+"nobody can see into a mine farther than
+the last drill hole." But there is a great
+difference in the reliabilities of reports
+made by trained and by untrained men.
+A self-styled "expert" of the type which
+is so abundant in every new mining centre
+and about cities frequented by mining
+investors will probably not be able to
+comprehend anything beyond his vision;
+but the mining geologist and engineer&mdash;the
+man who has devoted the better part
+of his life to study and experience along
+these lines&mdash;will be able to reach conclusions
+upon which much reliance may
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span>
+be placed. This fact has come to be
+recognized by the men who exercise business
+judgment in their mining investments.</p>
+
+<p>The sampling of mines has been studied
+and improved upon by succeeding engineers,
+until one may say that it is conducted
+along strictly scientific lines. The
+old method of taking a sample of a mine
+by scratching ore from the sides of a
+shaft from top to bottom and letting the
+collected material at the bottom represent
+a fair average of the ore body, has
+been relegated to its proper place in the
+evolution of mine valuation.</p>
+
+<p>Without entering into a description of
+the methods now employed by the best
+examiners of mines, let it be said that
+every scientific precaution is taken to
+obtain representative portions of the ore
+bodies, at such intervals as seem best in
+each particular case; that measurements
+and assays are made for each and every
+sample taken and not for the aggregate
+of all the samples; that no opportunity is
+allowed unscrupulous persons to vitiate
+results in any manner; that a professional
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span>
+engineer will not hold nor acquire, in any
+way, an interest in any proposition which
+he examines; and that the report of a
+reputable engineer is equally acceptable
+to the seller and to the purchaser, no
+matter for whom the work is done.</p>
+
+<p>Much discussion has prevailed as to
+the best means of estimating the amount
+and the value of ore in unbroken reserves.
+Associated with these beneficial
+disputes, there has been a further controversy
+as to the correct classification
+for reserves of unbroken ore. It is now
+conceded among mining men and engineers
+to be improper to longer make use
+of the meaningless but tongue-worn expression
+"ore in sight" as signifying any
+known or unknown volumes of ore in the
+ground. The only ore in sight is that
+which has been hoisted or which has been
+broken and stored underground. Well-known
+engineers have proposed the following
+expressions:</p>
+
+<p>To denote the contents of ore bodies
+which have been exposed on four sides,
+we may say <i>ore blocked out</i>, <i>positive ore</i> or
+<i>ore developed</i>; for bodies exposed upon
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span>
+three sides, it is considered correct to
+describe the contents as <i>ore partly blocked</i>;
+for such bodies as are proved upon two
+sides only, the terms <i>ore faces</i>, <i>ore developing</i>
+or <i>probable ore</i> are appropriate; while
+in speaking of all ore that may be expected
+or suspected, but which is beyond the last
+exposures, we may use the expressions
+<i>ore expectant</i> and <i>possible ore</i>.</p>
+
+<p>When it comes to the question of placing
+a value upon an undeveloped property&mdash;one
+in which there is little, or no, development
+work or exploitation&mdash;it takes
+more than the ability of the common
+"expert" of the curbstone variety to
+arrive at any dependable figures. Without
+any exposures, except those that may
+have been produced by Nature, and perhaps
+with no guidance from facts that
+might be obtainable were there adjoining
+mines, one might suppose that the
+whole matter would resolve itself into
+mysticism. Right here is where the
+trained man best shows his ability.</p>
+
+<p>The greatest error of the usual investor
+in mining schemes is to rely upon either
+no report at all or upon a worthless one
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span>
+furnished by an impostor. <i>In no sort of
+a mining proposition is a reliable report
+so essential as when one is contemplating
+the purchase of a "prospect."</i> Successful
+engineers, whose predictions concerning
+such properties have come true, are sometimes
+complimented (?) by being accused
+of possessing intuition or prophetic vision.
+Call this ability what we will, we must
+admit that <i>education and training</i> give
+certain qualifications that will enable a
+man to arrive at conclusions which, in the
+majority of cases, will be found to wear.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="chap14" id="chap14">XIV<br/>THE MINE PROMOTER.</a>
+</h2>
+
+
+<p>With the thought that has justly been
+given to the place occupied (or that should
+be occupied) in the world's financial and
+economic affairs by legitimate mining,
+there has developed a well-founded stigma
+upon the operations of a class of persons
+who have styled themselves by what was
+formerly considered a worthy title, that
+of "promoters." Since men have found
+that it is as possible to go into a mining
+deal with the same chances for success as
+attach to any other line of investment;
+since it has been proved that real, worthy
+mining property does not require the
+exertions of many middlemen to obtain
+capital for its development; and since it
+has usually turned out that these "promoters"
+have handed the hot end of
+deals to their investors, it is not to be
+wondered that some sort of a brand would
+attach itself to the men who are not in
+the business to benefit the industry of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span>
+mining in the least, but really for the
+selfish gains which they can pocket at
+the expense of the industry.</p>
+
+<p>These men are legion. The mails are
+laden with their seductive letters and
+"literature." Brokerage firms are numbered
+among these leeches on legitimate
+mining. Charlatans appear almost daily
+upon mining scenes. The men who engage
+in these deplorable practices are
+not from any one walk in life: they spring
+up from various branches of our social
+structure. The general public has learned
+that a very prominent Boston magnate
+will not scruple to promote a mining
+property even though it lacks the merit
+essential in attracting the conservative
+capitalist. Thousands of people of small
+means throughout the United States and
+Canada have been recipients of nicely
+worded and familiarly-addressed letters
+signed by the son of a famous American
+author. This son, himself a writer of
+some repute, presumed to speak to his
+"friends" concerning a mining property
+which he promoted and into which he
+was glad to allow them to get with him
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span>
+"on the ground floor." He frankly stated
+that he was not offering such privileges to
+the big capitalists. He inwardly knew
+that such men do not require holdings in
+the Cobalt or any other region. Through
+the splendid work carried on by the Government
+postal authorities many of these
+frauds have been exposed and the perpetrators
+brought to justice. In January,
+1912, the above-mentioned author, together
+with a number of his ilk, were
+brought before the Federal Grand Jury,
+and found guilty.</p>
+
+<p>It is not the men of great capital who
+are induced, as a rule, into the deals of
+the "promoter." It is usually the common
+people, the persons of small means
+who have saved up a little spare money
+from which they hope to realize competencies
+for rainy days&mdash;a class of beings
+inexperienced in investments&mdash;who become
+the dupes of the promoter.</p>
+
+<p>There have been notable exceptions to
+the statement that capitalists do not yield
+to the seductions of these men, but recurrences
+are liable to be few. The great business
+man is fortified by experience against
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span>
+forms of treachery and he is, therefore, not
+so susceptible to the allurements of any
+"promotion," be it mining or otherwise.</p>
+
+<p>If one investigates these advertised
+mining "promotions," he will often find
+that the money paid in by the small investors
+purchases a very small portion
+only of the capitalization. The men who
+conceived the scheme of "promoting" a
+concern have carefully arranged to hold
+a majority of the stock, so that should
+there, by any chance, prove to be a mine,
+they are the ones who will reap the greatest
+benefits. Further, it often transpires
+that the contributions of cash that purchase
+the small interests do not perform
+the function of development for which
+the stock was ostensibly put upon the
+market. Perhaps somebody has a desire
+to get rich quickly. The operations of
+such frauds are so obscured and so complex
+to the average individual that sufficient
+evidence can seldom be procured
+to prove any violation of law.</p>
+
+<p>A witty newspaper paragrapher once
+remarked that out in Nevada the old
+adage "Death loves a shining mark"
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span>
+was changed to "Death loves a mining
+shark." It would seem, however, that if
+Death were to love the person bearing the
+odious, well-understood title of "shark"
+enough to claim him early, the business
+of mining would be materially benefited.
+The post-office officials of the United
+States are to be commended for their
+efforts at curbing the despicable operations
+of these fakirs. Occasionally the
+papers come out with the news that a
+firm's offices have been raided and their
+business stopped. These news items fall
+as awakeners upon the hundreds of gullible,
+middle-class persons all over the
+country who are known to actually force
+their cash remittances upon these fraudulent
+operators, much upon the plan of a
+department store's supposed bargain sale.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of the "bad name" that has
+been attached to the persons engaged in
+starting up enterprises, there is a real
+need for more activity in the matter of
+inaugurating real, legitimate mining enterprises.
+Persons who devote their brains
+and energies in the direction of furthering
+worthy mining propositions do really
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span>
+"promote" the interests of such companies.
+What shall such persons be called
+if not "promoters"? There does not
+seem to be any other word that expresses
+the occupation of such persons. The
+real solution of this dilemma in which
+the honest men engaged in such work find
+themselves placed is to denounce, forcefully,
+the charlatan as being not a real promoter
+but a gross misrepresentation of one.</p>
+
+<p>Let us, therefore, remove the odium
+from this title and give our approbation
+to those persons who are earnestly endeavoring,
+by honest means, to place
+mining enterprises upon strictly business-like
+footings. The mining industry needs
+promotion and promoters.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="chap15" id="chap15">XV<br/>INCORPORATION AND<br />CAPITALIZATION.</a>
+</h2>
+
+
+<p>Let us consider the legitimate financing
+of a new or a reorganized, worthy, mining
+proposition. It is the universal custom to
+own and work a mine under the laws that
+govern a corporation and, for this reason,
+the mining man of the day is familiar with
+the practices of incorporating.</p>
+
+<p>It is something of a question at the
+start to decide what is a fair price to fix
+upon a property as a whole&mdash;that is, to
+decide what the capitalization should be.
+There is no rule to be followed in this
+matter. Some organizers will decide to
+capitalize at what is expected will be the
+value of the property after some time.
+Other men will stick to the idea that it is
+the proper thing to capitalize for what
+the property will invoice at the time.
+The higher the capital stock, the greater
+number of shares there are for sale, usually.
+With a conservative capitalization,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span>
+there may be fewer shares for sale, but
+each share is worth correspondingly more
+and the chances are much better for an
+advance in the price per share whenever
+the mine becomes productive. There are
+investors who will carefully investigate
+this feature and will shun any mining
+stock which has any appearance of over-capitalization.
+It would be well if all
+investors were to follow this precaution.</p>
+
+<p>But what about the price at which to
+capitalize a prospect? By a prospect we
+here mean a property that has been favorably
+reported upon as worthy of development
+but in which, up to date, there is
+little, if any, showing of values or reserves.
+The engineer's report has recommended
+the property as containing the
+possibilities of a mine. How much is it
+worth? Can he or can anybody even
+roughly estimate the sum? An engineer
+frequently does fix the sale-purchase price
+of a property, but it is not so usual for him
+to decide upon a valuation for capitalization.
+A very good guess may be made,
+perhaps, if there are similar and neighboring
+properties which have been developed.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Assuming a prospect that has been
+reliably reported to the owners as possessing
+the earmarks of a mine and as
+warranting expenditures for exploitation,
+upon what basis should a company be
+capitalized? If the owners of the property
+have capital, the chances are that
+they will not care to share their holdings
+with other parties. But very frequently
+worthy "prospects" are held by men of
+no means, and in order to develop their
+mines the owners feel the necessity of
+coöperation with parties who can furnish
+working funds. In every such instance,
+there will arise this debate as to the proper
+basis of capitalization.</p>
+
+<p>There is no human means of arriving
+at a <i>close</i> valuation of any prospect, so
+it becomes a matter of pure judgment as
+to future probabilities and the possibility
+of placing the stock at the most advantageous
+price. A company will, therefore,
+be stocked for some round number of
+shares, say 100,000, upon which some
+empirical par valuation, say $1, is placed
+per share. This is not to be understood
+as stating nor assuming that the property
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span>
+has a present valuation equalling the par
+of the entire capitalization. Who would
+assert that any mere prospect ever had
+such a value as $100,000? No, it is not
+the intention of the organizers to claim
+that the ground is worth the par valuation;
+but some start must be made and
+so, in the absence of something precise,
+round numbers are made to do service.</p>
+
+<p>Stock is then offered at figures much
+below the par valuation and in such
+quantities as will maintain sufficient capital
+in the treasury of the new concern to
+get the property's exploitation under way
+and to so sustain it as to make the prospect
+grow into a mine.</p>
+
+<p>If shares are offered at 10 cents, it
+does not mean that a prospect is worth
+even that valuation. It does mean (we
+are considering now only the operations
+of honest concerns) that the men who are
+managing affairs believe that the sale of so
+many shares at ten cents each will furnish
+adequate means for the development and
+equipment of the mine. Therefore, there
+is a <i>prospective</i> valuation placed upon all
+such enterprises.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Is an investment in such a company to
+be considered as gambling? If there have
+been sound assurances from reliable examiners
+concerning the likelihood of the
+ground carrying the essentials of a mine
+and the only uncertain element is the
+ultimate magnitude of the mine, then
+we might say that the investment is not
+a gamble at all, since there is no chance
+to lose. The purchase of such stock is a
+very sane investment and there is no
+telling what the returns may reach.</p>
+
+<p>When incorporating a new company,
+it has become the fashion for the owners
+of the ground to exchange their titles
+for certain specified fractional interests
+in the company. This is effected usually
+by going through the formality of having
+the owners sell their holdings outright
+for the entire issue of the capital
+stock. Then, according to prearranged
+agreements, these owners donate to the
+treasury of the company a portion of
+this capital stock to be henceforth termed
+"treasury stock." The first step makes
+the capital stock "fully paid for," since
+it has been accepted in full payment for
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span>
+the property. The second step supplies
+the company with the necessary means
+for raising funds to develop.</p>
+
+<p>There can be no reasonable objection
+to this practice. But there is much criticism
+of the usual apportionment of the
+owners' and the treasury stock. It is
+agreed that the incorporators are, as a
+rule, greedy in this respect, since they
+generally issue more than 50 per cent.
+(and frequently 60 per cent.) of the capital
+stock to themselves and expect to
+float the project to success upon the
+money derivable from the sale of the
+balance or treasury stock.</p>
+
+<p>Is a mere prospect, even under the
+best natural conditions, plus the effort
+incidental to the organization of a mining
+company, worth one-half or more of
+a producing mine? During an extended
+experience in the business of converting
+discoveries into patented claims and prospects
+into mines, the writer has found
+that <i>there is never an owner who is willing
+to sell a developed mine for twice the price
+he had set upon the original prospect</i>. The
+valuation of his holdings goes up by
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span>
+greater multiples than mere doubling or
+even trebling and it is a rare thing to
+find a man willing to sell out a proved
+mine at less than ten times the prevailing
+valuation that would have been placed
+upon the same piece of property before
+its development.</p>
+
+<p>Hence, there is no propriety in the act
+of self-appropriating half the capital stock
+by the organizers. Investors should be
+wary about taking interests in companies
+which have been so organized. If an
+owner believes that a mine is worth ten
+times as much as a prospect, let him be
+consistent and offer his undeveloped property
+for a tithe of the capital stock in the
+anticipated mine. If he has a worthy
+piece of ground, he will reap the same
+benefits as the holders of the stock who
+place their cash against his title to a tract
+of virgin territory. If he will not thus act
+fairly, it indicates either a questionable
+piece of property or an avidity undesirable
+in a partner. It is accordingly advisable
+to shun offerings in such concerns.</p>
+
+<p>Another matter to be considered here
+is that of overloading a fairly good mining
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span>
+enterprise with so much capital investment
+that the property cannot be
+made to pay proper dividends and fair
+interest on the capital. Many worthy,
+though perhaps small, mining concerns
+have made failures through a disregard
+for this economic feature. The proper
+adjustment of this matter is a serious
+thing and it should not be passed over
+lightly. Investors should look into this
+phase of mining thoroughly.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="chap16" id="chap16">XVI<br/>MINING INVESTMENTS.</a>
+</h2>
+
+
+<p>One should be able to establish, in his
+mind, a distinction between the value of
+investments in operating mines and in
+prospective mines; and he should likewise
+be competent to fix some difference in
+his attitude when purchasing the stocks
+in these dissimilar projects. One should
+invest in an established mine with the
+same business precautions that would
+guide him in buying an interest in a mercantile
+establishment.</p>
+
+<p>It is possible to obtain, through competent
+engineers, the approximate present
+valuation and the probable life of any
+mine and thus to arrive at conservative
+figures that will govern one's investments.
+But, when debating the purchase of stock
+in a prospect, a man should learn all the
+available facts concerning the geology
+and the organizers and should then decide,
+in his own way, whether he cares to
+make the purchase. Even the prospects
+offering the finest inducements have been
+known to disappoint, just as some less
+promising prospects have occasionally
+exceeded expectations.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><a name="illus16" id="illus16"><img src="images/illus16.jpg" alt="Mill of the Roodepoort-United Mines, Transvaal, South Africa." /></a></p>
+<p class="caption">Mill of the Roodepoort-United Mines, Transvaal, South Africa.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>So, while there are certain safeguards to
+investments, there should also be accepted
+the uncertainties which must accompany
+the placing of faith in unseen things.</p>
+
+<p>The same general rules for business
+success will attend both commercial and
+mining enterprises. Any incorporation
+must be handled according to recognized,
+successful methods, no matter what its
+scope or activity. In most lines of business,
+there is a likelihood of growth with
+longevity, there being no reason to limit
+the life of the usual mercantile business.
+With advancing years, a manufacturing
+company, for instance, with good management,
+will establish a reputation and will
+gradually increase its business and its
+stock in trade. But with a mine, the
+business is one which is most successful
+only when actually depleting the assets
+at the most rapid rate. With some kinds
+of mines such as coal, placer, iron or the
+"reef" gold mines of the Rand, the life can
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span>
+be very accurately forecast and all activities
+may be planned for specified periods.</p>
+
+<p>In some kinds of mining ground&mdash;as
+for instance, the irregular masses of Leadville
+or the crooked and uncertain veins
+of Tonopah&mdash;there can be no predictions
+that will reliably or even approximately
+decide the probable life of the mining
+activities of any company. The duration
+of mines of this second class is wholly
+problematical. A few years ago, there
+was much discussion of this subject and
+one writer, who had collected statistics
+over an extended period and covering
+various kinds of mines, arrived at the
+conclusion that the average life of a mine
+is about eleven years. J. P. Wallace, in
+his work, <i>Ore Deposits for the Practical
+Miner</i>, in discussing this point says, "The
+average mine, if continuously worked,
+seldom lasts longer than three to five
+years. A mine is valuable not for what
+it has produced, but for what it is capable
+of producing." This opinion cannot be
+borne out by facts, for the brevity he
+ascribes to the average mine is altogether
+unreasonable and his statement is pessimistic.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span>
+The cases of mines which have
+petered out in three or five years are
+exceptionally few. It must be that the
+experiences of this author have been in
+"pockety" districts, for he could not
+have lived in any of the worthy mining
+camps of the world very long and have
+come away with any such notion.</p>
+
+<p>To take care of this intrinsic feature of
+mining, and to place propositions fairly
+before the public, there should be attention
+given to the matter of recovering
+the invested capital before the expiration
+of activities through the exhaustion
+of mining assets, the ore bodies. This
+practice, known as "amortization," is
+being given more and more consideration
+as people come to realize this peculiarity
+of mining. Some companies are now so
+organized and managed that there is a
+guaranteed refund, at stated periods, or
+whenever profits have accrued, of fractions
+of the invested capital with accumulated
+interest thereon. These funds
+are calculated to continue over the number
+of years which it is presumed the
+mines will live so that upon the cessation
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span>
+of mining, the owners of the stocks will
+have been completely reimbursed with
+their original outlay in addition to the
+dividends that have resulted from the
+success of the enterprise. It is here that
+the problem of the life of a mine enters
+into economics, and it is important that
+it be given its due share of study. Amortization
+is not of American origin and it
+has not been adopted in this country to
+the extent which it is bound to be in the
+future.</p>
+
+<p>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.
+All this efficiency can be very
+readily transferred to the operation of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span>
+virgin mining property. Often much of
+the equipment of a mine can be moved
+and used again. When a mine is known
+to be nearing its finish, there is a hesitancy
+on the part of the owners in replenishing
+the equipment and sometimes the mining
+is kept up through the use of worn-out,
+inefficient apparatus when, were the owners
+expecting to continue mining, they
+would purchase and install the new
+equipment when it is needed.</p>
+
+<p>One company in the San Juan region of
+Colorado prepared for the contingency by
+purchasing neighboring property to which
+it moved its operations. Another large
+company bought a large piece of mining
+property in Mexico, although its initial
+operations were in Colorado. Placer mining
+companies frequently dismantle, move
+and re-erect dredges.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="chap17" id="chap17">XVII<br/>MINE EQUIPMENTS.</a>
+</h2>
+
+
+<p>There is a constant tendency toward
+the adoption of machinery for the performance
+of every mining act which,
+formerly, was done by manual or animal
+labor. There are good reasons for this
+tendency. Good, trained labor is scarce;
+wages are slowly but gradually rising;
+ores of lower grade must be mined, and
+the tonnages must be correspondingly
+greater. The increased economy in production
+can be brought about by the
+adoption of devices that will supplant,
+and even excel, muscular effort.</p>
+
+<p>A machine can now be installed and can
+be operated by a single man to perform
+the work formerly done by many men.
+There have been machines invented to
+entirely, or partially, perform every operation
+in and around mines, and one might
+imagine an ideal mine in which all such
+machines were installed. But even there,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span>
+we should have to grant the presence of
+some few men, for it would not be possible
+to keep all the machines working without
+human, intelligent control. In such a
+mine, it might be possible to maintain a
+large production with very few laborers
+or overseers. Fewer men means less
+wages, less labor trouble, fewer fatalities,
+and less time occupied in handling men
+into and out of the workings.</p>
+
+<p>In some ways, copper mines are ahead
+of gold mines in their equipment. Coal
+mines have adopted car loaders which
+as yet and without any very good reasons
+metal mines have not.</p>
+
+<p>Plants for mines must utilize the same
+sources of power as are used by any other
+plants. Steam and water have been the
+usual forms, but electricity is gaining in
+favor in places where it can be cheaply
+obtained. At a coal mine, we naturally
+expect to see all the power generated
+through the combustion of coal under
+boilers. At metal mines&mdash;which are frequently
+remote from sources of coal
+supply&mdash;we run across the use of expensive
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span>
+coal for all power purposes. When it
+is possible to obtain a sufficient supply
+and head, water is adopted to furnish the
+required power for operation. At mines,
+with water sufficient to produce a part
+only of the needed power, we may see
+both steam and water power utilized.
+In the cases of some mines which are
+distant from sources of both coal and
+water supply, power is generated at
+points where stores of natural energy
+are available for use and the power is
+transmitted (usually as electricity, sometimes
+as compressed air) over long distances
+to the mines.</p>
+
+<p>Some mines cannot be economically
+operated without the treatment of the
+ores upon, or close to, the mining property.
+With certain sorts of low-grade
+ore, or with those kinds of ores that may
+be concentrated before shipment, provision
+should be early made for the erection
+of appropriately designed mills. We say
+the subject should be considered early,
+but we do not advocate the premature
+erection of any mill. The hills of the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span>
+Western mining states are dotted with
+monuments to men's error in this particular.
+Here and there (not in our own
+country alone, but throughout the mining
+world) one may run across an abandoned
+mine plant, a complete mill, a smeltery,
+a railroad or an aerial tramway, all prematurely
+provided for outputs which
+failed to materialize.</p>
+
+<p>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. This is
+a grievous mistake that comes about
+through misconceptions. It is often true
+that ores of the kind these mines are
+expected to produce should be treated
+upon the ground. But it is also true,
+and far more essential, that there be
+enough ore to supply the treatment
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span>
+works. It is rank folly then to spend the
+money needed to make a mine upon a plant
+to handle the product. Money should
+be spent, first, in exploitation and proving
+the value of a property. If the proof
+is forthcoming, it is then time enough to
+erect the plant. Meanwhile, during the
+development stages of a mine, the proper
+amount of experimentation can be conducted
+to ascertain the correct process for
+treating the ore. If ores are produced in
+abundance, they may be shipped for
+treatment in custom works until such
+time as the company's own plant is
+ready; or the ores may be stocked up for
+emergency mill supply at future times
+when it may be compulsory to curtail
+the mine production because of accidents
+or other unforeseen causes.</p>
+
+<p>One who considers these matters from
+an economic standpoint will recognize
+that there must exist some proper ratio
+of mine output to treatment capacity.
+Just what this relationship is constitutes
+a serious problem for each particular
+mine and there cannot be stated any
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span>
+ironclad rules that may be applied to all
+cases.</p>
+
+<p>In the first place, we believe <i>a mine
+will be operated at its greatest economy
+when it is making its largest and most
+regular output</i>. This being the case, we
+must agree that the plant and mill must
+be capable of taking care of this maximum
+output. It would then seem axiomatic
+that the equipment must be calculated
+according to the mine's capabilities.
+But, in the youth of a mine, how are we
+to know what its mature capacity will
+be? Here comes the rub.</p>
+
+<p>Very nice discussions along this line
+have been indulged in by British and
+American representative mining men.
+When speaking of operations that are
+typical of some foreign mining districts
+and especially those that possess ore-bodies
+whose extents are readily calculated,
+no clever prophecy is required to
+ascertain the proper amount of equipment.
+But there are many regions,
+especially in our own country, where
+nobody can predict, with any degree of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span>
+accuracy, how extensive will prove to be
+the natural reserves of any mine. It is
+in such places as these that hard study
+and careful guessing are needed, and we
+are inclined to agree with George J. Bancroft
+when he says, "To my mind, there
+is more credit due to those who take up
+the hard propositions and make them
+pay than to those who exploit bonanzas
+along purely scientific lines. The first
+usually require energy, sagacity, perseverance
+and, very often, daring; while the
+others need chiefly cool calculation."</p>
+
+<p>It is a safe practice, throughout the
+world, whenever there is no absolute
+means of reaching figures of a mine's ultimate
+production, to erect the treatment
+installations in units. By a "unit" is
+here meant the outfit of machinery and
+the other equipment which will handle a
+specified round number of tons per day.
+In some districts, a unit will be for the
+treatment of 10 tons; in other districts
+this number may run up to 100 tons. In
+the plans provisions are made for additions,
+from time to time, as mining
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span>
+development warrants. Very much the
+same scheme should be followed in the
+erection of the plant for carrying on the
+operations, which are strictly those of
+obtaining the ore from the earth. That
+is, mining equipment, as well as the milling
+equipment, should be on a flexible
+plan so as to be readily adapted to an
+increased scale of operation. There must
+be space provided for harmonious additions
+to the initial plant whenever such
+extra parts are required.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><a name="illus17" id="illus17"><img src="images/illus17.jpg" alt="Spray Shaft House of Copper Queen Consolidated Mining Co., Bisbee, Arizona." /></a></p>
+<p class="caption">Spray Shaft House of Copper Queen Consolidated Mining Co., Bisbee, Arizona.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="chap18" id="chap18">XVIII<br/>MINE MANAGEMENT.</a>
+</h2>
+
+
+<p>No matter how splendid a company's
+holdings may be naturally, there cannot
+be expected any profits from the workings
+of the deposits if there be not a sound
+business management. H. C. Hoover,
+the prominent mining engineer and mine
+manager, says, "Good mine management
+is based upon three elements: first, sound
+engineering; second, proper coördination
+and efficiency of every human unit; third,
+economy in the purchase and consumption
+of supplies." And he goes on to
+emphasize the fact that "no complete
+manual will ever be published upon
+'How to Become a Good Mine Manager.'"
+In view of this damper upon
+good intentions one might possess, and
+granting that the subject is one that cannot
+be taught (except along very general lines
+possibly), no attempt will be made to
+enter into arguments concerning this
+important subject of Mine Management.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Good administrative ability can be
+improved by cultivation just as can an
+individual of the vegetable kingdom; but
+there must first be the existent, innate
+ability. No man should attempt such a
+hard proposition as the management of a
+mine, with its varied phases of activity,
+unless he has found himself possessing
+the fundamentals that go to assure success
+in managerial positions. Furthermore,
+he should not think, because he has
+been successful in running a clothing
+business or any other mercantile line,
+that he is certain to succeed in running
+a mine.</p>
+
+<p>The duties of directors and president
+are pretty much the same in all sorts of
+incorporations. But, while there are
+many mining companies&mdash;and successful
+ones, too&mdash;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. To
+be sure, if they are ignorant along mining
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span>
+lines, they can, and often do, place
+the blame for their shortcomings upon
+their manager, their consulting engineer,
+or their superintendent. But this is not
+an auspicious state of affairs and it were
+well for stockholders to see to it that
+they elect to the directorate men who
+are cognizant of mining economics.</p>
+
+<p>The well-organized mining concerns of
+today maintain their engineering staffs
+just as completely as do other great technical
+businesses. The engineer is a very
+important man in mining affairs. His
+duties are probably more varied than those
+that appertain to any other sort of engineering.
+His operations will extend into
+the realms of the mechanical, the civil,
+the chemical, the metallurgical, the hydraulic,
+and the electrical engineers. He
+must be posted along the latest conceptions
+in geology, mineralogy, and physics.
+Besides he should be an accurate and
+rapid mathematician and draftsman.</p>
+
+<p>The manager finds in the engineer his
+most helpful and trusted aid. Often
+the engineer performs many of the functions
+usually attaching to the office of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span>
+manager and, in the absence of the latter
+person, he may attend to all of the management.
+As stated above, the qualities
+that make a good manager are inherent;
+hence, to a certain extent, we may hold
+the deduction that good mining engineers,
+also, must possess innate qualities. Yet
+there may be pointed out this distinction
+between the make-up of a good man for
+manager and that of a good mining engineer:
+one, as said, cannot learn his business
+except through his own experience,
+while the other can receive vast benefit
+by <i>study</i> of a theoretical nature and by
+<i>practice</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Lately, there is much said about the
+<i>consulting</i> mining engineer. His field of
+usefulness is broad. He can be asked to
+add his opinions and recommendations
+to those of the regular engineer, at any
+time; he can be used at times when the
+duties are too much for the resident
+engineer; he can be called upon to substitute;
+he need not live near the property,
+but may visit it periodically. Thus,
+while his retention is deemed remunerative,
+his services are available at a
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span>
+fractional part of what he would demand
+if he were employed exclusively by the
+company.</p>
+
+<p>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. No new reserve can
+be added&mdash;they can simply be found and
+unpacked, as it were.</p>
+
+<p>This finding entails the greatest amount
+of concern, and upon its successful practice
+depends the life of the mine. The
+presumption is strong that many mines
+have been abandoned while they really
+contained possibilities; but lack of knowledge
+of things geological, or perhaps
+failures to explore, permitted the operators
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span>
+to remain ignorant of the splendid
+assets that were available. Proof of this
+error has been found in many mines that
+have been subsequently re-opened.</p>
+
+<p>The work of sizing up the quantity
+and the value of available ore is known as
+sampling. It is not well to limit the
+practice of sampling to the times only
+when a sale is contemplated. Reports
+based upon careful sampling should be
+issued frequently. Some companies employ
+men whose sole occupation is the
+daily sampling of every working face.
+The assay results obtained from the
+collected samples inform the superintendent
+just "how the stuff is holding up"
+throughout the mine and he governs his
+work accordingly. At longer intervals,
+the engineer should go into the work
+more thoroughly by not only taking
+very careful, scientific samples (not the
+usual "grab" samples taken by the daily
+sampler) but also by making careful
+memoranda of the physical appearances
+of the ore with its thickness and all geological
+data that will tend to throw light
+upon the permanency of each body. The
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span>
+engineer's monthly report will then be a
+substantial guide to the manager and the
+directors.</p>
+
+<p>Managers, too, are expected to make
+periodical reports&mdash;monthly, quarterly,
+or annually&mdash;to the directors who, in
+turn, issue reports to the stockholders.
+The reports of managers and directors
+are not usually technical in their nature,
+although sometimes it is the practice of
+a manager to attach the engineer's report
+to his own for the perusal of such readers
+as may desire to dip into the technical
+affairs of the operations. Usually, the
+directors' reports are of a simple, financial
+nature, stating the conditions of
+affairs in plain business language to the
+persons whose cash has been invested in
+the enterprise.</p>
+
+<p>It may happen that, for some reason,
+a special report is desired by the directors
+who may be contemplating some consolidation
+or other financial move and both
+the manager and the engineer will be
+required to furnish detailed statements
+concerning their respective branches. If
+a sale is planned, it may be that not only
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span>
+the company's engineer, but very probably
+another engineer engaged by the
+contemplative purchaser, will make examinations.
+They may work together
+or separately, as best suits them mutually,
+but it is upon the reports issued by them
+that the satisfactory price for the exchange
+of title is based.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="chap19" id="chap19">XIX<br/>PRICES OF METALS.</a>
+</h2>
+
+
+<p>There is only one product of mines
+that has a constant market value, viz.,
+gold. The precious metals, gold, silver,
+and platinum, are sold by the Troy ounce:
+the base metals are all handled and dealt
+with on avoirdupois weights. Copper,
+lead, zinc, tin, and nickel are quoted in
+cents per pound avoirdupois. Iron and
+manganese are curiously sold by mines
+to smelting companies on the ton of ore
+basis.</p>
+
+<p>Since gold has been found in every
+known rock of every geologic age and is
+of world-wide distribution; since it possesses
+physical properties that long ago
+placed it at the head of the list of desirable
+metals; and further, since it does
+not occur in very condensed amounts,
+generally; this metal was selected as the
+standard of value by which the worth of
+every other commodity in the world is
+fixed. It must therefore be possessed of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span>
+a fixed market value, and one never looks
+for quotations on pure gold. The price
+of pure gold is set at $20.6718. This very
+peculiar value is known as the "mint
+value," and is the price which the Government
+of the United States pays for all of
+its coinage gold. Among miners, as a
+rule, the price is thought of as $20 per
+ounce, and this is probably because this
+is more nearly the actual return the miner
+has been accustomed to obtain from companies
+who have bought and treated his
+ores. Most all the gold produced in the
+world is associated with other metals,
+such as silver, copper, or platinum, so
+that the bullion recovered in milling or
+smelting will usually contain the gold
+alloyed with such other metals and the
+gold is said to be not "fine," or pure.
+The fineness of gold in the metallic state
+is expressed in two ways. Jewelers have
+the carat system, while mints use the
+decimal system in expressing such degrees
+of purity. Pure gold is 24-carat fine. An
+alloy of 3 parts gold and 1 part copper
+would be considered as 18-carat gold. In
+the decimal system, pure gold is called
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span>
+1,000 fine, and the various degrees of
+purity are then expressed in their true
+proportional amounts. Thus the same
+alloy as cited above would be called 750
+fine gold.</p>
+
+<p>Silver has a fluctuating market value
+although attempts have been made, at
+times, to establish its value at some fixed
+ratio to the value of gold. In fact, a
+reader may occasionally run across statistics
+of silver production in which it
+appears as though there were a fixed
+value for the metal, but this will be
+found to be due to the use of what is
+known as the "coinage value," which is
+$1.29198. This figure will be recognized
+as our old acquaintance, "16 to 1," <i>i.e.</i>,
+this price for silver being one-sixteenth
+of the fixed price for gold. There is
+actually no such fixation, and prices for
+silver are established every business day
+of the year in the great metal markets
+of the world, London and New York.</p>
+
+<p>Platinum has been increasing in market
+value during recent years and the quotations
+have ranged up so high that it is
+now more than twice as valuable as gold.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span>
+The reasons for this high price are that
+the production of the metal is limited,
+whereas the uses for the metal have been
+increasing. The greatest production of
+this metal is in the Ural Mountains of
+Russia, and the output from this region
+is handled by a few concerns who virtually
+possess a monopoly. These companies
+are able to maintain the production practically
+constant and to cause the market
+price to fluctuate.</p>
+
+<p>Tin is found in commercial amounts
+in but very few regions. There is but
+one mineral mined as an ore of tin, viz.,
+cassiterite, the oxide, which is 78 per
+cent tin. Tin is found in both veins and
+placers and the great bulk of the metal is
+now being derived from the latter type
+of bodies in the Malay Peninsula and the
+Straits of the East Indies. Formerly,
+Cornwall produced the world's supply,
+from veins. Although the United States
+consumes 35 per cent to 40 per cent of the
+world's production, the country does not
+produce 1 per cent of this production.
+Since the main source of our tin is British
+territory, the markets are controlled by
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span>
+London, and quotations are issued daily
+from that center. Such quotations are
+given in units of English money per long
+ton (2240 pounds) of metal. However,
+prices are also quoted at New York,
+daily, in cents per pound, and there is a
+real difference in value between the two
+quotations to take care of freights and
+duty. For instance, on a certain date,
+quotations were Ł190 10s, and 42c. The
+average price during 1911 in New York
+was 42.281 cents.</p>
+
+<p>The chief supply of nickel now comes
+from the Canadian districts of Cobalt
+and Sudbury, where this metal occurs
+accompanying rich silver deposits. The
+metal is sold by the pound avoirdupois
+and prices in January, 1912, ranged from
+40c. to 50c.</p>
+
+<p>Tungsten is a metal which has been
+finding more and more uses of late years,
+but the production has remained quite
+limited. Three-quarters of the world's
+total production in 1911 came from a
+small district in Boulder County. Colorado.
+The quotations on this metal are
+given in dollars per ton of concentrated
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span>
+ore, and the price is for a certain percentage
+of WO<sub>3</sub>, the oxide of wolfram
+(tungsten). The schedule of prices announced
+in April, 1912, for Boulder
+County ores and concentrates provides as
+follows, a unit being understood to mean
+1 per cent or 20 pounds per ton: For
+material assaying 10 per cent WO<sub>3</sub>, $3.50
+per unit; for 20 per cent WO<sub>3</sub>, $4.40 per
+unit; for 40 per cent and more, $4.90 per
+unit. Ore containing, say, 50 per cent of
+the tungsten radical is thus salable at
+$245 per ton, the mineral itself thus
+bringing a price of 24-1/2 cents per pound.</p>
+
+<p>Although copper is used and sold in
+very large lots commercially, it continues
+to be quoted upon the pound basis. The
+United States produces about 60 per cent
+of the whole amount mined in the world
+and the prices are made in New York
+daily. The amount of copper mined in
+this country in 1911 was 1,431,938,338
+pounds and the price varied between
+11.989 cents and 13.768 cents. There are
+always at least two quotations every day
+on copper, one being on "lake" and another
+on "electrolytic". By these terms
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span>
+are meant, respectively, copper produced
+in the Lake Superior region and the copper
+from other mines. The Lake Superior
+copper is the purest in the world and it
+always sells for a fraction of a cent per
+pound more than the other coppers which
+are refined by electrolysis.</p>
+
+<p>Metallic iron is reduced from a number
+of different ores, but by far the bulk
+of pig-iron is made from the oxides and carbonates
+of iron. Such ores, in the United
+States, are obtained principally in Minnesota,
+Michigan, Wisconsin, and Alabama.
+As already stated, the quotations on iron
+are based upon the ores rather than the
+pig-iron, and there are two types of such
+ore recognized. If the ore is suitable for
+the making of Bessemer steel, it is given
+a certain quotation per ton, while if it
+cannot be used for such a purpose, it is
+given a non-Bessemer rating and is used
+for casting. The greatest iron-mining
+region in the world is in the Lake Superior
+country. Here are a number of districts
+that are known as "ranges." In
+some of these ranges mining is by underground
+methods, while in others the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span>
+excavation is entirely in the open by the
+use of great steam shovels. The outputs
+of these ranges go by rail and water to
+the great smelting points along the Great
+Lakes and at Pittsburg.</p>
+
+<p>The metallic zinc on the market is
+known as spelter. All quotations on this
+metal are given in two systems, the
+"pounds Sterling per long ton" and the
+"cents per pound." The average prices
+during 1911 were respectively, Ł25.281
+and 5.758c. The American quotations
+are frequently given in the unit of dollars
+per hundredweight. This offers no confusion,
+whatever, for under this nomenclature,
+the average price for 1911 would
+be stated as $5.758. In the zinc-mining
+regions of the Mississippi Valley, the
+producers of ore have a practice of putting
+the mines' products through their
+own mills at the mines and making concentrates
+of the zinc mineral, which is
+usually blende or "jack," and this concentrated
+stuff is then sold to smelting
+companies at the daily quotations per
+ton of 60 per cent ore. During 1911 the
+average price paid in the Joplin District
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span>
+was $41.45. Since this amount bought
+1,200 pounds of metallic zinc, it is evident
+that the miner received only about 3.45
+cents per pound for his metal, the discrepancy
+between this sum and the New
+York quotation being consumed in costs
+of smelting and shipment and in profits
+to the middlemen.</p>
+
+<p>Lead is sold upon a plan exactly similar
+to zinc. It has the same various quotations.
+For example, the 1911 prices in
+London, New York, and Joplin averaged,
+respectively, Ł13.970, 4.420c., and $56.76.</p>
+
+<p>Quicksilver is sold by the "flask" of
+75 pounds. The price ranges in the
+neighborhood of $43 to $45.</p>
+
+<p>There are numerous other metals, but
+the more common ones are given above.
+Below is given a graphical exhibit of
+the course of the prices of lead, spelter,
+standard (electrolytic) and lake copper,
+pig-iron, and tin for a number of years.
+A study of this chart is interesting in
+noting the waves or fluctuations that
+have covered periods of years. This
+chart is reproduced from <i>The Engineering
+and Mining Journal</i>.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><a name="illus18" id="illus18"><img src="images/illus18.jpg" alt="Diagram of Metal Market for One-third of a Century" /></a></p>
+<p class="caption">Diagram of Metal Market for One-third of a Century</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="chap20" id="chap20">XX<br/>MINE ACCOUNTING.</a>
+</h2>
+
+
+<p>While there has been a great deal of
+attention given to the matter of keeping
+systematic mine accounts, both in the
+main offices and those at the works, there
+still is a lack of uniformity in practice.
+In the bookkeeping of manufacturing
+and mercantile institutions, uniform practices
+or systems have become a feature.
+But there have been good reasons for
+the absence of similar methods in mine
+offices.</p>
+
+<p>There will be found to exist some uniformity
+in the accounting as practised
+by the mines of a particular district which
+are operating under similar conditions;
+but when one considers that the mines
+of various districts have quite dissimilar
+conditions throughout almost every phase
+of the business, it is not surprising that
+different methods must be employed
+in the keeping of their accounts. It is
+unavoidable. Mines extracting different
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span>
+metals or different kinds of coal will find
+it necessary to keep quite unlike records.
+Mines with their own mills will likewise
+require a different system of accounting
+from those that ship their products to
+custom works. Open and underground
+mines will need quite different styles of
+accounts.</p>
+
+<p>So, it is not possible to recommend any
+one method of mine accounting. The
+best way to become posted upon this
+subject is to investigate the schemes,
+the blank forms and the books of some
+of the established, successful companies
+here and there about the world. In this
+way, ideas will be collected, and it will
+be possible for the investigator to evolve
+his own schemes for recording the accounts
+of his company.</p>
+
+<p>It has come to be recognized as contributing
+to economy to maintain systems
+of accounts that will enter into minutić
+concerning every branch of the business.
+Just how far this can be carried without
+creating office expenses that will exceed
+the benefits to be derived from the
+detailed information remains a question
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span>
+to be decided by each manager. There
+are companies with accounts so perfected
+that it is possible to quickly ascertain, to
+a fraction of a cent, what the expenditures
+of any day have been for any
+particular part of the operations, as for
+instance, the haulage per ton underground,
+or the fuse employed in the blasting
+of a particular stope. Such details
+are highly useful since they prevent leaks
+in the costs; but it is a problem to
+decide to what extent it is economy to
+carry them. These data also furnish the
+superintendent information concerning
+the efficiency of his many laborers and
+the machinery. Labor-saving inventions,
+such as the printed blank form, and the
+loose leaf, are put to excellent use in
+mining offices.</p>
+
+<p>There are strong companies operating
+great mining plants whose records are
+open to the perusal of any individual, be
+he stockholder or not. In the office of
+such a company, a person may turn to
+the accounts and see for himself how
+much it costs to maintain each and all
+of the operations and he can learn the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span>
+size and the value of all shipments of products
+of any sort&mdash;ore, concentrates, coal,
+matte, or bullion. Again, there are those
+companies that are so secretive about
+everything connected with their work that
+even the Government is unable to learn
+any particulars, except at very great
+trouble.</p>
+
+<p>The Portland Gold Mining Company,
+operating a great property at Victor, in
+the Cripple Creek District, is an instance
+of the first sort, while the United Verde
+mine, at Jerome, Arizona, may be taken
+to represent the second sort. Both of
+these mines have made splendid records.
+It cannot be seen wherein the second
+mine is required to maintain secrecy, for
+there is no danger of litigation from
+neighboring property holders, the one
+company controlling, practically, the
+mining in its neighborhood. The presumption
+is that the owners hold their
+business to be nobody's else and they
+have a right to keep their affairs secret
+if they desire. On the other hand, the
+Portland is surrounded by good mines
+which profit by knowing the details of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span>
+operating costs and incomes of their
+neighbor; but it is found to cost no more
+to be open and above board than to keep
+things under guard. The Colorado Fuel
+and Iron Company will not divulge any
+particulars concerning its mining movements;
+but there are other just as great
+mining companies that will explain every
+detail.</p>
+
+<p>The Clark copper companies, of Butte,
+Montana, did not permit much information
+to escape their offices, while the
+neighboring Amalgamated companies gave
+particulars freely.</p>
+
+<p>The question of secrecy should be considered,
+and if there is no very good
+excuse for maintaining a privacy it should
+not be instituted. The trend of all modern
+thought is along the line of publicity
+in all our dealings. The only persons
+who have a reasonable right to be secretive
+are those who have something they
+do not care to share or divulge to their
+fellow-men. Law breakers, tax dodgers,
+and trespassers, could be put into one
+class; persons doing research work which
+it is premature to publish are a more
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span>
+respectable class; manufacturers with
+strong competition in the sales markets
+are in a measure excusable; even a mine
+which is producing some material in the
+sale of which it attempts to maintain a
+monopoly might be excusable. But it is
+hard to see what excuse or benefit there
+is for a coal or a copper mining company
+to prevent a knowledge of its affairs, if
+the business is being conducted along
+strictly legitimate lines.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="chap21" id="chap21">XXI<br/>INVESTMENT IN MINING STOCKS.</a>
+</h2>
+
+
+<p>As a feature of investment in mining
+stocks, there has always been a more or
+less open lure. Generally much larger
+returns are promised or are expected than
+in other kinds of investments. There
+may be absolutely no intention on the
+part of the seller to create this impression;
+but there does, somehow, exist in
+the memories of people accounts of
+wonderful fortunes that have been made
+in mining.</p>
+
+<p>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.
+Concerning the average stock purchaser,
+then, we may conclude that it is speculation
+rather than true investment that
+he is seeking.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The writer hopes that, even in the
+short preceding discussions, the reader
+will have come to agree with him and to
+understand that safe investments are as
+possible in mining as in any other business.
+It would be a great benefit to this
+great industry of mining were the public
+taught to take interests&mdash;that is, financial
+interests&mdash;in mining concerns with the
+same precautions and with the same
+sound business sense that accompany
+the purchases of interests in other enterprises.
+Writing along this line of thought,
+Mr. P. A. Leonard has this to say in
+<i>The Mining World</i>: "One very general
+difficulty seems to be that the man unacquainted
+with mines who is asked to
+invest either expects an unreasonable
+return for his money, or he blindly closes
+his eyes and takes what he calls a 'flyer,'
+expecting little more from it than he
+would if he bought margins on 'change
+or bet on a horse race."</p>
+
+<p>About the first thing that the promoters
+of a new mining company do is to
+issue a neat, attractive prospectus. It is
+a bait, no matter how reliable these men
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span>
+may be nor how worthy the property
+they desire to work. Many of these documents
+are written in absolutely good
+faith and every representation is intended
+to be accurate. There are occasionally
+offered for sale stocks in mining properties
+that warrant the fullest confidence
+of the promoters and the investors.
+However, careful perusal of a great many
+of these pamphlets has led the writer
+to the conclusion that at least 75 per
+cent. of them are unreliable from the fact
+that they either wilfully misrepresent or
+because they grossly exaggerate the probabilities
+of success beyond all reason.
+Exaggeration is a habit with some people
+and it is used many times with no real
+criminal intent or even consciousness
+upon the part of the offender. But its
+effect is just as baneful when innocently
+inflicted as when it is used in a premeditated
+manner.</p>
+
+<p>Good, worthy mining property does
+not need to be hawked, usually. There
+have been periods of financial unrest
+when it has seemed quite impossible for
+honest men to dispose of interests in
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span>
+what were unquestionably reliable mining
+enterprises. At such times, there has
+been nothing to gain by any amount of
+teasing the public, and any attempts at
+forceful disposal of interests in the concerns
+have but served to kill any small
+remnants of confidence that the public
+may have possessed.</p>
+
+<p>Prospectuses are usually prepared for
+the reading of small investors who may
+feel inclined to risk a few dollars or, in
+other words, to speculate upon the representations
+contained in the seductive
+pamphlets. There are a few "Don'ts"
+which it would be well for any person
+inclined to invest in mining stocks to
+read, consider, and follow. For instance,
+never invest in any new stock whose
+company <i>guarantees</i> specific dividends.
+Profits in mining, except in rare cases,
+cannot be so accurately foretold as to
+warrant such a guarantee. We should
+remember that the success of any mine
+depends upon many, very many, contingencies
+and that some of them are invisible
+and are among Nature's secrets.
+Again, avoid placing any confidence in
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span>
+those companies that are simultaneously
+selling treasury stock and declaring dividends.
+This is a very common practice
+of the numerous "get-rich-quick" concerns
+which Uncle Sam has been routing
+the past few years. Such crooked practice
+is difficult to eradicate, although
+severe penalties are awarded the transgressors.</p>
+
+<p>The success which has been met in the
+operation of the <i>great</i> mining companies
+of the world can, in the majority of cases,
+be traced to the common sense which was
+exercised in the business management.
+The <i>business of mining is legitimate</i>. If
+mining is one of the basic industries of
+the world, how could the operation of a
+real mine be anything but a legitimate
+business? The mere fact that there have
+been neat opportunities for, and the practice
+of, fraud in the growth of this tremendous
+industry does not by any means,
+argue that the whole thing is founded
+upon unstable premises.</p>
+
+<p>What is needed is a presentation of the
+industry in its legitimate aspect before
+all kinds of investors and this can be
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span>
+done properly and effectively only by
+the rank and file of men interested in
+mining. These men should place themselves
+boldly on record as combating all
+sorts of deals that smack of fraud, and
+they should do their utmost to discourage
+all delusions that may exist in the
+mind of the public with reference to the
+supposed lure offered by mining.</p>
+
+<p>There have been too many causes of
+failure in mining for even a partial enumeration
+of them. There have been many
+errors in getting started, both on the
+part of the organizers and the investors.
+There have been many mistakes in management.
+Many blunders have been
+evidenced in the operation of mines which
+made very good starts. All of these failures
+are attributable to something outside
+of the mine's intrinsic worth; they are
+mistakes due to inexperience or misconception.
+Such shortcomings should not
+be tolerated in the make-up of a mine's
+managerial staff.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps one of the most common mistakes
+of mine managers is to submit to a
+condition of nepotism that is often furthered
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span>
+by directors or stockholders. No
+responsible position around a mine should
+be filled by a novice. Just because a
+director has two or three sons needing
+situations does not make it incumbent
+upon a superintendent or a manager to
+jeopardize his reputation by employing
+these young men. Percy Williams, a
+veteran mining man, advised "Don't
+take your son or nephew or your clerk
+out of your store or business house and
+send him to Arizona or Colorado to run
+things for you at the mine. Sell out first.
+If you are a director in a mining company,
+do not force the manager or superintendent
+to find a job for all your unsuccessful
+friends and relatives. Let him hire his
+own men. Don't convert your mine into
+an asylum for ne'er-do-wells."</p>
+
+<p>As already stated, there is protection
+obtainable by every investor in mining.
+One may always secure, at reasonable
+cost, the services of competent engineers
+whose business consists in sizing up the
+worth of mining property. If the services
+of these men were more generally
+appreciated and secured, there would be
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span>
+a great diminution in the number of disappointments
+following investments in
+mining. An eastern man of means complained
+to the writer about the way in
+which he had been "stung" in various
+mining investments. A little catechizing
+brought forth the facts that he knew
+absolutely nothing about mining in general
+and that, worse still, he had never
+investigated&mdash;that is, in a business-like
+manner&mdash;any of the propositions which
+had absorbed his ready money. Receiving
+no sympathy during the recital of his
+troubles but, instead, the assurance that
+he "got what was coming to him," he
+was prepared to sit up, take notice, and
+listen to a severe roasting which opened
+his eyes about mining matters. Now,
+this man has proved successful in other
+lines of business. He is a prominent
+lawyer and banker in his own city and
+has numerous, scattered, money-making
+interests. But he was content to go into
+mining without the investigation which
+it is certain he would have given to any
+other sort of an investment.</p>
+
+<p>The time should come when there
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span>
+would not be such a prevalent "slaughter
+of the innocents" in mining investments.
+People must learn to curb their gullibility
+in such affairs. But this has proved
+almost impossible. Just as it is in the
+nature of some persons to gamble, and it
+takes something more than misfortune at
+gaming to wean them from the vice, so it
+is with a certain class of men who can not
+overcome the temptations of dabbling
+in mining. Such men will not desist
+even when they have suffered several
+delusions, and will continue to "send
+their good money after their bad," absolutely
+defiant of the well-meant advice
+of friends who are often in position to
+judge of the merits of any contemplated
+investment. Probably every mining engineer
+of any extended experience can
+tell of instances in which he has endeavored
+to discourage clients from investment
+in unworthy mining enterprises
+but in which the gambling instinct of the
+clients has overridden the sound advice.</p>
+
+<p>During the early days of the wonderful
+Cripple Creek District, all sorts of
+wildcat tricks were successfully practiced
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span>
+upon the "tenderfeet" and the "down-east
+suckers." In one case, stock was readily
+unloaded upon the representation that a
+person could stand in the door of the
+cabin on the property and "look right
+into the shaft-house of the Independence
+mine." This statement was not untrue,
+although grossly misleading; for while
+it was actually quite possible by the use
+of a telescope to span the intervening
+three or four miles, visually, the prospect
+lacked the propinquity to the famous
+mine that was the bait implied by the
+statement in the prospectus. This is
+but one of many ingenious tricks that
+were played. Did the outcome of this
+one fraud cure the victims of irrational
+mining investment?</p>
+
+<p>Railroads, too, have, in the past, added
+their troubles to the mining men. Recent
+laws have, however, to a great extent,
+mitigated the annoyances and unjust
+practices that the common carrying companies
+have been in the habit of committing.
+It is now obligatory upon a railroad
+company to treat all shippers without
+favor or discrimination, so that the difficulties<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span>
+formerly experienced by one mining
+company in getting enough ore cars
+to transport its shipments while its rival
+company could have cars in abundance,
+is now almost a thing of the past. It
+takes time to right all wrongs of this sort.
+It is a slow matter to get laws framed,
+passed through the necessary legislation,
+and made effective. But the outlook is
+favorable, along this line.</p>
+
+<p>The leasing system has exercised an
+influence upon the mining activity of
+many districts. By this system is meant
+the custom of renting or letting the whole,
+or fractional parts, of a mining property
+to miners who enter upon and work the
+premises, extract the ores, and pay to
+the owners a specified percentage of the
+receipts from the marketing of the ore.
+This practice has frequently been the
+only successful way of operating some
+mines. It has, at times, been the manner
+of operating practically every mine in
+certain districts.</p>
+
+<p>In districts carrying pockets of very
+rich ore, "high grading" has been discouraged
+in this way, for the "leasers"
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span>
+(incorrect, though common, word for
+lessees) do their own mining and there is
+much less object in stealing.</p>
+
+<p>In other instances of mines which have
+been operated by the owning companies
+until they were past a profitable stage, it
+has been proved possible to prolong the
+life of operations very materially by leasing
+the property to miners, who always
+work with more diligence and economy
+for themselves than they ever do when
+working under "day's pay." This feature
+of leasing has been quite a factor in the
+lives of some of the mines of the Cripple
+Creek District. Until the recent drainage
+of the district through the Roosevelt
+Tunnel, there were numerous small&mdash;and
+even some large&mdash;properties that had
+worked all the ore bodies previously known
+to exist above the water level of the district,
+and had been obliged to shut down
+because of the heavy pumping expenses.
+Company operation did not longer pay.
+But the plain "leaser" and his partner
+could go into such old workings and they
+could prospect and find ore bodies that
+had escaped the observation of the superintendents.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span>
+The expenses incurred in
+leasing are low. It is true that lessees
+will not probably take as good care of
+mine workings and equipment as will
+"company men," and often a property
+may be seriously crippled through the lack
+of sufficient timbering after having been
+in the hands of a set of lessees for some
+time. But, on the whole, there has probably
+been more benefit than loss through
+the letting of leases.</p>
+
+<p>When, a few years ago, the plans of
+the National Forestry Service were put
+into effect, there was great complaint
+recorded concerning the rulings that
+were made against various miners. Some
+very well authenticated cases of wrongs
+were cited. However, it is now believed
+by all fair-minded men that there has
+been no intention, on the part of the
+officials of the Forest Service, to interfere
+with any legitimate mining enterprise.
+There was a well-founded object, viz., to
+put a stop to dishonest practices in obtaining
+title to timber lands by the misrepresentation
+of mineral finds.</p>
+
+<p>The General Land Office passed a rule
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span>
+authorizing Foresters and Assistant Foresters
+to make inspections of all mining
+claims within their reserves and to report
+to the Secretary of the Interior. The
+idea embodied in this rule was that these
+men, being agents of the Government and
+upon the ground, are able to investigate
+the facts concerning every mining claim
+and its claimant and so to run across any
+evidences of fraud that might be attempted
+in the securing of title. Trouble
+immediately arose because the Foresters
+were not all experienced miners and prospectors
+and so were not thoroughly qualified
+to pass judgment upon the merits of
+mineral lands. This weakness has been
+admitted by the officers of the Service
+but the excuse has been offered that there
+was an immediate need for a great many
+Foresters and it was not possible to secure
+men trained in both forestry and mining
+at such short notice. "Just as soon as
+conditions became better understood, and
+money was available to allow the Service
+to hire men whose judgment in mining
+matters could not be gainsaid, such men
+were employed," says Paul G. Reddington,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span>
+recently Forester for the Rocky Mountain
+Regions. 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.</p>
+
+<p>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.
+Minerals which are not now ores&mdash;according
+to the accepted, scientific definition,
+because the values cannot be recovered
+at a profit&mdash;will, at some future
+period, become ores. It is not safe to
+make any close predictions along this
+line, for such marked reductions in treatment
+costs have been going on during
+the last few years that mining men are
+entertaining great expectations. Inventions
+for improvement in metallurgical
+lines are being placed upon the market
+so frequently that it is difficult for even
+the professional metallurgist to keep
+posted. This being true, it is clear that
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span>
+the layman cannot expect to keep abreast
+of the metallurgical advance. At the
+same time, it is well for everybody to be
+slightly conversant with the wonderful
+advances being made in the reduction
+and dressing of ores. Conspicuous in
+this field are the improvements that have
+been effected in cyanidation, electrolytic
+amalgamation and extraction, and flotation.
+These processes are applicable to
+the lower grades of ore. Among the very
+recent successes in the treatment of very
+low-grade gold ores are the operations
+conducted in the new mills of the Portland
+Gold Mining Company, Stratton's
+Independence, and the Ajax Gold Mining
+Company, all in the Cripple Creek
+District. All of these mills are now treating
+old mine dumps, the contents of which
+were considered as absolutely waste matter
+at the time it was excavated. This
+stuff is now ore and its treatment is making
+fine profits. There is still a demand
+for cheaper methods of reducing ores of
+zinc. There are vast quantities of stuff
+that contains very good percentages of
+zinc, but the material cannot be mined
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span>
+and treated at a profit under existing
+conditions. With the invention of something
+radically new in the metallurgy of
+this metal, there will be opened an entirely
+different aspect in the zinc-mining
+regions. The Leadville District possesses
+great reserves of this material that is
+being held until it may become "ore."</p>
+
+<p class="center"><a name="illus19" id="illus19"><img src="images/illus19.jpg" alt="Florence Mine and Mill, Goldfield, Nevada." /></a></p>
+<p class="caption">Florence Mine and Mill, Goldfield, Nevada.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="chap22" id="chap22">XXII<br/>THE MEN OF THE FUTURE<br />IN MINING.</a></h2>
+
+
+<p>The mining of the future will probably
+be largely in the hands of young men.
+To arrive at any conclusions concerning
+the probabilities of success, therefore, we
+are obliged to recognize the dual conditions.
+In other words, there is to be
+an interdependence between men and
+mining. Up to this point in our discussion,
+we have dwelt upon the probabilities
+as viewed from the standpoints of natural
+resources and of human capability. In a
+certain degree, we have already covered
+the ground of this present chapter; and
+yet there are some points that must be
+given special consideration.</p>
+
+<p>What is the true status of metal mining?
+Alarmists would have us believe
+that civilization is rapidly exhausting the
+world's reserves of available metals. Conservative
+investigation, however, repudiates
+such notions. The best that can be
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span>
+claimed for the reliability of such disconcerting
+statements is that they may apply
+in <i>some</i> districts, to <i>some</i> grades of <i>some</i>
+kinds of desirable mineral matter.</p>
+
+<p>It may be true that the early miners
+have removed the "cream" from Nature's
+deposits in some districts, in the sense that
+they have skimmed off, as it were, the rich
+surface portions. But this does not signify
+the exhaustion of deeper ore bodies,
+nor does it mean that the pioneers were
+the only capable prospectors.</p>
+
+<p>Why should we have any reason to
+deny the ability of present or future
+generations to find just as good mineral
+deposits as did our predecessors? Persons
+in some of the older of the western mining
+states&mdash;as for instance, Colorado or California&mdash;are
+apt to carry a misconception
+along this line. They can see a number
+of idle "camps" that are mere relics of
+former thriving mining communities and
+they are liable to jump to the conclusion
+that the day of mining at such places is
+past, forever. However, as we look at
+the subject in a more rational light, we
+shall see that there is no more authority
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span>
+for such an assumption than there is for
+one to the effect that a farm in the wintertime
+is a worthless proposition simply
+because, temporarily, it is not producing
+its customary summer yield. Just as
+Nature brings about changing conditions
+for the farmer, so will economic forces
+establish varying degrees of attractiveness
+to the miner.</p>
+
+<p>It is unfair to judge one of the pioneer
+mining districts by its activity at the
+present time, if the productiveness happens
+to be small. Let us look for the
+reasons of the apparent decline. The
+chances are that the inactivity will be
+shown to be due, not to an exhaustion of
+ore bodies, but to some needed changes in
+mining or metallurgical methods. Very
+likely, under a readjustment of our notions
+about that particular district there
+will appear to be as great latent possibilities
+as ever cheered the earlier operators.
+The prospects may appear to be even
+better than this, and the future may
+appear to extend greater opportunities
+than were ever manifested in the past.
+Investigation may disclose great bodies
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span>
+of ore that could not be seriously considered
+in the earlier working of the region.
+In fact, speaking technically, the stuff in
+question was not ore at the time of previous
+operations, for it could not then be
+made to yield a profit. And yet, by
+introducing some changes in equipment
+or methods of working or treatment,
+there may be possibilities of making a
+great deal of money from an abandoned
+property; and the chances are good that
+this same profit may be won at a much
+more rapid rate than was ever before
+possible and that therefore the economic
+conditions are enhanced. For we must
+not lose sight of the fact that the greatest
+profits in mining usually accrue from the
+most rapid exhaustion of the ore bodies.</p>
+
+<p>A mine, or even a whole district, may
+have been deserted because of failure on
+the part of original miners to recognize
+the value of certain minerals. The recent
+revival of activity that has been
+noted in Leadville mining circles is but
+an instance in point. In this district,
+miners have given a delayed recognition
+to some important minerals of zinc, and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span>
+the indications are that Leadville has
+entered upon another of its eras of mining
+activity.</p>
+
+<p>But, it is not necessary to restrict our
+thoughts to the old mining regions, for
+if we can observe how easy it has been to
+overlook valuable deposits in a country
+that has been subjected to severe mining
+work, for years and years, what must we
+conclude concerning the possibilities of
+the many and vast undeveloped areas in
+remote portions of the globe? It would
+seem that there is indeed very small cause
+for alarm about the exhaustion of the
+earth's metals.</p>
+
+<p>No, it can be shown that mining, which
+is one of the very fundamental industries
+of the world and the one upon which every
+other form of commercialism rests, will be
+carried on with a continual increase in
+magnitude just as long as man exists. As
+the richer and more easily mined ore reserves
+of Nature are exhausted, improved
+and cheaper methods of mining, transportation,
+and treatment will be introduced
+and at a pace that will equalize
+this exhaustion. We, of the present generation,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span>
+see the eminently successful
+handling of copper ores of grades so low
+that they were not given passing consideration
+ten years ago. The outlook
+would appear to be that the improvements
+in methods and costs will not only
+keep abreast of needs in such matters, but
+the probabilities are that they will take a
+very marked lead, with the result of a continually
+increasing scope to the mining industry.
+Let us then entertain optimistic
+views about the <i>future of mining</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Now, as to the future of the young
+man who engages in mining there is just
+as much to be said as there is concerning
+the career of a young man in any other
+line of business. This word "business" is
+used advisedly, for the day is past when
+any person has a right to say that mining
+is anything but strictly legitimate business.</p>
+
+<p>We look to the young men of the present
+and future to correct all of the shortcomings
+that have hindered the establishment
+of mining upon its deserved plane
+of stability in the minds of the general
+public. Young blood will take a lead in
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span>
+the dissemination of the correct thoughts
+about mining.</p>
+
+<p>The successful man in mining will be,
+as heretofore, the one with the right qualifications
+in his make-up. Is a college
+education an essential prerequisite to
+success in mining? No, the writer is not
+one to declare that young men cannot
+succeed in the business without college
+training. However, there can be no
+avoidance of the proposition that the
+chances of the college-trained man are
+better than are those of the man who
+has not had the benefits of such a career.</p>
+
+<p>A man may be said to engage in mining
+in three different ways. Thus, he
+may operate mining property; or he may
+perform any of the manifold lines of
+mining engineering; or he may be an
+investor in mining property or mining
+stocks.</p>
+
+<p>To prove a success when enrolled in
+either of the first two classes, there is no
+denying the advantages of technical,
+mining education. The successful investor
+likewise will do well to make a consistent
+study of mining economics, and the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span>
+more attention he gives to the many
+phases of approved modern mining, the
+greater will be his ultimate achievement,
+financially. Just as education along usual
+school branches is of immeasurable benefit
+to any man of business, so is it to
+the mining man. And in just as great
+ratio is the possession of innate business
+ability.</p>
+
+<p>Education and natural ability are the
+two elements that will count in the future
+of any young man in mining.</p>
+
+<p>Space might be devoted to the discussion
+of the possibilities of young men in
+the field of research work along scientific
+lines that would add materially to the
+economy and scope of mining. Such a
+career offers inducements looking to the
+achievement of honor as well as fortune.
+The field for such service is ready.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="chap23" id="chap23">XXIII<br/>MISCELLANEOUS CONSIDERATIONS.</a>
+</h2>
+
+
+<p>There are regions producing ores that
+are too refractory for the simple treatments
+that might be given by company
+plants located at the mines. There are
+districts that have many small gold and
+silver mines with ores that do not yield
+to simple milling processes and which
+must therefore be shipped to custom
+smelteries. Even were the ores amenable
+to milling of some sort, it is often the
+case that the mines are not of sufficient
+magnitude to warrant the maintenance
+of their own treatment plants.</p>
+
+<p>Under proper trade and commercial
+conditions, there is no impropriety in
+shipping ore to a custom plant or in selling
+it outright to a company owning
+such a plant. But, contemporaneously
+with much of the mining in the West,
+there has been such a monopoly on ore
+treatment that great injustice has been
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span>
+wrought to the shippers of small lots of
+ore. Not only has this accusation been
+true of smelting concerns but also of
+milling companies. Once in a while representatives
+of such corporations will
+arise and attempt to refute these statements,
+but the evidence is overwhelmingly
+against them, and their arguments
+of being benefactors of the miner
+fall flat.</p>
+
+<p>By consolidation of companies and
+the elimination of competition, arrogant
+methods and unreasonable charges have
+been put into force; and the managers of
+mines have been obliged to accept whatever
+rates the monopolists saw fit to
+charge for treatment and whatever arbitrary
+prices they cared to pay for the
+metallic contents of the shipped ores.
+Very gross extortion has been practised
+and even yet there are many mining
+camps which are so absolutely under the
+control of these concerns that properties
+which should pay well, under just and
+favorable conditions, are forced to remain
+idle. These conditions could not be expected
+to prevail forever, and the time
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span>
+is now at hand when the extortionate
+smelting and milling trusts are meeting
+with pronounced opposition and a greatly
+diminished business. The state of Utah
+has demonstrated the ability of ore producers
+to bring the oppressors to time and
+the mine owners of that state are in a
+much more favored position right now
+than are the miners of Colorado, for instance,
+who really have been the greater
+sufferers. The Utah mining men have
+benefited by the sad experiences of the
+miners of the sister state. In Colorado,
+the American Smelting and Refining Co.
+has been a domineering factor in the mining
+industry for years, and the decrease of
+mining in Colorado has been contemporaneous
+with the oppression of this great
+corporation. The real cheating that has
+been practised by the ore-buying and
+ore-treating companies is well understood
+by all mining men who have been within
+their clutches.</p>
+
+<p>It seems to be a fact that every tyrant
+eventually proves his own undoing. In
+the case of the oppressive smelter trust,
+the greed resulted in an immense income
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span>
+for the time being; but as mines were
+obliged to close down because of the unjust
+charges imposed for handling the
+ores, the quantities of ore handled continued
+to diminish. During the past few
+years when mining has been so unusually
+dull in many of the western mining
+camps, it has been very difficult for the
+smelting company to secure enough ore
+to keep running, and the present outlook
+is not encouraging. Statistics will show
+that the production of the metals is not
+really so low as the decrease in tonnages
+would seem to indicate, and the discrepancy
+is accounted for in the fact that very
+many mining companies have installed
+their own plants for either actually recovering
+their metals or for reducing their
+bulk of ores by concentration before shipping
+to the custom treatment plants.
+Thus the smelting company may still be
+turning out a large amount of metallic
+lead, for example, but it is smelted from
+concentrates instead of from crude ore
+and the tonnage, the principal basis for
+estimating smelting charges, is very much
+less than was formerly handled in obtaining
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span>
+the same amount of the same sort of
+product. The investigations started by
+the oppressed ones in their efforts to evade
+the oppressor have led to wonderful
+results, and it is no longer necessary for
+the miner to depend upon the smelter.</p>
+
+<p>Some similar sharp practice against
+the mining fraternity was attempted and
+for a short time successfully carried on by
+what was termed, in Colorado, the milling
+trust. This concern handled the ores
+from Cripple Creek, principally. The
+larger mining companies soon began the
+erection of their individual plants and
+the practice has been extending until it is
+now common for Cripple Creek mines to
+own and operate their own reduction
+works, much on the order of the practice
+in the Transvaal country.</p>
+
+<p>As a final word in this discussion, the
+author wishes to reiterate his belief in
+the legitimacy of investment in mines and
+mining stocks. When mining is placed
+upon sound business principles and every
+detail of the work is carried on with strict
+attention to sound economy, there can be
+few failures. This means that business
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span>
+judgment and expert advice must be used
+from the very start&mdash;in other words, that
+no false starts must be permitted. Then,
+after getting under way in a worthy enterprise,
+the successful mine operator
+will exercise just as close scrutiny of
+every operation, method, and employee
+as do the men who conduct other successful
+lines of business.</p>
+
+<p>This little work has been prepared
+primarily for the perusal of men and
+women who are not personally acquainted
+with details of mining, but who entertain
+notions of becoming financially interested.
+It is hoped that the simple descriptions
+of some of the elementary details will
+prove of use to a great many persons.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216-19]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="chap24" id="chap24"><span class="smcaps">Capitalization and Dividends of North American Metal Mines.</span></a>
+</h2>
+
+
+<p class="center">============================================================</p>
+
+<table style="margin-left: 10%; padding-right: 7%; font-size: 7pt" summary="Financial Statistics">
+<tr>
+<td class="col1" style="text-decoration: underline">Company</td>
+<td class="col7">|<br />|</td>
+<td class="col2" style="text-decoration: underline">State or Country</td>
+<td class="col7">|<br />|</td>
+<td class="col3" style="text-decoration: underline">Metals Produced</td>
+<td class="col7">|<br />|</td>
+<td class="col4" style="text-decoration: underline">Capitalization</td>
+<td class="col7">|<br />|</td>
+<td class="col5a" style="text-decoration: underline">Par Value per Share</td>
+<td class="col7">|<br />|</td>
+<td class="col6a" style="text-decoration: underline">Dividends to Jan.1, 1912</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1" >&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="col7">|<br />|</td>
+<td class="col2">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="col7">|<br />|</td>
+<td class="col3">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="col7">|<br />|</td>
+<td class="col4">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="col7">|<br />|</td>
+<td class="col5a">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="col7">|<br />|</td>
+<td class="col6a">&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">Alaska-Mexican</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">Alaska</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">gold</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">$1,000,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">$5</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">$2,634,381</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">Alaska-Treadwell</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">Alaska</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">gold</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">5,000,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">25</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">11,385,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">Amalgamated</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">Montana</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">copper</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">155,000,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">100</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">63,579,315</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">Anaconda</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">Montana</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">copper</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">30,000,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">25</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">47,70,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">Arizona</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">Arizona</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">copper</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">3,669,300</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">1.20</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">14,373,550</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">Baltic</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">Michigan</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">copper</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">2,500,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">25</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">6,050,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">Boston &amp; Montana Cons.</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">Montana</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">copper</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">3,750,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">25</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">62,425,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">Bullion-Bek &amp; Champion</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">Utah</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">silver, gold</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">1,000,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">10</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">2,738,400</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">Bunker Hill &amp; Sullivan</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">Idaho</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">silver, lead</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">3,000,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">10</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">12,211,350</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">Butte Coalition</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">Montana</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">copper</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">15,000,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">15</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">2,450,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">Calumet &amp; Arizona</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">Arizona</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">copper</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">2,500,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">10</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">11,500,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">Calumet &amp; Hecla</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">Michigan</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">copper</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">2,500,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">25</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">112,750,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">Camp Bird</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">Colorado</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">gold</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">5,387,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">5</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">6,541,960</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">Centennial-Eureka</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">Utah</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">gold, silver</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">5,000,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">25</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">2,700,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">Champion</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">Michigan</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">copper</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">2,500,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">25</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">5,700,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">Colorado</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">Utah</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">silver, lead</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">200,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">0.20</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">2,270,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">Copper Range Con.</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">Michigan</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">copper</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">40,000,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">100</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">10,751,180</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">Crown Reserve</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">Ontario</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">silver</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">2,000,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">1</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">2,387,898</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">Daly</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">Utah</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">gold, lead, silver</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">3,000,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">20</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">2,925,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">Daly-West</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">Utah</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">gold, lead, silver</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">3,600,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">20</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">6,201,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">DeLamar</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">Idaho</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">gold, silver</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">400,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">5</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">2,737,520</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">Doe Run</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">Missouri</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">lead</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">10,000,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">100</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">2,448,478</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">Elkton Con.</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">Colorado</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">gold</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">3,000,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">1</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">2,666,959</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">El Oro</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">Mexico</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">gold, silver</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">5,750,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">5</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">12,426,590</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">Federal</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">Idaho</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">silver, lead</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">30,000,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">100</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">8,300,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">Gemini-Keystone</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">Utah</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">gold, silver</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">500,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">100</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">2,000,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">Goldfield Con.</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">Nevada</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">gold, silver</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">50,000,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">10</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">11,027,812</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">Granby Con.</td>
+<td class="col7">|<br />|</td>
+<td class="col2">B. C.</td>
+<td class="col7">|<br />|</td>
+<td class="col3">copper, gold, silver</td>
+<td class="col7">|<br />|</td>
+<td class="col4">15,000,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|<br />|</td>
+<td class="col5">100</td>
+<td class="col7">|<br />|</td>
+<td class="col6">3,778,630</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">Greene Con.</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">Mexico</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">copper</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">10,000,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">10</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">6,137,800</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">Guggenheim Exploration</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">Mexico</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">all metals</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">22,000,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">100</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">10,151,995</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">Hecla</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">Idaho</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">silver, lead</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">250,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">0.25</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">2,090,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">Hercules</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">Idaho</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">silver, lead</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">1,000,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">1</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">3,132,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">Homestake</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">S. Dakota</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">gold</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">21,840,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">100</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">19,955,550</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">Hond. Rosario</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">C. A.</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">gold</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">1,500,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">10</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">2,955,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">Horn Silver</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">Utah</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">silver</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">10,000,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">25</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">5,642,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">Iron Silver</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">Colorado</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">all metals</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">10,000,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">20</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">4,250,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">Kerr Lake</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">Ontarion</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">silver</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">3,000,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">5</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">2,430,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">La Rose Con</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">Ontario</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">silver</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">7,500,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">5</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">2,890,912</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">Mammoth</td>
+<td class="col7">|<br />|</td>
+<td class="col2">Utah</td>
+<td class="col7">|<br />|</td>
+<td class="col3">gold, silver, copper</td>
+<td class="col7">|<br />|</td>
+<td class="col4">10,000,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|<br />|</td>
+<td class="col5">25</td>
+<td class="col7">|<br />|</td>
+<td class="col6">2,220,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">Mohawk</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">Michigan</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">copper</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">2,500,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">25</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">2,150,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">Mountain</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">California</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">copper</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">6,250,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">25</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">4,216,250</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">Naica</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">Mexico</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">silver, lead</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">30,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">300</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">3,190,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">Nevada Con</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">Nevada</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">copper</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">10,000,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">5</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">2,400,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">Nipissing</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">Ontario</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">silver</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">6,000,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">5</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">5,490,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">North Butte</td>
+<td class="col7">|<br />|</td>
+<td class="col2">Montana</td>
+<td class="col7">|<br />|</td>
+<td class="col3">copper, gold, silver</td>
+<td class="col7">|<br />|</td>
+<td class="col4">9,000,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|<br />|</td>
+<td class="col5">15</td>
+<td class="col7">|<br />|</td>
+<td class="col6">9,040,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">North Star</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">California</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">gold</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">2,500,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">10</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">2,786,988</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">Ontario</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">Utah</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">silver, lead</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">5,000,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">100</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">14,962,500</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">Osceola</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">Michigan</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">copper</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">2,500,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">25</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">8,958,650</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">Panuco</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">Mexico</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">gold, silver</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">2,000,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">7,465,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">Parrot</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">Montana</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">copper</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">2,300,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">10</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">6,991,138</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">Penoles</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">Mexico</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">silver, gold</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">2,000,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">50</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">4,741,687</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">Phelps, Dodge &amp; Co</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">U. S.</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">copper</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">50,000,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">100</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">8,766,747</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">Plumas, Eureka</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">California</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">gold</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">1,406,250</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">10</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">2,831,294</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">Portland</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">Colorado</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">gold</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">3,000,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">1</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">8,677,080</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">Quincy</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">Michigan</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">copper</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">3,750,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">25</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">19,330,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">Richmond</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">Nevada</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">gold, silver, lead</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">1,350,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">1</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">4,453,797</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">San Rafael</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">Mexico</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">gold, silver</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">60,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">25</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">3,218,338</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">Sta. Gertrudis</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">Mexico</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">gold, silver</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">3,000,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">3,960,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">Sta. Maria del Paz</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">Mexico</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">gold,silver</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">120,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">12.50</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">5,568,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">St. Joseph</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">Missouri</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">lead</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">20,000,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">10</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">7,208,357</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">Silver King Coalition</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">Utah</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">silver</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">6,250,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">5</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">12,522,385</td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td class="col1">Smuggler</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">Colorado</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">silver, lead, zinc</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">1,000,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">1</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">2,235,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">Standard Con</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">California</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">golod, silver</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">2,000,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">1</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">5,194,130</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">Stratton's Ind</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">Colorado</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">gold</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">5,500,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">5</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">5,028,568</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">Strong</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">Colorado</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">gold</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">1,000,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">1</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">2,275,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">Tamarack</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">Michigan</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">copper</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">1,500,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">25</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">9,420,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">Tennessee</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">Tennessee</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">copper</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">5,000,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">25</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">2,056,250</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">Tomboy</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">Colorado</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">gold, silver</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">1,500,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">5</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">2,561,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">Tonopah</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">Nevada</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">gold, silver</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">1,000,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">1</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">6,450,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">United</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">Montana</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">copper</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">50,000,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">100</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">7,625,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">United Verde</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">Arizona</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">copper</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">3,000,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">10</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">26,722,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">Utah Copper</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">Utah</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">copper</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">15,268,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">10</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">5,629,785</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">Utah Con</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">Utah</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">copper</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">1,500,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">5</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">6,900,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">Vindicator Con</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">Colorado</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">gold</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">1,500,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">1</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">2,227,500</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="col1">Wolverine</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col2">Michigan</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col3">copper</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col4">1,500,000</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col5">25</td>
+<td class="col7">|</td>
+<td class="col6">6,300,000</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p class="center">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="chap25" id="chap25">INDEX</a>
+</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>   Accidents, <a href="#Page_104">104</a><br />
+      Adit, advantages of, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a><br />
+      Adit, defined, <a href="#Page_95">95</a><br />
+      Ajax mine, <a href="#Page_200">200</a><br />
+      Alaska, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a><br />
+      Amortization, <a href="#Page_151">151</a><br />
+      Anaconda mine, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a><br />
+      Arizona, <a href="#Page_77">77</a><br />
+      Australia, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a><br />
+      <br />
+      Bancroft, Geo., <a href="#Page_160">160</a><br />
+      Bankets, <a href="#Page_116">116</a><br />
+      Bassick mine, <a href="#Page_112">112</a><br />
+      Batea, <a href="#Page_64">64</a><br />
+      Bingham Cańon Dist., <a href="#Page_73">73</a><br />
+      Black Hills, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a><br />
+      Blanket vein, <a href="#Page_111">111</a><br />
+      Brazil placers, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a><br />
+      Buried placers, <a href="#Page_61">61</a><br />
+      Butte District, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a><br />
+      <br />
+      Cages, <a href="#Page_102">102</a><br />
+      California mining, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a><br />
+      Camp Bird mine, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a><br />
+      Canadian mining claims, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a><br />
+      Capitalization, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a><br />
+      Charleton, A. G., <a href="#Page_16">16</a><br />
+      Chimneys, <a href="#Page_112">112</a><br />
+      Churn drilling, <a href="#Page_65">65</a><br />
+      Climatic influences, <a href="#Page_83">83</a><br />
+      Coal mining, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a><br />
+      Coal washing, <a href="#Page_17">17</a><br />
+      Colorado Fuel &amp; Iron Co., <a href="#Page_183">183</a><br />
+      Colorado lode claims, <a href="#Page_52">52</a><br />
+      Comstock lode, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a><br />
+      Concentration, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a><br />
+      Consulting engineer, <a href="#Page_165">165</a><br />
+      Copper mining, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a><br />
+      Copper, price of, <a href="#Page_175">175</a><br />
+      Cornwall, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a><br />
+      Cost of patenting claims, <a href="#Page_58">58</a><br />
+      Cradle, <a href="#Page_64">64</a><br />
+      Cripple Creek District, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a><br />
+      Crosscuts, <a href="#Page_96">96</a><br />
+      Custom treatment, <a href="#Page_210">210</a><br />
+      <br />
+      Dead work, <a href="#Page_79">79</a><br />
+      Dikes, <a href="#Page_108">108</a><br />
+      Directors' functions, <a href="#Page_163">163</a><br />
+      Dividends of N. Amer. mines, <a href="#Page_216">216</a><br />
+      Dry placers, <a href="#Page_71">71</a><br />
+      <br />
+      Egypt, <a href="#Page_22">22</a><br />
+      Ely District, <a href="#Page_74">74</a><br />
+      Esperanza mine, <a href="#Page_125">125</a><br />
+      Examination of mines, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a><br />
+      Exploitation, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_166">166</a><br />
+      Extralateral rights, <a href="#Page_53">53</a><br />
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span>
+      <br />
+      Failures in mining, <a href="#Page_190">190</a><br />
+      <br />
+      Gash veins, <a href="#Page_111">111</a><br />
+      Gangue, <a href="#Page_118">118</a><br />
+      Giants, <a href="#Page_68">68</a><br />
+      Gold, price of, <a href="#Page_170">170</a><br />
+      Gold production, <a href="#Page_30">30</a> to <a href="#Page_38">38</a><br />
+      Golden Fleece, explained, <a href="#Page_24">24</a><br />
+      Grab samples, <a href="#Page_167">167</a><br />
+      Greece, mining in, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a><br />
+      <br />
+      High-grading, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_195">195</a><br />
+      Homestake mine, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a><br />
+      Hoover, H. C., <a href="#Page_162">162</a><br />
+      Hydraulicking, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a><br />
+      <br />
+      Inclines, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a><br />
+      Incorporation, <a href="#Page_140">140</a><br />
+      Iron ore prices, <a href="#Page_176">176</a><br />
+      <br />
+      Joplin District, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a><br />
+      <br />
+      Kansas coal mining, <a href="#Page_5">5</a><br />
+      Kemp, Jas. F., <a href="#Page_18">18</a><br />
+      Kentucky lead mining, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a><br />
+      Keweenaw Peninsula, <a href="#Page_116">116</a><br />
+      Kimberly diamond mines, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a><br />
+      <br />
+      Labor considerations, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a><br />
+      Lead, prices of, <a href="#Page_178">178</a><br />
+      Leadville, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a><br />
+      Leasing, <a href="#Page_195">195</a><br />
+      Leonard, P. A., <a href="#Page_186">186</a><br />
+      Life of a mine, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a><br />
+      Lode defined, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a><br />
+      Long tom, <a href="#Page_65">65</a><br />
+      Low-grade mining, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a><br />
+      <br />
+      Machinery, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a><br />
+      Management, <a href="#Page_162">162</a><br />
+      Mass, defined, <a href="#Page_113">113</a><br />
+      Metallurgy, <a href="#Page_14">14</a><br />
+      Mexico, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a><br />
+      Mexican mining claims, <a href="#Page_55">55</a><br />
+      Milling, <a href="#Page_14">14</a><br />
+      Mine accounts, <a href="#Page_179">179</a><br />
+      Mine, definition of, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a><br />
+      Mine promotion, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a><br />
+      Mine reports, <a href="#Page_168">168</a><br />
+      Miner's licenses and certificates, <a href="#Page_55">55</a><br />
+      Miner's pan, <a href="#Page_64">64</a><br />
+      Mine sampling, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a><br />
+      Mine timbers, <a href="#Page_188">188</a><br />
+      Mining, defined, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a><br />
+      Mining engineer's functions, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a><br />
+      Mining plants, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a><br />
+      Minnesota iron ranges, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a><br />
+      Monitors, <a href="#Page_68">68</a><br />
+      Mount Morgan mine, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a><br />
+      <br />
+      Nevada Cons. Copper Co., <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a><br />
+      New Zealand, <a href="#Page_61">61</a><br />
+      Nickel mining, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a><br />
+      Nickel, price of, <a href="#Page_174">174</a><br />
+      <br />
+      Ore defined, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a><br />
+      Ore deposition, <a href="#Page_117">117</a><br />
+      Ore dressing, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a><br />
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span>
+      Ore in sight, <a href="#Page_131">131</a><br />
+      Ore reserves, <a href="#Page_131">131</a><br />
+      Oroya-Brownhill mine, <a href="#Page_125">125</a><br />
+      Open pit mining, <a href="#Page_72">72</a><br />
+      Ophir, location, <a href="#Page_24">24</a><br />
+      <br />
+      <i>Pertinencia</i>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a><br />
+      Placer dredging, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a><br />
+      Placer defined, <a href="#Page_60">60</a><br />
+      Placering, <a href="#Page_14">14</a><br />
+      Platinum mining, <a href="#Page_33">33</a><br />
+      Platinum, price of, <a href="#Page_172">172</a><br />
+      Political considerations, <a href="#Page_87">87</a><br />
+      Porphyry mines, <a href="#Page_76">76</a><br />
+      Portland mine, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a><br />
+      Prospecting, <a href="#Page_39">39</a><br />
+      Prospects, <a href="#Page_148">148</a><br />
+      Prospect drilling, <a href="#Page_65">65</a><br />
+      Prospectuses, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a><br />
+      <br />
+      Quicksilver mining, <a href="#Page_43">43</a><br />
+      Quicksilver, price of, <a href="#Page_178">178</a><br />
+      <br />
+      Reddington mine, <a href="#Page_43">43</a><br />
+      Reddington, P. G., <a href="#Page_198">198</a><br />
+      Reefs, <a href="#Page_116">116</a><br />
+      Richard, R. H., <a href="#Page_15">15</a><br />
+      Rickard, T. A., <a href="#Page_127">127</a><br />
+      Riffles, <a href="#Page_68">68</a><br />
+      Robinson mine, <a href="#Page_128">128</a><br />
+      Rocker, <a href="#Page_64">64</a><br />
+      Roosevelt tunnel, <a href="#Page_196">196</a><br />
+      <br />
+      San Juan Region, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a><br />
+      Secondary enrichment, <a href="#Page_119">119</a><br />
+      Secrecy in operations, <a href="#Page_183">183</a><br />
+      Shafts, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a><br />
+      Silver, price of, <a href="#Page_172">172</a><br />
+      Silver production, <a href="#Page_136">36</a><br />
+      Skips, <a href="#Page_102">102</a><br />
+      Slope, defined, <a href="#Page_95">95</a><br />
+      Sluices, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a><br />
+      Sorting, <a href="#Page_14">14</a><br />
+      South Africa, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a><br />
+      Spain, <a href="#Page_122">122</a><br />
+      Spurr, J. E., <a href="#Page_120">120</a><br />
+      Steam shovelling, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a><br />
+      Stock, defined, <a href="#Page_112">112</a><br />
+      Stratton's Independence mine, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a><br />
+      Stripping, <a href="#Page_75">75</a><br />
+      Sudbury district, <a href="#Page_43">43</a><br />
+      Supplies, mine, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a><br />
+      Surveyor-General offices, <a href="#Page_58">58</a><br />
+      Sutro tunnel, <a href="#Page_99">99</a><br />
+      <br />
+      Tin, price of, <a href="#Page_173">173</a><br />
+      Title to property, <a href="#Page_81">81</a><br />
+      Tonopah district, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a><br />
+      Topographical considerations, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a><br />
+      Transportation considerations, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a><br />
+      Transvaal, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a><br />
+      Treadwell mine, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a><br />
+      Treasury stock, <a href="#Page_144">144</a><br />
+      Treatment monopolies, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a><br />
+      Tungsten, price of, <a href="#Page_174">174</a><br />
+      Tunnel, defined, <a href="#Page_94">94</a><br />
+      <br />
+      Unionism, <a href="#Page_85">85</a><br />
+      United Verde mine, <a href="#Page_182">182</a><br />
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span>
+      U. S. Bureau of Mines, <a href="#Page_28">28</a><br />
+      U. S. coal claims, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a><br />
+      U. S. Forestry service, <a href="#Page_197">197</a><br />
+      U. S. lode claims, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_51">51</a><br />
+      U. S. mineral output, <a href="#Page_32">32</a> to <a href="#Page_37">37</a><br />
+      U. S. mineral surveyors, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a><br />
+      U. S. placer claims, <a href="#Page_49">49</a><br />
+      U. S. Postal Dept., <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a><br />
+      Utah Copper Co., <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a><br />
+      <br />
+      Van Hise, C. R., <a href="#Page_115">115</a><br />
+      Vein, defined, <a href="#Page_107">107</a><br />
+      <br />
+      Wallace, J. P., <a href="#Page_150">150</a><br />
+      Wallaroo mine, <a href="#Page_43">43</a><br />
+      Wasp No. 2 mine, <a href="#Page_74">74</a><br />
+      Wildcatting, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_193">193</a><br />
+      Williams, Percy, <a href="#Page_191">191</a><br />
+      <br />
+      Zinc, price of, <a href="#Page_177">177</a><br />
+</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Business of Mining, by Arthur J. Hoskin
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Business of Mining, by Arthur J. Hoskin
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Business of Mining
+       A brief non-technical exposition of the principles involved
+       in the profitable operation of mines
+
+Author: Arthur J. Hoskin
+
+Release Date: February 16, 2012 [EBook #38903]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BUSINESS OF MINING ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Eric Skeet and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes :
+(1) Obvious misspellings, punctuation faults and misprints
+    have been corrected.
+(2) Italic text is denoted by _underscores_
+(3) Subscripts are denoted by an _underscore followed by the symbol in {braces}
+(4) "Par/Share" = Par Value per Share, in the table of share values
+
+
+[Illustration: UTAH COPPER COMPANY'S OPEN PIT MINE, BINGHAM, UTAH.
+This Mountain is Copper Ore.]
+
+
+                THE BUSINESS
+                  OF MINING
+
+        A BRIEF, NON-TECHNICAL EXPOSITION
+        OF THE PRINCIPLES INVOLVED IN THE
+        PROFITABLE OPERATION OF MINES
+
+                    BY
+
+            ARTHUR J. HOSKIN, M.E.,
+
+    CONSULTING AND GENERAL MINING ENGINEER; WESTERN EDITOR, "MINES
+    AND MINERALS"; FORMERLY PROFESSOR OF MINING, COLORADO SCHOOL
+    OF MINES; MEMBER, AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF MINING ENGINEERS;
+    MEMBER, COLORADO SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY
+
+    _WITH 16 FULL PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS AND ONE CHART_
+
+          [Illustration: Publisher's Logo]
+
+                PHILADELPHIA & LONDON
+
+              J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
+
+                       1912
+
+
+
+
+    COPYRIGHT, 1912, BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
+
+              PUBLISHED JULY, 1912
+
+      PRINTED BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
+
+        AT THE WASHINGTON SQUARE PRESS
+
+            PHILADELPHIA, U.S.A.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+
+       CHAPTER                                          PAGE
+
+         INTRODUCTION                                     1
+
+      I. WHAT IS A MINE?                                  4
+
+     II. WHAT IS MINING?                                 12
+
+    III. THE ANTIQUITY OF MINING                         22
+
+     IV. MINING'S PLACE IN COMMERCE                      28
+
+      V. THE FINDING OF MINES                            39
+
+     VI. MINING CLAIMS                                   46
+
+    VII. PLACERING                                       60
+
+   VIII. OPEN MINING                                     72
+
+     IX. CONSIDERATIONS PRECEDING THE OPENING OF MINES   78
+
+      X. MINE OPENINGS                                   93
+
+     XI. TYPES OF ORE BODIES                            107
+
+    XII. THE QUESTIONS OF DEPTH AND GRADES OF ORE       115
+
+   XIII. VALUATION OF MINING PROPERTY                   129
+
+    XIV. THE MINE PROMOTER                              134
+
+     XV. INCORPORATION AND CAPITALIZATION               140
+
+    XVI. MINING INVESTMENTS                             148
+
+   XVII. MINE EQUIPMENTS                                154
+
+  XVIII. MINE MANAGEMENT                                162
+
+    XIX. PRICES OF METALS                               170
+
+     XX. MINE ACCOUNTING                                179
+
+    XXI. INVESTMENT IN MINING STOCKS                    185
+
+   XXII. THE MEN OF THE FUTURE IN MINING                202
+
+  XXIII. MISCELLANEOUS CONSIDERATIONS                   210
+
+         CAPITALIZATION AND DIVIDENDS OF NORTH
+            AMERICAN METAL MINES                        216
+
+         INDEX                                          221
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+                                                           PAGE
+    UTAH COPPER COMPANY'S OPEN PIT MINE, BINGHAM, UTAH _Frontispiece_
+
+    HACKETT MINE AND MILL, JOPLIN, MO.                     12
+
+    COAL WASHING PLANT, PANA, ILLINOIS                     16
+
+    UNIVERSAL MINE, CLINTON, IND.                          20
+
+    KENNEDY MINE, JACKSON, CAL.                            30
+
+    A GILPIN COUNTY, COL., SCENE                           52
+
+    DREDGES OF YUBA CONSOLIDATED GOLDFIELDS, HAMMONTON,
+    CAL.                                                   66
+
+    THE SNOWSTORM PLACER, FAIRPLAY, COL.                   70
+
+    STEAM SHOVELS AND CHURN DRILLS, COPPER FLAT, ELY,
+    NEV.                                                   74
+
+    MILL OF THE PITTSBURG-SILVER PEAK GOLD MINING
+    CO., BLAIR, NEV.                                       88
+
+    MILLS AND SHAFT HOUSE OF DALY WEST MINE, PARK
+    CITY, UTAH                                            100
+
+    SHAFT NO. 3, TAMARACK MINING CO., CALUMET, MICH.      114
+
+    SMELTERY OF THE BALAKLALA CONSOLIDATED COPPER
+    CO., CORAM, CAL.                                      114
+
+    WASHOE REDUCTION WORKS OF THE ANACONDA COPPER
+    MINING CO., ANACONDA, MONT.                           118
+
+    MILL OF THE ROODEPOORT-UNITED MINES, TRANSVAAL,
+    SOUTH AFRICA                                          148
+
+    SPRAY SHAFT HOUSE OF COPPER QUEEN CONSOLIDATED
+    MINING CO., BISBEE, ARIZ.                             160
+
+    DIAGRAM OF METAL MARKET FOR ONE-THIRD OF A CENTURY    178
+
+    FLORENCE MINE AND MILL, GOLDFIELD, NEV.               200
+
+
+
+
+THE BUSINESS OF MINING
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+There is probably no line of human activity that is not beset with
+malicious and ignorant intruders. The fact that any occupation or
+business is really legitimate seems often to stimulate the operations of
+these disreputable persons.
+
+Mining does not escape the application of this postulate. For ages, the
+industry has afforded most fertile opportunities for the machinations of
+the unscrupulous and the erring. Somehow, there weaves throughout the
+history of mining a sort of magnetism rendering us unduly susceptible to
+the allurements which are presented with every mining proposition.
+
+It is not, however, always intentional deceit that is perpetrated upon
+the unwary. Often, mining failures result from actual ignorance of the
+business upon the part of those entrusted with its conduct, or if not
+from actual lack of knowledge, then from erroneous conceptions with the
+consequent misapplication of honest endeavor. A victim of such misplaced
+faith is perhaps more leniently inclined than is the person who has been
+duped by a "shark," but the effect upon the great industry is hurtful in
+either case.
+
+The purpose of this short monograph will be served if the author can
+feel assured that his readers will finish its perusal with the belief
+that mining may be followed as a business with just as much assurance of
+success as attaches to any one of the many lines of industrial activity.
+Many persons who have sustained losses in mining ventures deserve no
+sympathy whatever, since they have not exercised even the simplest
+precautions. So long as men--or women--will take as fact the word of any
+untrained or inexperienced individual concerning investments, just so
+long will there be resultant financial losses, no matter what the line
+of business. Because there have been elements of chance observed in the
+records of mining, this business appeals to the speculative side of our
+human natures, with the result that untold numbers of individuals have
+had ample reason to regret their ventures. But, as will be found in the
+text matter, mining can be relied upon with precisely as much assurance
+as can any other business.
+
+Nothing of a technical or engineering sort has been attempted herein,
+the sole aim of the writer being to establish the reliability and the
+credit of the mining industry as a whole by pointing out the lines of
+conduct which should be followed by those who enter its precincts as
+business people. When investors of small or large means will put their
+money into mining projects with the same precautions that they would
+exercise in placing their cash in other enterprises, they will be
+rewarded with corresponding remuneration. In this firm conviction, then,
+this little work is dedicated to the intelligence of American laymen in
+mining matters.
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+WHAT IS A MINE?
+
+
+Before entering into a discussion of the economic features of the mining
+industry, it will be well to be sure that we understand, definitely,
+what is meant by mining. As one investigates the question, he is bound
+to run across varying shades of meaning for the words _Mine_ and
+_Mining_, and so we must pause long enough to define these words
+according to the best usages.
+
+A search through works on mining written at various periods reveals
+differing ideas that have prevailed among authors. Less than a hundred
+years ago, it was said that a mine "consists of subterranean workings
+from which valuable minerals are extracted." One early writer said that
+a mine is one only when the operations are conducted in the absence of
+daylight. As time has created new fields for the industry, we find that
+ideas concerning the meaning of the word mine have necessarily altered,
+until now (according to The Coal and Metal Miners' Pocketbook), we may
+think of a mine as "any excavation made for the extraction of minerals."
+Under this definition, we properly think of the rather unusual
+operations of marketing coal right from the surface of the earth, in
+eastern Kansas, as mining. There is, in this case, no covering of earth
+above the workmen; neither are the operations necessarily carried on at
+night to avoid the illumination of the sun.
+
+So, also, placers are now correctly spoken of as mines, although but a
+few years ago there was drawn a strict line, eliminating such worked
+deposits from the category of mines. One may still run across a few men
+who are sticklers upon the point that a placer is not a mine. Throughout
+the world, at the present time, there are many places where immense
+deposits of valuable minerals are being excavated from open pits by
+out-of-doors methods, and our common term for these places is mines.
+Thus, in Minnesota, in that wonderful Lake Superior country, that is
+famous as the world's greatest known producer of iron ore, tremendous
+tonnages are handled every year by the modern steam shovel, which works
+in natural light by day and by electric lamps at night. In Utah and
+Nevada we find similar operations conducted in the excavation of copper
+ores. In Australia, the famous Mount Morgan mine is using open air
+methods in the mining of precious metal ore.
+
+But what about quarries from which are taken building stone, salt,
+kaolin or clay? Are not such substances of the mineral kingdom? Here we
+run across a hitch in the definition quoted above; for while we hear of
+"salt mines" (not "salted mines"), our parlance has not, as yet,
+warranted this term except for such excavations of salt as are carried
+on in subterranean deposits; and it is quite out of place to speak of
+stone or clay mines.
+
+Evidently we must pass through another transition in our conceptions
+about mines, or we must permit quarries and pits to be included within
+our realm of mines. At the present time, the prevailing practice of the
+men best qualified in such matters is to designate as mines those
+workings from which only coal, metallic ores, or gems are extracted.
+Hence, we should not speak of a slate, sulphur, mica, clay or phosphate
+mine.
+
+And yet, with all the above restriction in our nomenclature, we have not
+reached one very important consideration, one which we have been
+approaching for a number of years and which, of late, has been met and
+forcibly applied by the best men in the profession of mining
+engineering.
+
+An excavation that will produce coal, metals or gems is not necessarily
+a mine. The simple fact that a man can get some gold-bearing dirt from a
+hole in the ground does not mean that he has a mine. The occasional
+finding of a diamond on the sidewalks of a great city does not give
+anybody the impression that city sidewalks are diamond mines. There are
+many places in which small amounts of combustible coal can be scratched
+from its natural depository, but no company appears to think highly
+enough of these seams to install machinery and to carry on operations.
+In the eastern part of Kentucky there are well-defined deposits of
+lead-bearing baryta, though, up to date, their development has not
+proved successful. In Brazil there are known to be very rich areas of
+placer ground, and still the deposits are not worked. A friend of the
+writer discovered some very good gold-bearing gravels in Alaska, but he
+was unable to mine.
+
+There is something besides the presence of valuable minerals and the
+ability to win them from their natural matrices that is essential to a
+mine. It is here, in our considerations of the mining industry, that we
+come into real economic notions for the first time. Yes, according to
+the latest ideas, we are wrong in stating that any worked or workable
+mineral deposit is a mine, _if it does not contain possibilities of
+profitable working_. This is now the prime thought of every up-to-date
+mining manager or engineer. It is this notion that will distinguish a
+mine from a prospect. The prospect may become a mine by proving itself
+profitably workable: if it simply carries values which cannot be
+realized to advantage, then it must continue as a mere prospect. There
+are cases of properties which possess rich deposits and which are
+loosely called mines. These properties may be observed to be erratic in
+their productiveness, owing to the very pockety nature of the deposits;
+and the owners, although they do, indeed, strike occasional handsome
+bonanzas, expend all the profits of such finds--or even greater
+amounts--in searching for other pockets. Is such work profitable? Is it
+mining?
+
+The trouble with the cited placers of South America is that climatic,
+hygienic and political conditions have been antagonistic to successful
+working: the ground is rich, but it cannot be handled to make money. In
+the case of the Alaska gravels, there was no available, though
+essential, water supply. The Kentucky galena cannot be economically
+separated from the containing heavy spar. Coal, which is sold at
+comparatively low figures per ton, must be handled at the mines in
+large quantities to pay, so that a thin seam or a scattered deposit is
+not suitable for mining.
+
+Under these restrictions of our new definitions, we run across many
+interesting points. For instance, one may ask the question about the old
+abandoned hole in the ground which is occasionally found by prospectors,
+"Is it a mine?" The answer can be simply another query as to whether the
+hole was abandoned because it contained no value, or because, containing
+value, it could not be profitably worked. As we think of mines nowadays,
+we can conceive several reasons why, before the advent of transportation
+lines and the invention of modern metallurgical processes and many forms
+of labor-saving machinery now so common in and about mines, many very
+rich deposits may have been necessarily forsaken by their discoverers.
+But such a property would, if now worked, probably prove highly
+profitable. We thus note that there exists some elasticity in the
+meaning of the word mine. An unprofitable project at one time may
+develop into a mine at a later period. Many gold mines have become
+worthless propositions merely through changes in the ore that have
+rendered further work unremunerative.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+WHAT IS MINING?
+
+
+Having considered the accepted definition of a mine, let us now extend
+our reasoning a little and inquire just what is meant by mining. At
+first thought, one would say that mining is, in a broad sense, the art
+or practice of excavating, at a profit, the ores of metals, the beds of
+coal, the gravels of placers and the deposits containing precious
+stones. Are we justified in letting this definition stand as it is? If
+we do not make any change, we must exclude all quarries, sand banks,
+clay pits, and the numerous sorts of works that are producing the
+non-metallic minerals of commerce. Very well, since we find good usage
+will warrant us, we will do so.
+
+[Illustration: HACKETT MINE AND MILL, JOPLIN, MISSOURI.]
+
+Still, there are other pertinent questions arising. Does the practice of
+mining cover the treatment of the excavated products? Here we run across
+a mooted point. The British and the American uses of the word mining
+seem to be a bit different in this regard. Upon the Rand, South Africa,
+a territory dominated by Englishmen, every mine is equipped with its own
+mill, and all notions of mining cover the inseparable idea of local ore
+treatment. Here, in our country, there are many, many mines which have
+absolutely no means of treating their own products and the managers give
+no thought whatever to metallurgical or milling lines. There are, on the
+other hand, many companies that have erected private plants at their
+mines for the extraction of metallic contents from the ores. Here it
+may, or it may not, happen that the operations of mining are considered
+as distinct from those of treatment. In some instances, as at the
+Tonopah Mining Company's plants, there is separate superintendence of
+the milling and the mining; but in the Joplin, Missouri, zinc region one
+superintendent looks after the running of a mine and its omnipresent
+mill.
+
+There may be drawn a sharp distinction between what is really mining and
+what is the subsequent treatment of the ores for the extraction of
+values. The latter field is denoted _Metallurgy_ when the operations are
+of such a nature as to actually recover or extract metallic products or
+metals. If the treatment process has for its object merely the rejection
+of some of the worthless materials in the original ore, thus causing a
+concentration of the valuable minerals, but without actually obtaining
+any metal, then the term _Ore Dressing_ is warranted. At some mines,
+there is maintained a practice of culling out, often by hand, a certain
+percentage of the obviously worthless ingredients of the ore before
+shipping the products to treatment plants. This is neither milling,
+metallurgy, nor ore dressing, but is more properly called _Sorting_. It
+is one of the operations connected with mining. Milling may be either
+ore dressing or metallurgy.
+
+In the operations of placering, there is a simultaneous _excavation_ of
+a deposit and an _extraction_ of the valuable contents. In this case,
+shall we call the process mining or metallurgy? If it is a gold placer,
+one may see the recovery of the metallic values. Here, the usage of the
+majority of practical mining men will uphold us in always speaking of
+the work as mining.
+
+In its original significance and use, metallurgy involved the use of
+fire for the concentration and recovery of metals. With recent advances
+in chemistry, there have been numerous discoveries of wet or fireless
+methods for arriving at equivalent results, so that it is now perfectly
+proper to allow the word metallurgy to cover such processes as
+cyanidation, chlorination, electrolysis, and the host of new inventions
+that are continually appearing.
+
+The writer has consulted a number of authorities on mining lines to
+ascertain just what sort of a position to give to the practice of ore
+dressing. Prof. Robert H. Richards, the head of the mining department in
+the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the inventor of machines
+which have made him famous among mining men, says, "Ore dressing is an
+essential part of mining. The whole object of ore dressing is to remove
+gangue before shipment and so save in freight and treatment charges."
+Mr. A. G. Charleton, the eminent English mining engineer and author of
+numerous books, in discussing this question, writes, "Personally, I am
+of the opinion that ore dressing should be included in mining." One has
+but to look through the catalogues of most of the American and foreign
+mining schools to find that little or no line is drawn between the
+courses in mining and metallurgy, and almost universally the dressing of
+a mine's product is taken up as an inseparable part of mining. In a very
+few exceptions, the courses of study are so planned as to draw an
+imaginary line between mining and metallurgy, and in these instances,
+ore dressing is placed with metallurgy only for convenience in the use
+and arrangement of college laboratories. But, since it is a common
+practice for mining companies to install plants right at the mines for
+the purpose of diminishing the bulk of ore shipped and to thus save in
+freight and custom treatment charges, mine superintendents and even the
+common miners have become accustomed to thinking of such plants as
+but units of the "mining" plants. At bituminous and anthracite mines
+whose products contain objectionable amounts of impurities, it is a
+common practice to subject the output to a _Washing_ to remove the
+deleterious substances before shipment to the market.
+
+[Illustration: COAL WASHING PLANT, PANA, ILLINOIS.]
+
+In view, then, of these reasons, it is proper to decide that mining is a
+term broad enough to cover the operations of extracting coal and
+metallic ores from the ground and of preparing them for shipment or
+metallurgical treatment.
+
+Coal is always coal, no matter in what thickness of deposit it is found.
+It may not be minable coal because in thin seams or because so
+intercalated with layers of slate or "bone," that the mine's mixture, or
+so-called "run of mine," is not salable. But with metallic ores, we run
+across an idea that is occupying the attention of many prominent
+geologists and mining men.
+
+What is ore? This is a question to which there have been many attempted
+answers. There has been an evolution of ideas, with a corresponding
+gradation of definition. To set a uniform standard of thought upon this
+point, officers of the United States Geological Survey, a few years ago,
+proposed the following definition. It must be conceded that this
+definition, while embodying many splendid features, is not altogether
+exempt from criticism; but in the absence of anything better, we shall
+not be very far in error if we use it:
+
+_Ore_ is a _natural_ aggregation of one or more _minerals_ from which
+useful _metal_ may be _profitably_ extracted.
+
+There is, then, no such thing as "pay ore" or "non-pay ore," expressions
+still quite common among miners and prospectors of the uneducated types.
+Prof. James F. Kemp, probably America's best-posted writer upon the
+subject, in an attempt to formulate one acceptable and unchangeable
+meaning for the word ore, says, "In its technical sense, an ore is a
+metalliferous mineral or an aggregate of such minerals, more or less
+mixed with gangue, and capable of being won and treated at a profit.
+The test of _yielding the metal or metals at a profit_ seems to me, in
+the last analysis, the only feasible one to employ." This definition
+eliminates one of the weak points in the first definition, namely, that
+an ore must be an association of minerals: there are some common ores
+(as for example, magnetite) which are not associations, but single
+minerals.
+
+We now reach certain fundamental concepts which must be accepted by the
+mining man who desires to be recognized as abreast of modern ideas.
+Following the publication of Kemp's definition of ore, there was much
+comment--as was anticipated--with the result that there has been noted a
+vacancy in scientific matters and it has been thought proper to permit
+another definition for purely scientific uses. This other definition of
+ore will cover the materials or aggregates of minerals from which gem
+stones and other valuable, but not metallic, substances are recovered.
+
+Let us recapitulate. An _ore_ must be an aggregate or association of
+natural minerals, or a single mineral, from which metal may be
+profitably recovered. _Mines_ are excavations in the earth from which
+ore, coal or gems are taken. _Mining_ is the art or practice of
+operating mines.
+
+Throughout the subject, we see the inseparable idea of _profit_. The
+work of carrying on operations in a railroad tunnel is not mining; the
+driving of adits through barren rocks to reach ore bodies is not mining;
+the sinking of shafts through worthless "wash" or rocks with a view of
+opening avenues for the removal of ore is not mining. Mining is carried
+on only when ore is being produced. The wildcat practice of erecting
+small, temporary plants and digging prospect holes can be condemned as
+not being real mining.
+
+[Illustration: UNIVERSAL MINE (BITUMINOUS), CLINTON, INDIANA.]
+
+There is usually little question about the validity of a coal mining
+proposition, since "the goods show for themselves." Comparatively few
+cases of fraudulent ventures in coal properties are of record. The
+product of a coal mine is ready for market just as soon as it is loaded
+into railroad cars, the mining company receiving its pay, commonly,
+upon its own recorded weights. There is no freight to pay, no waiting
+for assays or analyses, and no settlements with mills or smelteries.
+There are not the allurements for getting rich quickly in coal mining
+that are so beguiling to the class of investors generally approached by
+the promoters of mines(?). This must not be construed as stating that
+nobody has ever been deceived in a coal mine proposition, for, indeed,
+there have been many failures; however, they have been due, chiefly, to
+auto-deception as to area, thickness or quality of the coal measures.
+
+
+
+III
+
+THE ANTIQUITY OF MINING.
+
+
+Mining is believed to have been one of man's earliest occupations. In
+historical writings, many of which date back into antiquity, there are
+allusions, as well as direct statements, concerning the art and tasks of
+obtaining valuable metals from Mother Earth. We are told that the very
+ancient Egyptians made common use of metals and that they possessed
+knowledge of certain metallurgical and metal-working processes (as for
+example, the tempering of copper) which we, of today, cannot claim. Six
+thousand years ago Egypt became a world power through her mining of
+copper in the Sinai Peninsula. Iron implements found in the great Gizeh
+Pyramid are supposed to date back to 4,000 B.C. Copper tools have been
+found in the ruins of ancient Troy. In Assyria, a very good steel saw,
+44 inches long, was taken from the ruins of Nimrod. Iron was utilized by
+the Chinese some 2,000 years B.C. Near Delhi, India, there exists an
+iron pillar, 22 feet long and weighing six tons, dating back to 400 B.C.
+It is chiefly interesting in exhibiting an ancient knowledge of welding
+which is the envy of our modern iron workers. If we accept the Hebrew
+Scriptures, we must believe that mining was carried on in the time of
+Tubalcain, spoken of in Genesis. The Old Testament contains numerous
+verses referring to the mining of metals, the land of perfect abundance
+being paraphrased in Deuteronomy thus: "Where the stones are of iron and
+out of its hills are digged mines of brass." Coal was mined and used in
+Greece in 1330 B.C.
+
+It is quite probable that gold was the earliest metal to be worked.
+There are two good reasons for this assumption: First, gold was to be
+found in the native state or as nuggets, thus requiring no reduction
+process. Second, the ores of gold are usually less refractory than are
+the ores of other metals. This is especially true of the oxidized ores
+such as would naturally be discovered by primitive man. These facts,
+together with the further properties of gold, _viz._, that its color is
+attractive, that it resists corrosion or tarnish, and that it is easily
+worked into ornaments or coin merely by hammering, make it highly
+probable that humans early made use of this yellow material.
+
+We read in Job 28:1, that "gold is refined;" and modern investigations
+tend to prove that the Ophir of Biblical reference is the southern
+portion of Matabeleland or the Rhodesia of present fame among mining
+regions. It is possible and quite probable that the great quantities of
+gold used in the building and furnishing of King Solomon's Temple came
+from the vicinity of the present city of Johannesburg. The "golden
+fleece" of literature has been explained as a figure of speech for the
+skins of sheep which were laid in troughs to catch gold upon the
+principle of the riffle in a modern sluice-box.
+
+Copper was perhaps the second metal to be worked by man. As a rule, it,
+also, is easily smelted from its ores; and, as above mentioned, we have
+relics that give evidence of wonderful skill in working this metal in
+times of remote antiquity.
+
+However, other metals are believed to have been mined, upon commercial
+scales, before the Christian era. Silver and lead were handled in large
+quantities from the mines of Laurium, Greece, in the sixth century B.C.,
+and the same mines are being worked to this day, the principal values
+now being in the lead rather than, as formerly, in the white metal. The
+Phoenicians, about 500 B.C., invaded Spain for gold, copper and
+mercury, and Cornwall for tin and copper. The Almaden quicksilver mines
+of Spain have been operated, almost incessantly, since 415 B.C., and in
+the 16th century, A.D., the wealth of Europe's greatest family of
+financiers, the Fuegers, was based upon the operation of this remarkable
+deposit.
+
+Del Mar, in his _History of the Precious Metals_, says, "Desire for the
+precious metals, rather than geographical researches or military
+conquest, is the principal motive which has led to the dominion of the
+earth by civilized races. Gold has invariably invited commerce,
+invasion has followed commerce, and permanent occupation has completed
+the process. It is the history of the past as well as of the present.
+Scipio went to Africa, Caesar to Gaul, Columbus to America, Cortez to
+Mexico, Pizarro to Peru, Clive to the conquest and Hastings to plunder
+Bengal."
+
+Our own day has witnessed the subjugation of the Boer. Because of
+Mexico's mineral wealth, many optimistic Americans are beginning to
+prophesy the annexation of our sister republic. For gold, Englishmen
+populated Australia in 1850, about the same time (1849) that we
+witnessed the rush to California gold fields. Spaniards settled Central
+and South American countries merely to gain the precious metals. It is
+mining which has been responsible for the population of the arid,
+southwestern portion of our own domain.
+
+In this, as in every other age of the world's development, we shall find
+that the mining industry lies at the heart of all commerce. It is well
+for the student of mining economics to fully appreciate this fact, for
+it will whet his interest in this great world industry.
+
+"Truly, it has been a great seeking and finding. The story of mining may
+have been staled by commonplace, and the romance of it dulled, often
+enough, by greed; yet, in the main, it has linked the generations of
+earth as with a golden thread--and if not golden only, then there has
+been the red glint of copper or the white sheen of silver. Mining
+districts may come and go, but mining remains."--(Editorial,
+_Engineering and Mining Journal_).
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+MINING'S PLACE IN COMMERCE.
+
+
+It is said that upon two of the world's commercial industries, every
+other form of activity depends. These two fundamental industries are
+agriculture and mining. Statisticians prove the above statement and the
+further fact that these two dissimilar branches of civilization's
+business are so closely related as to be quite inter-dependent. Strides
+are made by one of these industries only when advance is noted in the
+other. While it may not be possible to explain just why this is so, it
+is worth our attention to consider some brief figures that show this
+condition of affairs.
+
+The agitation conducted during the past few years, leading to the
+establishment of a Bureau of Mines in the Department of the Interior,
+attracted the thoughts of many students of economics who had not
+previously or seriously considered the industry of mining. The delivery
+of brilliant addresses showed that mining had been unjustly retarded.
+While agriculture has for years been fostered by the government and with
+remarkably satisfactory results, the great sister industry has been
+required, until recently, to struggle along without any governmental
+recognition in the matter of support. Yet it has forged its way in
+unmistakable terms of progress and there was an insistent demand, among
+those men particularly interested in the welfare of mining, for the
+protection and the assistance which would and has now come through the
+establishment of a governmental department. Various states have long
+recognized the importance of the mining industry by the establishment of
+departments. The Canadian and Mexican governments maintain very
+creditable Departments of Mines. It was but a question of time until the
+shortsightedness of our politicians (not our statesmen) was revealed,
+and the mining industry has now come under the auspices of a federal
+department.
+
+Taking the world as a whole, it would be hard to conceive the sum total
+of annual mineral productions. The middle of the past century seems to
+have been a critical period in the mining industry of the earth. There
+was a great impetus given to mining by the greed for gold which caused
+the settlement of our western states and the Australian states, as
+already mentioned. But there gradually followed the opening up of mining
+in many other and hitherto unpopulated and uncivilized portions of the
+globe. The search for gold was successful.
+
+Prior to 1850, the production of gold had not kept pace with the
+increase in population. Soon, however, it began to take leaps, in almost
+geometrical ratios, until, by 1900, the annual production of gold
+throughout the world was some 2,200 per cent. of the production for 1800
+(as nearly as may be ascertained). The 1900 gold production was of a
+weight of about 400 tons, in round figures. During 1911, the world
+produced approximately $470,000,000 (about 779 tons) in new gold
+bullion. It is estimated that with a continuance of the remarkable
+progress, the next 20 years will duplicate _the amount of gold now
+known in the world_. _This means that the amount of gold which has been
+accumulating from mining during the world's ages will be doubled during
+a fraction of our lifetime._ This is significant of the world's
+progress, in gold mining, at least.
+
+[Illustration: KENNEDY MINE, JACKSON, CALIFORNIA.]
+
+It seems coincidental that the rush for gold in 1849-50 should have been
+almost simultaneous with the remarkable development of our other mineral
+resources. All of our great discoveries of coal, oil, silver, iron,
+lead, copper, and zinc can be said to have followed closely upon the
+discovery of gold in California. It is not supposed that the discovery
+of iron in northern Michigan in the early eighties had any connection
+with the "Pike's-Peak-or-Bust" expeditions, nor that the opening and
+development of the vast coal beds of Pennsylvania had any bearing on the
+discoveries of lead and zinc in the great Mississippi Valley. But, on
+the other hand, there can be traced a very intimate relation between the
+finding of gold, silver, copper, and lead in the Rocky Mountain states
+and the search for gold in California: the pioneers en route to the
+coast were the discoverers and settlers in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and
+Montana.
+
+Figures are not available for arriving at such striking or reliable
+conclusions in regard to the world's production of metals other than
+gold, but there is no logical reason to doubt that such increases have
+been just as pronounced as in the case of the yellow metal. In fact,
+there are good grounds for assuming that the figures for silver, lead,
+iron, and zinc would show up even more spectacularly; while with coal,
+we know that we are now in the greatest period of the world's
+production.
+
+The United States leads the world in the production of the base metals,
+such as copper, iron, manganese, lead, and zinc, taken collectively or
+separately. Our country stands second in the production of the precious
+metals, gold, platinum, and silver. We have the greatest variety of
+mineral products, as well as the greatest production of complex ores, or
+those carrying more than one valuable metal. We produce more copper
+than the rest of the world combined. Although we stand in second place
+when considering the production of gold, we still possess the Homestake
+mine in the Black Hills, famous as being the gold mine with the greatest
+tonnage in the world; and the Camp Bird mine, in the San Juan district
+of Colorado, famous the world over for its highest average value of gold
+ore. This great mine is now nearly exhausted and is about to close down
+after making a wonderful record.
+
+South Africa produces the greatest amount of, and the purest, natural
+gold in the world. Great Britain has an insignificant production of both
+gold and copper, and still it is noteworthy that the English-speaking
+nations control the world's production of both these metals. British and
+American citizens own seven-eighths of the world's gold mines. England
+stands second in the consumption of copper, which, of course, is mainly
+imported.
+
+Russia controls the world's output of platinum, with very little
+competition. In a similar manner, Canada has the control of nickel
+production. Mexico, although not commonly regarded as a gold mining
+country, is rapidly coming to the front and possesses the Esperanza
+mine, said to be one of the most profitable gold mines in the world.
+
+To more emphatically show the importance of the mining industry,
+especially in our own country, the following facts are taken from 1900
+census returns: Agriculture produces annually about $725 per capita;
+mining, $1,910; and manufacturing, which is dependent upon the others,
+$760. _The National Banker_ has said: "Statistics show that the combined
+dividends paid by the gold and silver mining companies of the United
+States are greater than the combined dividends paid by all of the
+banking institutions of the country; and the combined dividends paid by
+the copper mining companies of the United States exceed the combined
+dividends paid by all of our railroads."
+
+There is one thought that will always comfort any person who is engaged
+in furthering legitimate mining: Wealth acquired from a mine is not
+wrested from any being but Mother Earth, and it is not, therefore, in
+the class with the much discussed "tainted money" that is said to be
+wrung from unfortunate human beings.
+
+The following tables are presented to give the reader ideas concerning
+the productions of gold and silver during recent years. Among the
+interesting points that may be noted are the following:
+
+The gold production of the world took a sudden drop in 1900, but it
+immediately resumed its upward climb. During the decade from 1900 to
+1910, this production increased over 81 per cent.
+
+There is a remarkable similarity noticeable in the gold productions of
+the United States during the years 1910 and 1911.
+
+Without the notable increase in the gold output of the Transvaal in
+1911, the world's total gold production for that year would have shown a
+decrease.
+
+The silver production of the United States remained practically
+unchanged during 1911.
+
+
+        GOLD PRODUCTION OF THE WORLD FOR 20 YEARS
+
+
+  1892        $146,292,600           1902        $298,812,493
+  1893         158,437,551           1903         329,475,401
+  1894         182,509,283           1904         349,088,293
+  1895         198,995,741           1905         378,411,054
+  1896         211,242,081           1906         405,551,022
+  1897         237,833,984           1907         411,294,458
+  1898         287,327,833           1908         443,434,527
+  1899         311,505,947           1909         459,927,482
+  1900         258,829,703           1910         469,365,110
+  1901         260,877,429           1911         473,383,543
+
+
+        UNITED STATES SILVER PRODUCTION
+
+              (In Fine Ounces)
+
+
+                                        1910        1911
+
+    Alabama                              300         174
+    Alaska                           153,900     275,691
+    Arizona                        2,655,700   1,594,428
+    California                     1,791,600   2,727,336
+    Colorado                       8,523,000   7,530,940
+    Georgia                              300         225
+    Idaho                          7,027,000   7,507,802
+    Illinois                           2,100       4,648
+    Michigan                         262,200     507,234
+    Maryland                          ......          87
+    Missouri                          32,200      56,228
+    Montana                       12,282,900  11,116,778
+    Nevada                        12,366,000  10,651,571
+    N. Mexico                        779,000   1,142,335
+    N. Carolina                        8,300       2,227
+    Oklahoma                          ......     168,245
+    Oregon                            43,800      69,116
+    Pennsylvania                         700      13,262
+    S. Carolina                       ......          14
+    S. Dakota                        120,600     206,188
+    Tennessee                         69,800     126,683
+    Texas                            364,400     442,486
+    Utah                          10,445,900  12,679,633
+    Virginia                             200          45
+    Washington                       204,900     142,196
+    Wyoming                            1,300       1,009
+    Porto Rico                        ......          51
+    Philippines                        1,800       3,383
+    Miscellaneous                     ......     826,102
+                                  ----------  ----------
+    Total                         57,137,900  57,796,117
+
+
+                    UNITED STATES GOLD PRODUCTION
+                              (In Value)
+
+
+                                        1910         1911
+
+    Alabama                          $32,900      $18,335
+    Alaska                        16,271,800   16,002,976
+    Arizona                        3,413,200    2,954,790
+    California                    20,441,400   20,310,987
+    Colorado                      20,526,500   19,153,860
+    Georgia                           24,000       30,532
+    Idaho                          1,035,000    1,169,261
+    Illinois                          ------        5,788
+    Michigan                          ------           20
+    Maryland                          ------           20
+    Montana                        3,720,400    3,169,840
+    Nevada                        18,783,700   18,968,578
+    New Mexico                       477,200      639,897
+    N. Carolina                       64,500       76,693
+    Oklahoma                          ------       30,698
+    Oregon                           681,400      599,235
+    Pennsylvania                       5,900        7,814
+    S. Carolina                       37,800       13,437
+    S. Dakota                      5,380,200    7,430,367
+    Tennessee                          2,800       14,140
+    Texas                                400        1,178
+    Utah                           4,312,700    4,709,747
+    Virginia                             900        4,300
+    Washington                       806,000      504,537
+    Wyoming                            4,100       18,791
+    Porto Rico                         1,000        2,191
+    Philippines                      154,400      130,501
+    Miscellaneous                     ------      265,013
+                                 -----------  -----------
+    Total                        $96,269,100  $96,233,528
+
+
+                        GOLD PRODUCTION OF THE WORLD
+
+
+                                              1910          1911
+
+    Transvaal                         $155,730,260  $170,487,900
+    United States including Alaska      96,269,100    96,233,528
+    Australia                           65,634,340    61,072,409
+    Russia                              43,168,389    40,600,000
+    Mexico                              24,073,100    19,500,000
+    Rhodesia                            12,607,791    13,045,100
+    India                               12,089,400    10,505,506
+    Canada                              10,224,910    10,646,000
+    China                               10,102,300    10,000,000
+    Japan, East Indies, etc.            10,522,437    10,600,000
+    West Africa                          3,674,087     5,268,100
+    Madagascar                           2,149,721     1,900,000
+    France                               1,114,700     1,275,000
+    Central and South America           14,886,234    15,000,000
+    Other countries                      7,118,841     7,250,000
+                                      ------------  ------------
+    Total                             $469,365,610  $473,383,543
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+THE FINDING OF MINES.
+
+
+Mines are discovered in many ways. One hears much about prospecting, and
+since this is a practice which is rapidly changing from a mystical to a
+scientific basis, a few considerations will here be in order.
+
+Persons who have lived in mining communities are familiar with two types
+of prospector, the roving and the settled. Somehow, when we think of the
+former, there comes to mind a bearded, roughly clad man, usually
+accompanied by a "jack" and both packing the outfit consisting of a few
+tools, a pan, some blankets, a gun, and a supply of "grub." If we have
+in mind the other type of prospector, we imagine him as living an
+isolated life in a log cabin up in the hills, spending his daytime in
+putting in a few, short drill-holes and blasting down a ton or two of
+usually worthless rock in a "tunnel" or shallow shaft, confident that
+each succeeding shot will disclose a treasure.
+
+Both of these types represent the utmost in optimism. These men endure
+many hardships and privations, they can have little converse with other
+humans, often they can see no provisions for the next day; in fact, they
+receive few of the benefits of modern civilization--if we except the
+food-preserving features. Still, a typical, old-style prospector keeps
+on with absolute faith that fortune will smile tomorrow. We must reach
+the conclusion that these uneducated men are led on by subtle beliefs
+which, to a technically-trained man, seem like the rankest folly. They
+are diviners, dreamers. They are disappearing now and, a generation
+hence, there will be but memories of them. They are giving way to
+successors of a different type.
+
+The newer kind of prospector is well educated, and, perchance, he is
+rather youthful. His chances of success are many times those of the man
+he supplants. Why? Because he is taking advantage of the work that has
+been done by all former prospectors. He is guided by theories deduced
+from observations through ages, and he has the advice of the best
+contemporary men of experience in matters of geology as applied to
+mining. In other words, he is a scientific prospector.
+
+The prospector of today has a general understanding of mineralogy and
+geology; he must have knowledge of mining methods, so that he may know
+whether a deposit, once found, can be exploited at a profit; he must be
+ready to account for all discovered mineral bodies, and he must be
+capable of applying theories to actualities.
+
+There are so many metals and minerals sought for the markets of the
+world today that we see there are many fields of study and practice open
+to prospectors. It is not the purpose here to explain the details of
+scientific prospecting, for the study of this one subject would, in
+itself, fill a volume. The object of the above remarks is to draw to the
+attention of the economist the propriety (amounting almost to a
+necessity) of giving heed to the findings of the educated, trained
+searcher for mineral bodies, in preference to those of the illiterate
+man who has furnished themes for artists, narrators, and dramatists,
+because of his quaint characteristics.
+
+Some writers have classified mineral discoveries into Search, Chance and
+Adventitious.
+
+_Search_ discoveries, being the rewards of earnest seeking, it is not
+surprising that, under the past guide of notions and mysticism, the
+percentage of such discoveries has been small. Under the new order of
+things, with science as a guide, the percentage is growing and, in the
+future, this kind of discovery will undoubtedly strongly outnumber the
+others.
+
+_Chance_ discoveries are those that are made purely without
+premeditation. They have been a dominant factor in the mineral
+development of the past. The discovery of _gold_ in California came
+about through the noticing of shiny, yellow flakes of metal in a ditch
+leading to a saw-mill. The great _iron_ mines of the Mesabi Range were
+found by the ore clinging to the roots of an overturned tree. The
+Wallaroo _copper_ mine, the greatest in Australia, was discovered by the
+green minerals brought to the surface in the excavations of a wombat.
+The famous Sudbury _nickel-silver_ ore bodies were disclosed when making
+a railroad cut on the Canadian Pacific Railroad. The Reddington
+_quicksilver_ mine, in California, was similarly opened in a cut for a
+wagon road. The mining of _silver_ at Catorce, Mexico, followed the
+discovery of shining silver nuggets in the camp-fire of a native, who
+had camped right upon a rich outcrop. The Kimberly _diamond_ mines are
+said to have been disclosed by the burrowings of an ichneumon, which
+fetched a brilliant stone to the sunlight.
+
+_Adventitious_ finds are such as occasionally occur when, while really
+searching for, or actually mining, one metal, discovery is made of a
+different metal, or possibly the same metal is found in an entirely
+different kind of ore. The Comstock lode of Nevada was originally a
+_search_ gold discovery, the gold having been sought and found by two
+prospectors with ordinary gold pans. In their working to recover gold,
+a black mineral and a yellow sand were discarded from the pans and
+rockers. Curiosity of one man resulted in the identification of these
+two minerals as ores of silver which henceforth were held as valuable as
+the native gold. The Anaconda mine, at Butte, Montana, was located, and
+for some time worked as a silver proposition; but the values gradually
+changed with depth from silver to copper, until now silver is only a
+valuable by-product. The rich lead-silver ores of Leadville were
+discovered as _adventitious_ to the operation of the rich gold placers
+in California Gulch. A heavy, troublesome rock which accumulated in the
+sluices, much to the disgust of the miners, turned out to be cerussite,
+a fine ore of lead. This same district now produces in commercial
+amounts gold, silver, lead, iron, zinc, copper, and manganese. The
+Treadwell mine on Douglas Island, Alaska, was first worked as a placer
+and the values were found to extend downward into the underlying rock in
+a place which proved to be an immense deposit of eruptive, gold-bearing
+ore.
+
+As the old-fashioned, venturesome kind of prospecting has but recently
+been crowded off the scene by the better, scientific kind, let us not
+overlook the great discoveries that were made in the past before we had
+applied "organized common sense" to such a field of activity. Those
+original prospectors were searchers, hunters. They had no guides, but
+they did accomplish a great deal, and their discoveries were rewards for
+diligence and hard labor which were, to a great extent, often
+misdirected.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+MINING CLAIMS.
+
+
+The process of acquiring title to mining property may be viewed from a
+number of points. Such property is real estate and, as such, it may be
+bought and sold or otherwise transferred exactly the same as farms or
+city lots.
+
+The United States has constructed an elaborate system for the disposal
+of its public lands to individuals, under various classifications, such
+as homestead, desert land, timber and stone, timber culture, coal,
+placer, and lode claims. Different rules apply to the filing upon,
+improvement and patenting (acquiring deed from the Government) of these
+various kinds of claims. The character of the lands in the public domain
+is decided by the surveyors who execute contracts from the General Land
+Office for subdividing or staking the country off into townships and
+sections, according to our American system. In the return of each
+surveyor's notes, he recommends the sale of the land according to his
+judgment as to its highest value. There has naturally been a good deal
+of erroneous conception upon these points, with the result that, often,
+land has been later shown to be entirely different in its character from
+the classification given to it by the contracting surveyor; for the
+qualifications of such a person are not always of a high grade, when it
+comes to geological questions. And yet, on the whole, the scheme has
+worked out well and much fraud against the Government has been prevented
+by the rigid practice.
+
+The Government prices for some of the various classes of land have been
+as follows: agricultural, $1.25 per acre; coal, $10 per acre when the
+land was not closer to a railroad than 15 miles, and $20 per acre when
+it lay within this limit; placer, $2.50 per acre; lode, $5 per acre.
+These have been the prices demanded for the land only; the payment of
+these amounts, in many cases, has constituted a small fraction of the
+expense of securing the original deeds from the Federal Government.
+
+Coal lands may be located very much the same as a homestead, with the
+exception that residence upon the ground is not required, nor are
+improvements essential. In cases of dispute as to priority of location,
+the land office will recognize those claimants who have expended the
+greater amounts in improvements. One citizen may locate but one claim of
+160 acres.
+
+Since April 10, 1909, the Government has been disposing of its public
+coal lands under a classification that takes note of many details. The
+kind, grade, thickness, and purity of coal; the number of workable
+seams; the depth; the features of local supply; transportation
+facilities; and the average prices at which similar private tracts are
+held, are among the items recognized in the classification. Probably no
+two tracts will be sold at the same rate. In general, the new prices are
+higher than the flat prices that formerly prevailed and some pieces of
+land are now estimated as high as $175 per acre. In every case of
+application to purchase coal land, hereafter, the area in question will
+undergo inspection by Government experts and a price will then be
+assessed. This law is being severely opposed as being unreasonably
+severe, and its amendment may be looked for.
+
+Placer lands were formerly permitted to be taken up in any shape, the
+boundary stakes being placed upon the ground in such a manner as to
+include only the desirable area, which is usually of an alluvial nature
+along some valley or gulch. This practice has been forbidden, however,
+and a locator is now obliged to take up his land in quadrilateral tracts
+conforming to the subdivisions of the so-called Public Survey. By this
+rule, it is permissible to file upon land which is laid off into lots of
+not less than 1/16 of a quarter section--or ten acres--and a claim may
+be composed of such lots as lie contiguously and which may thus be
+considered as one complete workable area. The claims are often of zigzag
+or L shapes, but the locator is enabled, at the extra expense of
+subdivision surveying, to avoid filing upon, and paying for, much ground
+that he feels is not desirable in a placer claim. The Government does
+not survey public domain into smaller tracts than quarter sections of
+160 acres each, so that in the taking up of placers it often involves a
+great deal of expense to carry the subdivisions upon the ground into
+sufficient detail to ascertain the location of boundary corners.
+
+One person is entitled to as many placer claims as he desires. Each
+claim of a single individual may contain not to exceed 20 acres and, as
+said, it must be of one continuous area. Associations of citizens to the
+number of eight may unite in the location of 160 acres, which will then
+be held in equal and common interest by the several locators. The
+restraint placed upon greed in the matter of locations, either placer or
+lode, lies in certain expenses entailed in work or improvements upon the
+land before patent may be issued and the legal requirement of the
+performance of labor upon each claim amounting to $100 per annum. Also,
+it is required that _bona fide_ values be disclosed upon the ground. For
+each 20 acres located under the placer laws of the United States, not
+less than $500 worth of improvements must be made before the issuance
+of a patent.
+
+The legal (not the technical) definition of lode land covers all grounds
+containing deposits of ore in its natural and original place of deposit.
+Under the laws, therefore, a citizen may file upon a tract of land to
+include a vein, lode, mass, chimney or any other form of ore body. The
+laws were framed at a time when miners were familiar only with the
+steep, tabular forms, synonymously termed veins or lodes in their
+nomenclature, and there were introduced features which time and progress
+in geological investigations have proved to be entirely unsuited to the
+needs of locators in many districts.
+
+Our statutes provide that a lode claim may not exceed an area of 20,662
+acres, this being the area of a parallelogram 1,500 feet long by 600
+feet wide. The intention is to permit a discoverer to lay off a "lode
+line" along the outcrop of his vein for a distance of 1,500 feet and, at
+each end, to measure off, at right angles, a distance of 300 feet each
+way, merely as assurance that he covers the entire thickness of his
+lode. Since the surface contours of rugged country will crook the
+outcrop of a dipping plane (such as we may imagine a vein to be) the
+laws were constructed to permit a claim being laid off with angles or
+bends in the boundaries so that the outcrop might be kept closely along
+the middle of the claim.
+
+The above dimensions and area are the maximum permissible under the
+Federal laws. The Government does not say that claims may not be less in
+extent, anywhere, nor does it prevent states, counties or even mining
+districts from making further limitations. In most of the western mining
+states and territories that have applied the mining law, the full
+maximum is allowed; but in Colorado no claim is legal if it exceeds a
+width of 300 feet, while in four counties of the same state claims have
+been restricted in width to 150 feet. By legislative enactment, since
+September 1, 1911, claims in all counties of Colorado are permitted to
+be taken up 300 feet in width. The citizens or miners of any new
+district, in any state or territory, may elect to limit claims to any
+size less than the maximum granted by the statutes and such a decision
+will be recognized by courts as binding upon all comers. This is an
+example of the rights of custom in establishing common law. In all
+shapes and widths of lode claims, there is now the rigid restriction
+that the two end-lines must be laid off exactly parallel.
+
+[Illustration: A GILPIN COUNTY, COLORADO, SCENE, Showing the Prize,
+Gunnell, Concrete, Gold Collar, and Eureka Mines.]
+
+The laws of our country contemplate the right of any locator of a vein
+to follow such vein down upon its dip, even if it extends beyond
+vertical planes passed through the side boundaries. The vertical planes
+through the end-lines, however, may not lawfully be penetrated in the
+extraction of ore bodies. The application of this doctrine of
+"extra-lateral rights" has led to innumerable controversies that have
+crippled many worthy mining enterprises. The inevitable habit of
+different veins to intersect, branch, unite, and in many other ways to
+cause complications, has served no purpose but to delay operations,
+cause legal warfare and embitter neighbors. So unjust have been courts'
+decisions in interpreting the lax laws that various mining districts
+have taken unto themselves the prerogative of deciding for themselves
+what is justice to all concerned; and we therefore find that many
+"camps" have unwritten laws under which claimants are restrained in
+their underground operations, to the ground contained between vertical
+planes _through all boundaries_, whether end or side. This is obviously
+the only fair plan, and it is hoped that, whenever the legislators at
+Washington get time to give to the matter the attention it deserves, our
+nation will be favored with a revision of this and a number of other
+objectionable mining laws which have retarded the industry. Ours is the
+only country having laws permitting extra-lateral rights and, upon this
+score, we are criticized by all foreigners.
+
+The Canadian government appears to leave the framing of mining laws to
+the several provincial governments. Ontario and Quebec have very good
+and simple laws relative to mining claims. In some respects the laws of
+the two provinces are similar. For example, in each province a claim
+must be laid out as a subdivision of the usual public survey and is
+normally 40 acres in extent. Again, no prospecting or locating may be
+done except by persons holding so-called miners' licenses or miners'
+certificates, which cost $5 to $10 per year. No extra-lateral rights are
+recognized.
+
+In Ontario, a patent may be applied for any time within 3-1/2 years of
+the date of certificate of record, and the land is purchased outright by
+the payment of $3 per acre. The patent thus obtained conveys no rights
+to timber or water on the property. In Quebec, patents are never issued
+and mining claims are held by a sort of lease, as it were. A license to
+hold a mining claim costs a flat fee of $10, plus an extra fee of one
+dollar per acre. At times, arrangements are made for holding and working
+mining property upon a 3 per cent royalty basis.
+
+The Mexican laws permit the location of any number of claims by
+individuals. A locator is required to employ an expert (_perito_) to
+make a careful survey of his claims (_pertinencias_), which are taken up
+in rectangular form. Measurements are according to the metric system,
+and the unit of area is the _hectara_, which is the area of a square
+with 100-meter (328-feet) sides, and is equivalent to 2.471 acres. The
+government's sale price for mineral ground is 5 _pesos_ (about $2.50)
+per hectare, or approximately one dollar, United States money, per acre.
+The unit size of a claim is a hectare, and it thus comes about that the
+words _pertinencia_ and _hectara_ are used somewhat synonymously.
+
+Under United States laws, the owner of agricultural land, if he has not
+committed perjury in perfecting his title, will hold all minerals which
+may be disclosed subsequently to the granting of his deed. The proof of
+false representations will rescind any such patent and the ground will
+revert to the Government and be again open to location.
+
+In the surveying and laying off of mineral claims for patent purposes,
+the United States laws require the claimant to put the work into the
+hands of a mineral surveyor. Such a surveyor may usually be engaged in
+any mining district and he will hold a commission from the Department
+of the Interior authorizing him to do this sort of work. He will have
+passed certain examinations as to his capabilities and he will have
+filed bonds in the sum of $5,000 for the faithful performance of his
+duties to both the Government and his client. He receives no
+compensation from the Government, and each claimant may make such terms
+with him as are equitable. He must hold no interest, directly or
+otherwise, in the property he surveys, nor is he permitted to file upon
+any mineral land. If he undertakes a case for a client his duties
+require him to survey the boundaries of every other mineral claim which
+may be contiguous to, or conflicting with, the one in question, and his
+maps must accurately show all such claims. His notes will contain
+sufficient data to accurately convey the exact location, the chief
+topographical features, the conflicts with all other locations, the
+position, and description of all mining improvements, and many other
+details which will be required in the final purchase of the land from
+the Government. The surveyor's fee will vary from $50 to possibly $200
+for a single claim, much depending upon the nature of the survey,
+whether simple or difficult, and upon local financial conditions and
+competition.
+
+After the filing of the mineral surveyor's notes and plats with the
+Surveyor-General, critical examination of the documents is made, and if
+they are found to conform with all requirements, the case is "approved"
+and it may then pass to the local land office of the district. Next
+begins a publication period of sixty days, during which opportunity is
+offered the public to enter objections to the issuance of a patent,
+either for reasons of conflict or because of fraud. If no such adverse
+proceedings are instituted, the patent will follow, in due time.
+
+The ultimate expense of securing a patent to a claim of, say, the
+maximum area will not be less than $225, and it may run as high as $300
+if in a region difficult to survey or if there are a good many
+conflicting surveys.
+
+A mineral surveyor is prohibited from acting as attorney for the
+claimant in presenting his claims before the Land Office, so an
+attorney's fee must be added to the above rough estimates. As a matter
+of fact, although the surveyor does not nominally appear as the
+attorney, in many a case it is he who makes out all of the documents to
+be then signed by an attorney in fact. The laws are faulty in this
+respect. The lawyer recognizes this fact and he asks the surveyor to
+make out the many legal forms; for who is so fully cognizant of the
+property and the desires of the claimant as the surveyor who has become
+intimately acquainted with the premises, its workings, its desirable
+features and everything concerned with the adjustment of conflicts? It
+is to be expected that he could best protect the claimant's interests,
+and it is wrong to retire him at this very critical time prescribed by a
+foolish law. The fee of an additional man in the case is an unjust
+burden upon the client. Land Office officials have recognized this fact.
+They know that the best documents reaching their offices are those
+prepared by mineral surveyors.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+PLACERING.
+
+
+Different writers hold the following slightly different definitions of a
+placer: One says, "a placer is a surface _accumulation_ of minerals in
+the wash of streams and seas," while another writes that a placer is "a
+_place_ where surface depositions _are washed_ for valuable minerals,
+such as gold, tin, tungsten, gems, etc." One definition conveys no
+notion of the operations of mining, but is merely geological, while the
+other involves the thought of the recovery of values.
+
+No matter how or where found, placers were all originally of surface
+deposition. They are now found in gulches, canyons, valleys, ocean and
+lake beaches, glacial drifts, and sometimes beneath eruptive flows. Such
+placers as occupy the courses of streams are spoken of as gulch, valley,
+bar, and bench placers. The meanings of the first three names are
+obvious. By a bench placer is understood a deposit that was originally
+the bed of a stream, but which, in the course of time, has been cut
+down, or through, in such a manner as to leave a shelf or bench of the
+"wash" hanging up some distance above the present base of the gulch or
+valley.
+
+When such deposits that have been covered by lava flows are disclosed
+and worked, they go by the name of "buried placers." They are, by no
+means, uncommon, and typical "drift mines" of this sort are operated in
+California and New Zealand. They present the novelty of working alluvial
+deposits under cover of solid rocks, and they thus conform to one of the
+early definitions of a mine, as previously given. Since the workings of
+such subterranean placers are generally confined to an approximately
+horizontal zone, the mine passages, to a certain degree, resemble those
+of a coal mine.
+
+Placer deposits, being of a secondary nature, the materials are not in
+the place nor form of the original components. The gravels and sands,
+together with the valuable contents, probably originally existed in
+some solid forms such as rocks or massive minerals. The primary
+structures, in the course of ages and by atmospheric agencies, have been
+disintegrated and carried by gravity and flowing water to lower levels.
+The finer the decomposed material, the further it has been transported.
+
+If the original rocks carried gold, the flakes of the metal, being of
+high specific gravity, would tend to settle to the bottom of the
+channels and to be carried shorter distances than would the lighter,
+non-metallic particles. The finer the gold, the more evenly will it be
+distributed in the bed of gravel. Likewise, placers near the heads of
+gulches, as a rule, carry coarser gold than those farther down stream.
+
+The valuable materials found in placers must, of necessity, be those
+that possess the property of resisting corrosion and disintegration. The
+minerals and metals are, therefore, of a very permanent character.
+
+Every find of "values" in a placer is unquestioned evidence that
+somewhere, above the present deposit, there originally existed primary
+depositions containing the valuable metals or minerals. The trail can
+frequently be traced back to them. These so-called "mother lodes" are
+not necessarily rich. In the case of gold, for instance, these original
+deposits of ore may not carry the metal in coarse enough particles to be
+visible and yet the placers may contain nuggets. There are numerous
+theories proposed to account for this observed phenomenon, but we will
+not discuss them here. The fact remains that nuggets have been actually
+produced artificially in flowing water under conditions similar to
+Nature's.
+
+The methods of prospecting and working placer ground have undergone many
+improvements, but there are still many men practicing the primitive ways
+of a generation ago. The use of devices of simple construction and for
+operation by muscular effort is still familiar in many regions; and
+there are good miners who cling to such practice in the belief that it
+is the cheapest and truest way in which to ascertain the values of wash
+deposits. Also, there are many placers of limited areas and irregular
+shapes that cannot be well handled in any other manner.
+
+With a "pan," a man can wash, in ten hours, not over one cubic yard of
+dirt; and to accomplish this amount of washing the ground must be very
+loose and favorable. An ordinary ten-hour day's work is about 100 pans.
+This is equivalent to about one-half of a cubic yard, which is the unit
+of volume in all placering operations. One may thus readily arrive at
+the cost of carrying on operations in this way. A cubic yard of ordinary
+placer dirt is the equivalent of less than two tons. A _batea_ is the
+Mexican equivalent for the American iron gold pan. It is a sort of
+broad, conical, wooden bowl and its capacity is not equal to the pan.
+
+A "rocker" or "cradle" is a trough on rockers somewhat like the
+old-fashioned child's cradle. In using it, a stream of water is caused
+to flow into the device which has been nearly filled with gravel and the
+miner gives it a rocking motion that causes the contents to classify or
+stratify according to the laws of specific gravity. The valuable
+particles, being the heaviest, will settle to the bottom, whence they
+may be subsequently removed. A "long tom" is an inclined, narrow box set
+stationary with a constant stream of water entering at the upper end.
+Gravel is also shoveled into the device at the same point. The process
+is more continuous than the preceding ones, the values accumulating at
+the bottom of the lower end, while the upper layers of gravel are
+carefully removed by skimming with shovels. The work will keep two men
+busy and the capacity is correspondingly greater. With a long tom, two
+men will ordinarily handle about five or six cubic yards in ten hours.
+
+Whenever deposits of a broad area, with considerable and uniform depth,
+are thought to be valuable, it has become a practice to prove their
+value by "prospect drilling." This is a mechanical method and one form
+of apparatus employed is of the churn-drill type common throughout oil
+and coal regions. With these portable machines, holes are put down to
+bed-rock at intervals across the ground. As they are sunk, the holes are
+cased with iron pipes, the drillings are carefully saved and washed, and
+the values are estimated for each foot of descent. From the summation
+and averages obtained from all the holes, a very fair knowledge of the
+ground's worth can be obtained.
+
+Intensive placering is now the order of things and the marvelous
+increase in the use of dredges attests the success which these "gold
+ships" have attained. It is very interesting to watch the operations of
+these huge boats loaded with ponderous machines, especially when they
+are installed in inland regions or up in high mountain gulches. Yet
+numbers of them are thus in steady use. Wherever suitable beds with a
+tolerably uniform size of boulders and gravel are found, dams are built
+to retain the flows of streams until ponds are created of sufficient
+size to contain and float the barges.
+
+[Illustration: DREDGES OF YUBA CONSOLIDATED GOLDFIELDS, HAMMONTON,
+CALIFORNIA.]
+
+Continual improvements are being made in the construction of these
+mammoth machines with a view to economy in operations that will
+result from greater capacities. All costs of placering are reckoned per
+cubic yard washed. Costs have been rapidly dropping during the past
+decade until now some companies, with extensive operations, are handling
+dirt at not to exceed three cents per cubic yard for excavating,
+washing, wasting the refuse, maintenance, repairs, labor, taxes,
+interest on investment, and the depreciation of equipment. Such figures
+will hold good only under very favorable natural conditions of ground
+and climate such as prevail in California; they have not been attained
+in the frigid regions of Alaska nor in the torrid South American
+interior. In view of the wonderful improvements brought forth by
+mechanical engineers, it is improper to deny that the future will bring
+still further reductions in placer costs. On the contrary, the signs are
+good for material reductions.
+
+Dredges are very costly in their installation. They are usually designed
+to handle so many thousands of cubic yards per day. It has been stated,
+as a fair but rough rule, that "bucket" dredges will average, in
+initial cost, one dollar for every cubic yard the boats will handle per
+month. Thus, if a dredge of this type is built to treat fifty or seventy
+thousand cubic yards in a month, working steadily, the costs will be
+respectively $50,000 or $70,000. Other types of dredges, known as the
+"dipper" and the "suction," will cost less than the bucket type, but
+have not gained general usage.
+
+"Hydraulicking" is extensively practiced. This term signifies the
+working of placer deposits by water which is conducted through flumes
+and pipe-lines and, by means of nozzles called "giants" or "monitors,"
+is directed, in huge jets, against the banks of gravel. These banks or
+walls are thus torn down and, by the same water, the loosened,
+disintegrated materials are caused to flow into and through long,
+wooden, box-like troughs known as "sluices." The floors of these sluices
+are paved with ribs, cleats or other obstructions termed "riffles" whose
+function it is to retard and collect the heavy particles which may,
+later, during the process of cleaning up, be removed as the valuable
+product. The word "sluicing" is frequently used quite synonymously with
+hydraulicking.
+
+Costs of this latter sort of placering are considerably higher than
+those of dredging; but there are many deposits not adapted to dredging
+operations that may be nicely worked by sluicing, so that there will
+always be a field for this scheme. Average costs are difficult to obtain
+since it happens that most of the companies now operating hydraulically
+are secretive in their accounts. More labor is entailed, more time is
+required, greater delay is occasioned in cleaning up, and the amount of
+water used is much greater. Where water is abundant, this last item need
+not be considered. It is well to remember that even a very large dredge,
+while requiring a continual and large flow of water through its devices,
+can still operate with just the water in which it floats, this water
+being pumped and used repeatedly; whereas, in the case of hydraulic
+mining, the water may be used but once and, consequently, there must be
+a large supply and at a good head or pressure.
+
+But, in spite of these disparaging points, we find instances in which,
+under peculiarly favorable conditions, hydraulicking has been carried on
+at very low figures. E. B. Wilson says: "The yield of the gravel at
+North Bloomfield was 7.75 cents per cubic yard; the cost of mining, 4.1
+cents per cubic yard. The yield per cubic yard of gravel at La Grange
+was 10.19 cents, the cost of mining, 6 cents. The costs of mining at
+these two mines would analyze about as follows: Labor, 60 per cent;
+supplies, 17 per cent; water, 13 per cent; office, 10 per cent. Ground
+carrying but 3.99 cents per cubic yard has been worked at a profit at
+the first mine. With such a small margin to work on, it is evident that
+skill and executive ability must be provided from the pipemen up." It is
+claimed that an Idaho mine was worked profitably with less than two
+cents value in the dirt, but this is to be regarded with some doubt.
+
+[Illustration: THE SNOWSTORM PLACER, FAIRPLAY, COLORADO. A Typical
+Hydraulic Mine.]
+
+There are large deposits in the arid portions of the globe where water
+for working is not obtainable. To meet such conditions, numerous
+inventions continue to be placed upon the market. These devices are all
+planned in such a way as to use very little or no water. If water is
+required at all, the machines are expected to use it repeatedly. The
+machines are built to effect the segregation of the precious contents
+gravitationally, electrostatically, pneumatically, and by amalgamation
+with mercury. It is too early to say how successful such devices will
+prove in commercial operations. Because some of them have not "made
+good" does not mean that genius will not yet cope with the situation;
+and we look into the future to see large operations efficiently and
+economically conducted by dry placer machinery. There are now no
+authentic figures obtainable upon this question of dry placering costs.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+OPEN MINING.
+
+
+Some mention has been already made of open mining. The greatest
+development of this sort of mining has come about since the application
+of the modern steam shovel to the excavation of ore. This practice was
+an American innovation and it is being adopted throughout the world
+wherever natural conditions will warrant.
+
+Within the past few years, immense bodies of iron ore have been
+discovered in northern Minnesota and the adoption of these immense,
+mechanically operated shovels has worked such economies in the mining of
+this kind of ore that entirely new cost figures have been established
+and tonnages are being produced which, a few years ago, would have
+seemed unbelievable. There are about a dozen mines of this "open pit"
+type that have each produced over a million tons of ore per year in a
+season that must cease with the close of navigation on the Great Lakes.
+One mine has shipped over three million tons a season.
+
+At the Utah Copper Company's mine in Bingham Canyon, Utah, a great
+deposit of low grade, copper-bearing eruptive rock is being handled upon
+a steep mountain-side by this same scheme. This ore averages a little
+less than two per cent. in copper, but so economical is the handling of
+it in such vast amounts that a neat profit is made above all mining,
+transportation and milling charges. When the red metal sells at thirteen
+cents per pound, the gross value of this ore is about $5.20 per ton.
+This mine has maintained an output of ten thousand tons or more per day
+over long periods.
+
+A famous gold mine in Queensland, Australia--the Mount Morgan--is also
+being worked by steam shovel methods. The deposit is here in the form of
+a small mountain and the operations are gradually razing this landmark
+to the level of the surrounding plains.
+
+The mining of low-grade _gold_ ores by open-pit methods has taken hold
+in America, and an example of the practice may be found at the Wasp No.
+2 mine in the Black Hills. According to published accounts of the
+operations of this company, all of the costs of mining and treating the
+ore amount to only $1.02 per ton. The ore body is a bed of quartzite
+lying nearly flat, and averaging in the neighborhood of only $2.50 per
+ton in gold, the only mineral of value. The recovery of this metal is at
+the rate of between 75 and 80 per cent. efficiency, or about $2 from
+each ton. The net profit is therefore close to one dollar per ton. This
+very modern scheme of mining has been made possible through the recent
+advances made in the cyanidation of ore, and it is going to pave the way
+for many more such mining plants.
+
+[Illustration: STEAM SHOVELS AND CHURN DRILLS, COPPER FLAT, ELY,
+NEVADA.]
+
+The Nevada Consolidated Copper Company has conducted vast mining
+operations "in the open" at Ely, Nevada, by the use of 95-ton shovels
+having a capacity of two and one-half cubic yards per dip. One shovel
+has handled as high as 2,800 cubic yards (the equivalent of about 5,500
+tons) in nine hours; but this must be recognized as an exceptional
+run, and cannot be taken as an average. The ore has a thickness of about
+200 feet and covers many acres. As in the majority of such properties,
+there is here a large amount of "overburden" to be removed and disposed
+of before the ore can be excavated. This process of uncovering the ore
+body by the removal of the overburden is called "stripping." The cost
+per ton of ore mined is said to average 55 cents.
+
+In an open mine there must be maintained a system of continually
+changing tracks placed upon grades (sometimes rather steep) and with
+sharp curves. With multiple switches, numbers of small locomotives are
+kept busy pulling and pushing up and down the tracks with their strings
+of loaded cars and replacing the "loads" with "empties." When such
+operations are upon a mountain-side, a very beautiful panoramic view may
+be had from the opposite side of the gulch.
+
+Generally, the ore material is disintegrated to some extent. In some
+cases, it will actually crumble down before the advance of a steam
+shovel. In other mines, it is necessary to drill large holes which are
+loaded and blasted.
+
+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.
+
+In consequence of the success attained by the pioneers in this kind of
+mining, there has been created a demand for properties possessing large
+deposits of low grade ore that is workable on this intensive scale.
+Copper properties have been holding a prominent place recently and
+stockbrokers carry regular lists of "Porphyries," this nickname having
+been coined to cover the companies operating in the low grade porphyry
+ores of the Western United States. Not all of these porphyry companies
+will use surface mining methods. Some companies in the Globe District of
+Arizona have started extensive underground schemes for mining large
+tonnages very cheaply by "caving" methods.
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+CONSIDERATIONS PRECEDING THE OPENING OF MINES.
+
+
+The word "exploitation" is used by many mining men and engineers to
+signify a plan of so opening up ore deposits as to render the contents
+removable. The same persons use the word "mining" to mean the operations
+involved in the actual extraction of the ore exploited. It is sometimes
+difficult to draw any line between the meanings of these two words for,
+as handled by different men, with varying shades of intention, they are
+sometimes synonymous. Thus, if exploiting an underground mine, which
+carries ore right from the surface, means developing the mine in such a
+way as to provide for a large, steady production, it is difficult to see
+why the ore taken out in this process cannot be said to be "mined."
+
+By "dead work" is usually meant that work of opening up a mine which
+will put or keep it in a producing condition but which does not supply
+any remuneration in the shape of ore (or coal). Again, as used by some
+men, there is little distinction between this work and exploitation.
+There may, however, be lines reasonably drawn between these three terms,
+and therefore the following definitions are proposed:
+
+_Dead work_ is such work as is necessary to develop an ore body, but it
+does not produce any ore. It may be prosecuted for drainage or
+ventilation purposes or for creating passage-ways for men and products.
+
+_Exploitation_ is also work performed in opening up or developing a
+property, but it does not contemplate the value of the extracted
+materials which may, or may not, be of any commercial importance.
+Indeed, much ore might be extracted during work which was carried on
+merely to define extents or boundaries of ore bodies. In this last
+supposition, the original sense of exploration is brought out and this
+should serve to fix the definition clearly in mind.
+
+_Mining_ may be restricted to mean the methods and work involved in the
+profitable production of the mine's ore (or coal). The term would not be
+used to cover operations of shaft-sinking, tunneling, and the like,
+unless such work be in the valuable materials. 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. Exploitation may,
+or may not, produce ore. Mining must produce ore.
+
+Throughout all of the above and the following discussion of this
+chapter, the reader should bear in mind the point that the word "coal"
+may be substituted for the word "ore" without altering the substance of
+the definitions or the conclusions.
+
+Before a mine is opened up, the economist-manager will consider many
+items. In the first place, care must be exercised in the _examination of
+the title_ to the property. A mineral property may have passed through
+the most complicated kind of transfers of fractional interests in the
+title, just as is true with ordinary real estate. The abstract must be
+traced back clear to the issuance of patent from the Government, and
+then on back to the original location. With an undeveloped property (a
+prospect), this precaution is essential to estop any possible
+pretensions to ownership, by outside parties, in case the ground
+subsequently turns out to be exceptionally valuable. It has often been
+the case that no obstructions from any adverse claimants have been met
+until owners have, in good faith and at great expense, developed
+splendid mines. Then suits for possession or partial ownership have been
+instituted, sometimes with marked success for the plaintiffs. There are
+persons who make it a special line of business to examine titles to
+mining property, and it is economy for the average manager to employ
+such experienced men to attend to these matters.
+
+_Topographical considerations_ will hold a place in the study preceding
+the opening of a new mine. The nature of the surface of the property and
+the surrounding country will largely influence in the selection of the
+proper site for the mine's mouth. Neglect upon this point has been a
+common cause of failure in mining operations.
+
+A mine opening must be away from all dangers of snow-slides,
+rock-slides, cloud-bursts and deluges from overflowing streams or
+breaking dams. It may make a difference in the mine's ventilation as to
+which direction the prevailing winds blow and therefore upon which side
+of a hill the mouth be opened.
+
+_Transportation_ facilities must be given due thought. If means are not
+already at hand, one must inquire into the feasibility of constructing
+some form of carrier; and here, again, will enter the question of the
+surface's contour. If a railroad is out of question, possibly an aerial
+tramway may be constructed. These modern conveyances stop at no
+obstacles of surface configuration and are dependent only upon the
+necessity of having the point of delivery lower in altitude than the
+point of loading at the mine. With some of the modern improvements in
+these installations, mine products are being transported up-hill as well
+as down-hill through the application of power. In mining regions, it is
+generally the case that the mines, themselves, are above the settlements
+in which are the railroads or treatment plants, so that the mine
+products will transport readily by the natural force of gravity.
+
+_Climate_ holds an important place in the economics of mining. The
+working of very rich pieces of ground may prove a losing proposition in
+some portions of the world where the climatic conditions are such as to
+render operations possible during only a very small portion of the year.
+Extremes of heat or cold, malaria or other pestilential obstacles, long
+rainy seasons with floods, and the hostility of native humans, beasts
+or insects have accounted for the abandonment of seemingly attractive
+mining projects.
+
+The question of _labor_ must be given due thought. It is true that the
+best miners on earth are Americans. We do not deny that many of our
+miners are of foreign birth, but the fact remains that they perform
+better and more intelligent service than do their fellow countrymen who
+have not been adopted into our country. Our men are in demand in the
+mining development of foreign countries. An American mine manager will
+always experience dissatisfaction while endeavoring to get, from natives
+in foreign parts, the same efficiency that he is accustomed to receive
+from the miners "at home." He may be paying a good deal less per capita
+for such labor, but he finds he is actually paying more per ton of
+output.
+
+Even within a single country, there are notable differences in the worth
+of labor. The natives of some of the Mexican states are far preferable
+to those of other states. Within the United States, there may be
+discerned material differences between the efficiencies of the citizens
+of various sections, when it comes to mining. One cannot procure as
+competent miners in some of the agricultural states as in the typical
+mining states. This is but to be expected. For instance, there are
+deposits of lead ore in the "moonshine" regions of Kentucky which have
+never been successfully worked, and the real cause of failure, in the
+writer's belief, lies in the inability of superintendents to obtain real
+miners either in that region or from the outside. The residents will
+never become miners; outsiders will not enter for work under existing
+sociological conditions.
+
+The question of _unionism_ is sometimes held by managers as a deciding
+one when debating the opening of a mine. While there are those who will
+broadly denounce such organizations, there may be found other and just
+as successful mine operators who declare that the effects of union
+control over their miners are beneficial to their companies' interests.
+Probably the greatest objection to unionism raised by operators is that
+they resent the dictation that accompanies the inauguration of union
+rules in their mines. The owners and managers prefer to run their own
+business to suit themselves. Some managers are so imbued with this
+conviction of their own rights that they will refuse to open up mines
+or, if they are operating, they will close down their mines before they
+will submit to the demands made upon them by the union officials.
+
+On the other hand, there are mine managers who prefer the presence of
+some central, labor-controlling body; for they believe that the men who
+belong to such a large federation or organization will, and do, have
+less complaint to make and therefore work more freely than is the case
+with the independent laborers. The argument is that these union men are
+satisfied because they feel that their interests are being looked after
+with a sort of attention that they, individually, could not give.
+
+This is not a place to discuss the crimes that have been laid at the
+doors of both the labor organizations and the mine owners' associations.
+It is safe to assume that wrong has probably been done by both sides.
+But it is furthermore right to believe that most of the crimes were not
+authorized, nor recognized, by the officers or the majority of members
+of either side. Individual members must not be taken as averages of the
+membership in any kind of civil, social or political organization.
+
+It seems entirely wrong that _politics_ should enter into the
+considerations of a mine manager whose operations are apparently so
+apart from affairs of state; but the fact remains that there are places
+where mining operations cannot be carried on without the good will of
+certain officials of the state or national governments. It is not
+advisable to enter into any compromising terms to gain privileges for
+carrying on any legitimate business for there are other, better ways,
+generally, of attaining the justice that is deserved.
+
+One must not omit to investigate the _sources of supply_ for all the
+needs of a mine and its camp. There are many kinds of materials needed
+to keep a mine going. Fuel, machinery, timber, water, food for men and
+beasts, lumber, and all household furnishings and necessities must come
+from some markets or natural sources. It behooves the cautious manager
+to see that all these things may be had in ample amount and at figures
+which will not prove annihilating to his business.
+
+In Utah, there are mines which have all their timbers framed in and
+shipped from the forests of Oregon, the sawing and framing being done
+before shipment to save on freight. The fir of Oregon is shipped to
+distant Australia for mining purposes. The arid camps of Nevada get
+their supplies of timber from the sister state, California. The Michigan
+mines are fortunate in being in a lumber region. Colorado's metal mines
+are more favored in the matter of timbers than are the coal mines of the
+same state. Most of the coal mines are upon the barren plains, while the
+metal mines are chiefly in the wooded mountains.
+
+[Illustration: MILL OF THE PITTSBURG-SILVER PEAK GOLD MINING CO., BLAIR,
+NEVADA.]
+
+Water may be too scarce for the needs of a mine or its community. There
+may not be sufficient to supply boilers or a mill, or for the domestic
+purposes of the workers. On the other hand, water may be so abundant
+in the mine workings as to prove a deterrent factor in profitable
+operation. With shaft mines, having deep workings and low grades of ore,
+if water must be delivered mechanically, the costs for such drainage are
+frequently prohibitive of mining. Some mines, in arid regions, have been
+fortunate in striking such flows of underground water that it has been
+possible to operate mills right at the mines. In this way, the cost of
+water hoisting has been more than compensated in the milling benefits
+which, in turn, have decreased freights and treatment charges.
+
+_Machinery_ is usually purchased at centres of mining supplies and
+manufactures. San Francisco, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, Denver and
+Chicago are the principal _rendezvous_ in the West for mining men in
+need of machinery. Mexico City is, similarly, the outfitting point for
+the mines of southern Mexico. The United States holds the supremacy of
+the world in the matter of equipping mines and mills, large orders of
+American-made mining machinery being shipped to even the antipodes.
+
+The nearer a property is to a depot of supplies, the less is bound to be
+the cost of getting goods onto the ground. It is this last item--the
+delivery of goods--that must be recognized as a very pertinent, and
+sometimes a critical, factor upon the cost side of mining accounts.
+Mines that are remote or in rugged countries are frequently dependent
+upon animal transportation. In some cases, machinery going to the mines
+must be so built that it may be taken apart into small portions suitable
+for loading upon the backs of horses or burros, or even, in the Andes,
+upon the frail llamas.
+
+Operations, if planned to be conducted for a long term of years and
+therefore warranting the installation of large and expensive plants,
+should be based upon the holding of extensive ore-bearing ground. Here
+enters the notion of the _shape and size of a mining property_.
+
+With some kinds of mining ground, the best form for the holdings would
+probably be a compact, approximately equilateral tract, covering a
+reasonably large acreage. This would be the case with ores that occur in
+sedimentary beds, for instance, where it is advisable to have the mining
+plant centrally located so as to work expeditiously the entire area.
+This would apply to a region like the Cripple Creek District, which
+contains innumerable veins running in all directions but displaying no
+outcrops.
+
+In other instances, the most desirable shape might be long, narrow
+strips so laid off as to contain the strikes of persistent lodes or
+veins, as those of the wonderful Comstock Lode region. It is not acreage
+that counts here so much as lineal extent.
+
+In the Transvaal, land is held in rectangular blocks. The first owners
+of the ground took it up for agricultural purposes. This same statement
+is also true of the mining properties in the Joplin District of Missouri
+and Kansas.
+
+In the case of the South African properties, every company has definite
+boundaries to which operations may be planned. Hence it is possible for
+the management to so plant any mine as to operate it at a given rate
+for a predetermined life of the enterprise. The work is planned to
+maintain a certain output that will exhaust the ore bodies in just so
+many years, and all the equipment may thus be purchased with the
+forecast that it will serve its purpose and perform its economic share
+within the prescribed time.
+
+This notion will be more readily understood when we consider the various
+types of ore bodies. With properties wherein there is no possible way of
+predicting the number, size, and worth of discoverable ore bodies, the
+life is wholly problematical and it is therefore difficult for a manager
+to decide how much he should expend in the initial equipment.
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+MINE OPENINGS.
+
+
+In every new mining project, there is much to be considered concerning
+the expediency of opening up through shafts, inclines or adits. More
+attention has lately been given to this subject than formerly. There are
+very good reasons for the selection of any one of these kinds of mine
+openings.
+
+The words shaft, incline, and tunnel have been handled with careless
+meanings by mining men. It is time that some definitions be accepted so
+that everybody will use these terms with the same meanings.
+
+A shaft has loosely been any steep opening sunk through the ground. An
+incline--sometimes spoken of also as an incline shaft--has been taken to
+mean an opening resembling a shaft, but not very steep and not
+approaching verticality. Right here, there has been too much latitude
+of speech and it has entailed the necessity of many awkward
+explanations.
+
+By a tunnel has been intended any (approximately) horizontal passageway
+driven from the natural surface. Objection to this use of the word rests
+in the strict definition of a tunnel, which states that it must have
+both ends open to the natural surface of the earth, as for example, an
+irrigation or a railroad tunnel. A level passageway which has but one
+end open to daylight is not properly spoken of as a tunnel. In mining
+practice, practically every horizontal opening of this nature is open at
+only one end, and it is an adit rather than a tunnel. If the precaution
+of speaking of it as a "mining tunnel" is observed, very well, for this
+may be taken to be an expression synonymous with adit. The latter term
+is, however, shorter and more correct.
+
+For the sake of a uniform usage, the following definitions are proposed.
+Their use will conform with the usages of those well-informed persons
+who adhere to correct speech.
+
+A _shaft_ is a truly vertical mine passage which may, or may not, be
+sunk in or along an ore or a coal body.
+
+An _incline_ is any mine passage which occupies a sloping position and
+which may, or may not, maintain a uniform inclination throughout its
+length. It may be sunk along, or in, a pitching vein or seam and it may
+thus conform to the irregularities of the dip of such body. It is
+neither horizontal nor vertical. Such an inclined passage following a
+seam of coal is known as a _slope_.
+
+It sometimes happens, especially in coal mining, that a sloping
+passageway is driven through barren rock either to get at known bodies
+by the shortest means or to establish uniform grades for tracks. In a
+strict sense, these are not inclines or slopes, for they do not even
+approximately follow, nor parallel, bodies of value. The miner's term
+for such an opening is _rock slope_.
+
+An _adit_ or _mining tunnel_ is a horizontal opening driven from the
+surface. If it be driven along an ore body, as a vein, it is properly
+called a _vein adit_; if it is driven _across_ barren country to
+intercept presumed or known bodies, it is spoken of as a _crosscut
+adit_. All adits must be given a small amount of grade for drainage
+necessities.
+
+Before getting underground we should consider what is required in the
+way of opening our mine; what is positively known about our body of coal
+or ore; and what conditions are liable to confront us later on. We must
+consider the type of ore body; character of material to be extracted;
+average thickness and hardness of the body; desired tonnage; power
+facilities; probable surface and underground drainage to be maintained;
+and dozens of other things which only the experienced man will think of
+and appreciate. The right kind of a manager will know that he cannot
+afford to overlook such points.
+
+Every case involves different contingencies, and therefore extreme
+forethought must be given to the subject before deciding upon any
+particular kind of an opening into the ground for mining purposes. This
+remark does not apply to such openings as prospect drill-holes,
+openings which are not for mining purposes, but for exploitation.
+Assuming that sufficient data are known concerning the property to
+warrant the expenditures incident to the making of a mine, the question
+remains as to the best way of proceeding.
+
+It is a well-established fact that it is much cheaper to drive an adit
+than to sink a shaft of equal transporting capacity. It is also cheaper
+to drive an adit than to sink an incline. If the topography is such that
+an adit can be driven into or beneath an ore body and thus expose it
+from a low elevation, the temptation is strong and along lines of good
+practice to do so. If the country is quite flat or nearly so, or, if the
+surface is such that, while rough, an adit of reasonable length cannot
+be driven to tap the valuable mineral and handle it economically, then
+it is good practice to decide upon a shaft mine.
+
+An adit will not only be cheaper, foot for foot, than a shaft or
+incline, but, if given the proper, slight grade, it will afford a
+natural drainage outlet for all subsequent workings above its level.
+The cost of pumping, as already suggested, may be a considerable item
+and it may be a deciding factor in favor of an adit when this form of
+opening is possible.
+
+Furthermore, an adit will obviate the installation and use of hoisting
+machinery, and thus there may be maintained a greater efficiency in the
+operating expense of the mine than would be possible with a shaft.
+
+Again, it is a simpler and cheaper matter to maintain a mining tunnel in
+working shape than it is a shaft, particularly in bad ground. By the
+settling or "working" of the ground, a shaft may be thrown perhaps but
+slightly out of alignment and annoying interferences will be experienced
+in hoisting, especially when rapid and uninterrupted hoisting is
+necessary to maintain the desired output. While the same amount of
+disturbance does take place in an adit, it is an easy matter to readjust
+track grades while continuing regular haulage operations.
+
+The timbers, in the case of either a shaft or an adit, will require
+occasional renewal, but the expense of such repairs is less in adits
+than in shafts or inclines, while the delay to other operations of
+mining, in the case of the adit, will be inappreciable.
+
+Topography has been referred to above, but it must be again briefly
+mentioned. There are some places in which ore bodies extend to, or exist
+at, such depths that adits could not be projected to get beneath enough
+of the ore to warrant their construction. An adit mine is not a
+practicable thing in a flat country like Nevada or the Rand, but in the
+rough country of the San Juan it is the customary kind of a mine. In the
+very early days of Comstock Lode mining, shafts were sunk by each of the
+hundreds of companies. Before a great while, the advantages that would
+accrue from having a deep "tunnel" became evident, and the famous Sutro
+Tunnel, with its historic, checkered career, was driven. Although it
+loomed up like a gigantic undertaking for that period, the immense
+prospective or future value of it could not be denied.
+
+The following relative advantages of the several types of mine mouths
+are in addition to those already given and are worth consideration:
+
+With an incline, the value of a tabular deposit is determined as work
+progresses; the course and dip of the body will be known at all depths
+along the incline; the body may be explored from the incline in both
+directions, simultaneously, with a resulting doubling of the development
+and production; all, or nearly all, the material removed is "vein stuff"
+and its value may repay the sinking expenses; there is no losing of the
+ore body unless a geological fault is met.
+
+With a shaft, more rapid hoisting is possible than with an incline; the
+timbering labor is less than in the case of an incline, but greater than
+in the case of an adit; with ground containing ore bodies in irregular
+masses and at no uniform intervals, vertically or horizontally, stations
+and levels may be started wherever desirable; the crosscuts which are
+usually necessary to reach the bodies may disclose otherwise unknown
+bodies.
+
+[Illustration: MILLS AND SHAFT HOUSE OF DALY WEST MINE, PARK CITY,
+UTAH.]
+
+With a vein adit, the vein is prospected as work advances; the ore
+removed may pay its own way, as it were; the drainage is automatic; ore
+is transportable from the mine by haulage rather than by hoisting; the
+ore in place is above the level and will handle itself to the outgoing
+passage by gravity.
+
+With a crosscut adit, in addition to the last three advantages noted for
+the vein adit, there is bound to be exploration of the ground upon at
+least one side of the known body; there will generally be easier haulage
+because of the straighter track, since an adit driven along a vein will
+conform to the geological irregularities and the track is bound to be
+more or less crooked.
+
+Without counting upon the doubtful success of the numerous propositions
+in tunneling machines, but judging only from past experiences, we may
+say that a shaft will cost about three times as much as a "tunnel" of
+equal transporting capacity. If the ground is wet, the discrepancy in
+first costs becomes much larger. In a remote region, with difficult
+transportation of machinery and fuel, it may be better to drive and use
+a long adit rather than a shallow shaft. An adit will transport more
+product than will a shaft of equal dimensions.
+
+An adit may be driven to intercept a shaft and to serve as a sort of
+artificial surface, as it were, and thus save expenses in pumping and in
+hoisting up to the original collar of the shaft at the surface of the
+ground.
+
+No matter how crooked an incline may be, it is possible to hoist ore in
+conveyances known as skips, although the hoisting may be necessarily
+somewhat slow. These same conveyances are useful for lowering and
+hoisting men, and the parody, "Men go down to the mine in skips," here
+finds its significance. The usual hoisting conveyances used in shafts
+are known as cages. They usually produce less friction than do incline
+skips. A skip in an incline must travel upon a track, while a cage,
+somewhat resembling a passenger elevator, has no wheels, but slides upon
+guides. However, an incline skip, because of the inclination of the
+passage, does not exert the same dead weight upon the cable and
+hoisting engine and hence these parts of the equipment may be made
+correspondingly lighter. Skips for shafts are similar to cages in their
+lack of wheels.
+
+Complete estimates of probable future requirements should be made before
+a shaft is sunk. When it becomes necessary to enlarge a
+single-compartment shaft to one with two compartments, the expense has
+been found to exceed one-half the original cost of sinking; while, to
+convert a one-compartment shaft into a three-compartment shaft costs
+fully three-fourths of the original sinking expense. Approximately the
+same ratios of cost will hold in the case of enlarging inclines.
+
+Character of ore sometimes influences the selection of the kind of
+passageway. Some high grade, brittle ores must not be dumped nor handled
+repeatedly, since values are lost in the "fines." Iron and copper ores
+will not probably be injured by any amount of dumping. Coal should be
+handled as few times as possible. In view of this fact, other things
+being equal, adopt that system that will injure the ore or coal the
+least.
+
+As a rule, workmen are safer in tunnels than in shafts, since there is
+little danger from objects falling any great distance. Tiny bits of rock
+have been known to kill men in shafts. On the other hand, there is less
+liability of injury from falls of large rocks in shafts than in adits.
+Roof falls are a very prolific source of mine accidents.
+
+The workmen of neighboring mines will often be able to give much
+valuable information as to the proper procedure in opening a new
+property. For instance, water levels, amounts and kinds of gases that
+may be expected, the nature of the wall rocks, and other pertinent
+points may be learned by interviewing the men who are employed in
+adjacent mines. Still better information may be obtained by personal
+visits to the underground workings of the nearby mines. In this
+connection, one must not permit himself to be unduly influenced by the
+prejudices or hobbies of the neighboring operators or their employes if
+there is reason to suppose that such notions are contrary to good
+practice.
+
+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; but
+have a certain feature of elasticity about the plans that may take care
+of future increase in business if found desirable. Do not "over-plant."
+Never plant, at all, _prematurely_. It is better to postpone the
+installation of the equipment until some specific facts are available.
+Many companies have met defeat in the exhaustion of capital through the
+purchase and installation of elaborate plants which were never
+warranted.
+
+After a mine is once opened and preparations have all been perfected to
+operate 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.
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+TYPES OF ORE BODIES.
+
+
+It has been necessary, a number of times in this discussion, heretofore,
+to make mention of kinds of ore bodies. It is well, at this time, to get
+some fixed ideas concerning the leading types of bodies of minerals
+which are extracted as ores.
+
+Because of the laxity in type differentiation which has prevailed among
+miners and writers, the same geologists who have framed definitions of
+ore, have also defined the various types of ore bodies. The definitions,
+having been accepted by the leading mining geologists and engineers of
+the present day, it is well for us to fall into line and to agree with
+the authorities in such matters.
+
+A _vein_ is a _single, ore-bearing fissure_, generally, though not
+necessarily, with at least one well-defined wall.
+
+When we run across a tabular-shaped deposit of ore that looks as though
+it may have been put into a pre-existing fissure or chasm, the chances
+are that it is a vein. But a vein must not be confounded with a dike. A
+dike is a filling that has been injected, while molten or fluid, into an
+open passageway or rupture across rocks, or into an opening which it
+created for itself. A little examination of the material should tell, to
+even the novice, whether or not the substance is of plutonic origin. The
+filling of a vein is not eruptive, at all. Veins have been filled from
+circulating aqueous solutions, by slow depositions, that have occupied
+very long periods.
+
+A vein may be any thickness, since a fissure may have been opened to any
+width. Hence, a vein may be as thin as a sheet of paper, or it may be a
+hundred feet across. However, it is true that some wide veins have
+resulted by a sort of enlargement from original thin seams. Very few of
+the notable wide veins of the world are believed to have been created by
+the filling up of chasms originally as wide as the present ore bodies.
+But, in all cases of real veins, there were original fissures,
+fractures or crevices which acted as channels for circulating solutions
+that contained the materials which were left to make the vein matter.
+
+A _lode_ is an _assemblage of veins_ so closely spaced that the ground
+between the veins becomes, in places, ore-bearing, and the entire width
+of the aggregation becomes an ore body.
+
+A zone of sheeted rocks like schist or slate, if sufficiently
+mineralized to warrant mining, would be a lode. Sometimes, in certain
+districts, the earth's crust has been subjected to many approximately
+parallel, closely-spaced fractures, and by the subsequent filling of
+these cracks, with the accompanying corrosion of the walls and their
+replacement by ore, extraction of the entire mass of rocks across a
+considerable distance will be found to yield a profit. Any such body is
+a lode.
+
+In the Cripple Creek District, the ground is criss-crossed in every
+direction by tiny fissures which have resulted from the contraction of
+the country rock, just as a bed of mud is fissured in the process of
+drying up after a rain. Wherever these fissures are found in aggregates
+that are closely spaced and in which a majority of the cracks have a
+general trend so that the whole assemblage can be readily worked as one
+mass, this whole body of fractured rock may be found worth mining and it
+will then constitute a lode. It may be mentioned here that the so-called
+ore of this district is not really ore according to the accepted
+definition. The true ore, the filling of these innumerable, tiny cracks,
+really constitutes but about five per cent. of the material that is
+shipped as ore, but which is principally the "country rock" broken down
+with the small volume of ore.
+
+In _legal_ phraseology, the word lode has come to include all sorts of
+ore bodies. When the word is thus used, in a legal sense, it should not
+be confused with the strictly technical meaning.
+
+It has been the fashion for prospectors to dilate upon the fact that
+they have located "true fissure veins." This expression, formerly on the
+tongues of most mining men in districts possessing veins at all, is now
+obsolete and hence should be placed in the discard. There can be no
+such thing as an "untrue" vein nor an "untrue" fissure. Neither can
+there be any vein without a fissure. Therefore, if there is any vein, it
+must be a real or true vein. Accordingly, the verbiage is to be
+discouraged. The intention of a miner, in using this pet phrase, has
+been to convey the impression that his vein extended downward,
+indefinitely; there having arisen a notion that some veins are rather
+superficial and liable to "peter out" at slight depths, while
+others--the kind he invariably has located--persist both in size and
+value to extreme depths.
+
+There are districts in which are found short fissures, generally
+confined to certain horizons in sedimentary rocks, such as the
+limestones of the great Mississippi Valley, from which are mined lead
+and zinc ores. These are called "gash veins." These are always readily
+recognized and there is not the slightest excuse for confusing them with
+the fissures which are common to other kinds of rock formations.
+
+A _bed_ or _blanket vein_ is the term applied to any nearly flat
+deposit conforming to the bedding. Such a body of ore must be in a
+sedimentary series of rocks. Coal bodies are all of this type. Many
+bodies of iron ore are also of this type.
+
+A _chimney_ is an ore body which has not the tabular form of a vein but
+is rudely elliptical in outline, horizontally, and with a very
+considerable vertical extent. A _stock_ is a similar body but it is of
+still greater irregularity of boundary.
+
+These bodies are usually the filling of extinct volcanoes or geysers,
+and therefore they are presumed to extend to very great depths. The
+diamond mines of Kimberly, Africa, are of this type and the ore is a
+sort of hardened geyserite or mud in which are enclosed the precious
+gems. In Custer County, Colorado, the ore body of the Bassick Mine is a
+conglomerate of rounded boulders of all sizes cemented together,
+somewhat like concrete, by the materials which really carry the values.
+This mass occupies an ancient volcanic neck or throat of a geyser,
+probably the latter. The main portion of the Cripple Creek District is
+the crater of a great prehistoric volcano. It might be called a great
+chimney, but custom seems to limit the use of the word chimney to a
+smaller body such as might be included in a single mining property.
+
+A _mass_ is a deposit whose irregularity of shape is so great that it
+cannot be recognized as belonging to any of the types already mentioned.
+Masses conform to no rules as to shape or size. They are usually the
+result of a chemical dissolving of the original barren rocks with a
+simultaneous or subsequent substitution of valuable materials. There are
+many instances of ores that have been deposited, molecule by molecule,
+replacing equal volumes of the previous rock, much upon the order of the
+petrifaction of wood. Again, there are immense masses which are believed
+to have accumulated in caves already dissolved out of the containing
+rocks.
+
+While recent geological study of the districts in which such ore bodies
+abound have disclosed numerous facts about their occurrence, there still
+remains much conjecture concerning their origins, and we may still
+believe that they do not conform to any rules as to regularity or size.
+The ore bodies of Leadville are of this type, and they may be described
+by the homely similes that they are as like and as unlike, and their
+occurrences are about as regular, as potatoes in a hill. The potato-tops
+give the farmer a suggestion as to where to dig. So, also, do certain
+geological relations guide the miner. And yet a shaft may be sunk
+hundreds of feet down among masses and not happen to penetrate a single
+one.
+
+There are numerous recognized types of ore body not enumerated here; but
+it is sufficient for the average layman in mining matters to understand
+these few distinct types and to believe that all other types are
+rarities, and are, as a general thing, but intermediate forms of those
+defined.
+
+[Illustration: Shaft No. 3, TAMARACK MINING COMPANY, CALUMET, MICHIGAN.]
+
+[Illustration: SMELTERY OF THE BALAKLALA CONSOLIDATED COPPER CO., CORAM,
+CALIFORNIA.]
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+THE QUESTIONS OF DEPTH AND GRADES OF ORE.
+
+
+The prevailing belief of a few years ago that ore bodies always improve
+with depth has been discredited. Not a single mining geologist will
+longer maintain such a notion. The evidence of many thousands of mines
+has refuted this older belief and it has been proven that quite the
+opposite view is the correct one concerning changes of value with depth.
+Values, instead of getting better, do actually, in the majority of
+cases, grow poorer as depth is gained.
+
+President C. R. Van Hise, of the University of Wisconsin, was among the
+early expounders of the newer theories to account for this fact. The
+writer heard him state, years ago, before a scientific gathering (which,
+at that time, was not quite ready to agree with him), that if he were
+given his choice, he would much prefer to own the upper thousand feet of
+the earth's crust than all the rest of the globe. In this remark, he
+was referring only to mineral values, of course.
+
+This belief that the best values are to be found not far from the
+surface has since become popular, for it is based upon proven facts. It
+is not claimed that values are never mined below an elevation that is a
+thousand feet from the surface. There are many mines, and great ones,
+too, that are operating at depths greatly exceeding this distance; but
+in these same mines there will be found valid reasons for not applying
+the general statement to their particular cases. For instance, the great
+copper mines of the Keweenaw Peninsula are productive at depths of a
+mile or more from the surface; but we believe that here the ore must
+have been originally deposited at, or near, the surface, that it was
+then overlain with rock strata; and subsequently steeply tilted by earth
+movements which carried some of the ore bodies down to the depths where
+they are now found.
+
+The "reefs" or bankets of the Rand are so termed because these ore
+bodies were undoubtedly ancient coast beaches or sea placers. The
+gravel, sand, and gold particles were cemented together into a
+conglomerate, then covered with many later sedimentaries, and finally
+the continent of Africa was so raised or altered in some manner as to
+bring these gold deposits into their present inland and tilted
+positions.
+
+In veins or lodes, it is not supposed that ore-making minerals could
+have been precipitated from solutions travelling either upward or
+downward and obeying chemical laws if the depth were sufficient to
+furnish great temperature or high rock and hydrostatic pressures.
+Therefore minerals which were deposited from aqueous solutions rising
+from depths, for example, must have retained their dissolved condition
+until they ascended to horizons in which both pressure and temperature
+were low enough to permit the precipitation and crystallization that
+create ores. Contrarily, descending solutions must have given off their
+contents before reaching the deep zones of heat and pressure, or not at
+all.
+
+It is a quite common phenomenon to observe that the richest _gold_ ore
+in a mine is found close to the surface, if not actually at "grass
+roots." The explanation is simple. The gold, being the most stable of
+the aggregate of minerals composing the original ore, has the better
+resisted the corrosive attacks of atmospheric agencies and has remained
+nearly intact, while its associated minerals have been dissolved or
+altered and carried away. The same amount of gold remaining with a
+diminished quantity of the worthless, non-metallic minerals--the
+"gangue"--inevitably renders the ore richer per unit of weight (such as
+a ton), although per unit of volume the value remains constant, or
+nearly so, so far as the gold is concerned.
+
+But with other kinds of ore, as, for example, copper, the best grades
+are found, not close to the surface but some two hundred or more feet
+down. The explanation is that the minerals of copper are considerably
+more soluble than the ordinary gangues and therefore the weathering and
+oxidation that takes place in the upper horizons of ore bodies will
+dissolve out the cupriferous compounds and thus deplete the
+superficial ore. But, by the flowing of the copper solutions to a lower
+zone, there occur certain reactions that reprecipitate the salts of
+copper upon compounds of the metal already formed and we have instances
+of the phenomenon known as "secondary enrichment."
+
+[Illustration: CONCENTRATOR DIVISION, WASHOE REDUCTION WORKS OF THE
+ANACONDA COPPER MINING CO., ANACONDA, MONTANA. Largest Copper Works in
+the World.]
+
+It was this very process that effected the changes in the character of
+the ore in the famous Anaconda Mine, previously mentioned (page 44). The
+locator's discovery was upon an outcrop rich in silver. Probably the
+original compounds of the vein were of both silver and copper. The
+silver was more stable against dissolution than was the copper, with the
+result that the base metal was removed more rapidly and completely than
+was the precious metal. The upper portion of the vein was therefore left
+rich in silver, and low in copper. But, as depth of mining increased,
+there was found a gradual diminution of the silver content with a
+simultaneous increase in the copper. The mines of Butte have become
+known as copper mines, and the wonderful records they have made are
+ample testimony to the fact that the change in the prevailing metallic
+values has not wrought serious havoc in the mining industry of the
+district.
+
+Regarding the probability of veins persisting to great depths, there is
+this thought suggested by J. E. Spurr: "Owing to the pressure exerted by
+gravity, it is doubtless more difficult for a fissure to stay open in
+depth than near the surface. The tendency is to press the sides
+together. At a certain depth, it is probably the case that the pressure
+and the plasticity resulting from this, together with the increase in
+heat, makes it impossible for fissures, fractures or any openings to
+exist."
+
+There are still many persons who are reluctant to let go of the
+cherished notion about the improvement of ores with depth. But there is
+no economy in deceiving one's self, and the wise thing to do is to
+accept the truths as they are daily proven. It may be worth while to
+again refer to the wonderful Camp Bird Mine. This mine was discovered
+in its true worth years after it had been abandoned by early prospectors
+because it lacked showy, base-metal minerals. However, since its true
+merit has been recognized, it has maintained large and remarkably rich
+annual outputs. As values were beginning to show a material decrease,
+about five years ago, an experienced mining engineer of recognized
+standing was engaged to give advice concerning the future exploitation
+of the property. After exhaustive investigation of the ground, and in
+the face of adverse opinions, he recommended the discontinuance of
+further development in depth. At the same time, however, he advised the
+exploitation of the ground laterally or along the strike of the very
+persistent vein. His advice was followed and the company's stockholders
+had reason to be advocates of the new theory; for a very reasonable
+amount of horizontal development work opened up vast stores of rich gold
+ore.
+
+And yet, notwithstanding this disquieting feature that seems to apply to
+mining, there is comfort to be found in the consideration of the
+exceptional cases. Every man may hope that when he locates a new mine he
+is taking possession of a property that will have as extensive ore
+bodies as those that have been proven to exist in the lead-silver mines
+of Laurium, Greece, the quicksilver mines of Spain, or the copper and
+tin mines of Cornwall. These mines are in lodes which have persisted and
+have been mineralized to comparatively great depths, so that their
+bottoms have not been reached.
+
+There is a modern idea that has taken root in the minds of mining men of
+the last generation to the effect that the mines with rich ore are not
+necessarily the ones with big profits. There are many men looking for
+investments in mines whose contents are of low grade but in large bodies
+readily worked. If a mine with rich ore can be found and the ore abounds
+in such liberal amounts as to warrant the inauguration of a company with
+the essential working equipment, such a proposition will naturally not
+be turned down. However, the faith of some men is placed in those mines
+that may be operated upon very large scales for long periods even if the
+profit per ton be very small. With a large plant, the unit of expense,
+_i.e._, the cost of mining per ton, is less than with a small mine. With
+the assurance of regular outputs of ore of a reasonably uniform grade,
+the milling equipment can be planned to handle a mine's product to the
+greatest advantage. The Alaska-Treadwell Mine, on Douglas Island, is an
+instance of a splendid property that has been continuously operated for
+about a third of a century. The ore is low grade in gold but immense
+dividends have been declared because the ore body, a tremendous mass of
+eruptive rock, has lain in such a position that the owners found it
+possible to excavate the stuff, to a great extent, by open-pit methods,
+although not by using steam shovels. The ore is treated in a vast mill
+contiguous to the mine.
+
+The Homestake, another gold mine, has an ore body quite dissimilar
+geologically from, but of dimensions approximating those of, the
+Treadwell. It is a great body of mineralized, crushed shales, standing
+steeply in the shape of a lode and carrying about $3.75 per ton. It has
+been followed down considerably over one thousand feet and although the
+grade has dropped somewhat with depth, there are known to still be
+millions of tons in reserve. According to estimates, the mine has enough
+positive ore in reserve to keep the mill running at the rate of 4,000
+tons per day for several years even if no more ore were to be opened up.
+This ore nets but 53 cents per ton above all mining and milling
+expenses; but a little arithmetic will show that this mine is worth
+twice as much as the mine that is producing, with more or less
+regularity, an average daily output of, say, forty tons of high grade
+ore upon which there is a net gain of $25 per ton, a figure that is
+rather high for the average of so-called "high grade" mines.
+
+We must, therefore, decide that it is always wise to think twice before
+condemning a mine because its grade of product is low. It is only
+recently and by virtue of marked improvements in metallurgical
+processes that many bodies of mineral have become "ore." Hence it is but
+natural that many of the older miners fail to grasp the possibilities
+that lie in such deposits.
+
+What is the line of value separating a low grade from a high grade of
+precious metal ore? There is no uniform practice along this line. One
+will notice that ores are nowadays spoken of as high grade that, before
+the practice of mining these described meagre deposits, were reckoned as
+low grade. This fact is due to two reasons, viz., the cheapening of
+metallurgical operations, and the greater respect that is entertained
+for ores of low metallic content. The Esperanza Mine, in Mexico, is
+called a high-grade gold mine. Its ore has averaged about $33 per ton
+and the profit therefrom about $19. The Oroya-Brownhill Mine, in western
+Australia, has had ore that carried a value of about $22 per ton and
+from it a profit of about $15 per ton was made. In the Cripple Creek
+District, ores that run above $30 per ton are considered high grade.
+This means that the average rich ore shipments of the district have a
+gold content of about 1-1/2 ounces per ton. The expenses of mining,
+freight, and treatment will probably total close to one-half the gross
+value, or about $15 per ton.
+
+When one speaks of $30 or $40 ore as rich or high grade, it is not to be
+inferred that there is no ore in the shipments which is not worth a
+great deal more than this amount per ton. Such lots of ore will, no
+doubt, contain a great many chunks that would assay many times the
+average value. Such selected materials would not, however, be samples;
+they would be what are called "specimens." The specimen has its place in
+mine economic discussions because it furnishes the basis of operations
+for the ubiquitous "high grader" with which nearly every new and rich
+mining camp must contend.
+
+Some writers claim that the high grader is a product of modern
+conditions; but we find that he has existed for such a long time that he
+was given mention by the Scotch historian and scientist Andrew Ure, who
+wrote of the precautions that were exercised in working the graphite
+mines of England, a century ago, to prevent the pilfering of even this
+comparatively low-grade material. Even the ignorant African natives of
+today cannot be trusted to wear clothing while working in the diamond
+mines. No, the cause of high grading is the innate greed of human beings
+and it has existed from prehistoric time and among all peoples.
+
+In this discussion as to grades of ore, the question may arise as to
+what might be reasonably considered the most attractive kind of a mining
+proposition. This is too knotty a query to be answered in a few words.
+There are so many different phases that must be given due weight. Every
+mine is a problem in itself. The Minnesota mines afford the best
+examples of profitable iron mining. Under the classification of
+underground, tabular deposits such as veins or lodes, no matter in what
+metals their values are found, Mr. T. A. Rickard believes that the ideal
+mine would be one carrying ore worth $10 per ton, in a body five feet
+thick, with costs not exceeding $5 per ton, and so mined as to keep one
+million tons continually in reserve. According to these restrictions, he
+thinks the Robinson Mine, of Johannesburg, will about fill the bill as
+an ideal _gold_ mine. It has a deposit of about the right thickness to
+avoid excessive timbering expense and this ore body is in such a vast,
+continuous sheet that its superintendent can depend upon maintaining a
+systematic development that will assure a constant supply of ore to the
+immense mill for ten or twelve years in advance. This same ore averages
+about fourteen pennyweights (approximately $14) per ton and upon this
+there is assured a profit of over five dollars per ton.
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+VALUATION OF MINING PROPERTY.
+
+
+Whenever a piece of mining property is to change hands, it is the proper
+procedure to employ an expert engineer to investigate the ground and the
+improvements and so arrive at some estimate concerning its intrinsic
+value. Nobody is infallible and it is a trite saying that "nobody can
+see into a mine farther than the last drill hole." But there is a great
+difference in the reliabilities of reports made by trained and by
+untrained men. A self-styled "expert" of the type which is so abundant
+in every new mining centre and about cities frequented by mining
+investors will probably not be able to comprehend anything beyond his
+vision; but the mining geologist and engineer--the man who has devoted
+the better part of his life to study and experience along these
+lines--will be able to reach conclusions upon which much reliance may
+be placed. This fact has come to be recognized by the men who exercise
+business judgment in their mining investments.
+
+The sampling of mines has been studied and improved upon by succeeding
+engineers, until one may say that it is conducted along strictly
+scientific lines. The old method of taking a sample of a mine by
+scratching ore from the sides of a shaft from top to bottom and letting
+the collected material at the bottom represent a fair average of the ore
+body, has been relegated to its proper place in the evolution of mine
+valuation.
+
+Without entering into a description of the methods now employed by the
+best examiners of mines, let it be said that every scientific precaution
+is taken to obtain representative portions of the ore bodies, at such
+intervals as seem best in each particular case; that measurements and
+assays are made for each and every sample taken and not for the
+aggregate of all the samples; that no opportunity is allowed
+unscrupulous persons to vitiate results in any manner; that a
+professional engineer will not hold nor acquire, in any way, an
+interest in any proposition which he examines; and that the report of a
+reputable engineer is equally acceptable to the seller and to the
+purchaser, no matter for whom the work is done.
+
+Much discussion has prevailed as to the best means of estimating the
+amount and the value of ore in unbroken reserves. Associated with these
+beneficial disputes, there has been a further controversy as to the
+correct classification for reserves of unbroken ore. It is now conceded
+among mining men and engineers to be improper to longer make use of the
+meaningless but tongue-worn expression "ore in sight" as signifying any
+known or unknown volumes of ore in the ground. The only ore in sight is
+that which has been hoisted or which has been broken and stored
+underground. Well-known engineers have proposed the following
+expressions:
+
+To denote the contents of ore bodies which have been exposed on four
+sides, we may say _ore blocked out_, _positive ore_ or _ore developed_;
+for bodies exposed upon three sides, it is considered correct to
+describe the contents as _ore partly blocked_; for such bodies as are
+proved upon two sides only, the terms _ore faces_, _ore developing_ or
+_probable ore_ are appropriate; while in speaking of all ore that may be
+expected or suspected, but which is beyond the last exposures, we may
+use the expressions _ore expectant_ and _possible ore_.
+
+When it comes to the question of placing a value upon an undeveloped
+property--one in which there is little, or no, development work or
+exploitation--it takes more than the ability of the common "expert" of
+the curbstone variety to arrive at any dependable figures. Without any
+exposures, except those that may have been produced by Nature, and
+perhaps with no guidance from facts that might be obtainable were there
+adjoining mines, one might suppose that the whole matter would resolve
+itself into mysticism. Right here is where the trained man best shows
+his ability.
+
+The greatest error of the usual investor in mining schemes is to rely
+upon either no report at all or upon a worthless one furnished by an
+impostor. _In no sort of a mining proposition is a reliable report so
+essential as when one is contemplating the purchase of a "prospect."_
+Successful engineers, whose predictions concerning such properties have
+come true, are sometimes complimented (?) by being accused of possessing
+intuition or prophetic vision. Call this ability what we will, we must
+admit that _education and training_ give certain qualifications that
+will enable a man to arrive at conclusions which, in the majority of
+cases, will be found to wear.
+
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+THE MINE PROMOTER.
+
+
+With the thought that has justly been given to the place occupied (or
+that should be occupied) in the world's financial and economic affairs
+by legitimate mining, there has developed a well-founded stigma upon the
+operations of a class of persons who have styled themselves by what was
+formerly considered a worthy title, that of "promoters." Since men have
+found that it is as possible to go into a mining deal with the same
+chances for success as attach to any other line of investment; since it
+has been proved that real, worthy mining property does not require the
+exertions of many middlemen to obtain capital for its development; and
+since it has usually turned out that these "promoters" have handed the
+hot end of deals to their investors, it is not to be wondered that some
+sort of a brand would attach itself to the men who are not in the
+business to benefit the industry of mining in the least, but really for
+the selfish gains which they can pocket at the expense of the industry.
+
+These men are legion. The mails are laden with their seductive letters
+and "literature." Brokerage firms are numbered among these leeches on
+legitimate mining. Charlatans appear almost daily upon mining scenes.
+The men who engage in these deplorable practices are not from any one
+walk in life: they spring up from various branches of our social
+structure. The general public has learned that a very prominent Boston
+magnate will not scruple to promote a mining property even though it
+lacks the merit essential in attracting the conservative capitalist.
+Thousands of people of small means throughout the United States and
+Canada have been recipients of nicely worded and familiarly-addressed
+letters signed by the son of a famous American author. This son, himself
+a writer of some repute, presumed to speak to his "friends" concerning a
+mining property which he promoted and into which he was glad to allow
+them to get with him "on the ground floor." He frankly stated that he
+was not offering such privileges to the big capitalists. He inwardly
+knew that such men do not require holdings in the Cobalt or any other
+region. Through the splendid work carried on by the Government postal
+authorities many of these frauds have been exposed and the perpetrators
+brought to justice. In January, 1912, the above-mentioned author,
+together with a number of his ilk, were brought before the Federal Grand
+Jury, and found guilty.
+
+It is not the men of great capital who are induced, as a rule, into the
+deals of the "promoter." It is usually the common people, the persons of
+small means who have saved up a little spare money from which they hope
+to realize competencies for rainy days--a class of beings inexperienced
+in investments--who become the dupes of the promoter.
+
+There have been notable exceptions to the statement that capitalists do
+not yield to the seductions of these men, but recurrences are liable to
+be few. The great business man is fortified by experience against forms
+of treachery and he is, therefore, not so susceptible to the allurements
+of any "promotion," be it mining or otherwise.
+
+If one investigates these advertised mining "promotions," he will often
+find that the money paid in by the small investors purchases a very
+small portion only of the capitalization. The men who conceived the
+scheme of "promoting" a concern have carefully arranged to hold a
+majority of the stock, so that should there, by any chance, prove to be
+a mine, they are the ones who will reap the greatest benefits. Further,
+it often transpires that the contributions of cash that purchase the
+small interests do not perform the function of development for which the
+stock was ostensibly put upon the market. Perhaps somebody has a desire
+to get rich quickly. The operations of such frauds are so obscured and
+so complex to the average individual that sufficient evidence can seldom
+be procured to prove any violation of law.
+
+A witty newspaper paragrapher once remarked that out in Nevada the old
+adage "Death loves a shining mark" was changed to "Death loves a mining
+shark." It would seem, however, that if Death were to love the person
+bearing the odious, well-understood title of "shark" enough to claim him
+early, the business of mining would be materially benefited. The
+post-office officials of the United States are to be commended for their
+efforts at curbing the despicable operations of these fakirs.
+Occasionally the papers come out with the news that a firm's offices
+have been raided and their business stopped. These news items fall as
+awakeners upon the hundreds of gullible, middle-class persons all over
+the country who are known to actually force their cash remittances upon
+these fraudulent operators, much upon the plan of a department store's
+supposed bargain sale.
+
+In spite of the "bad name" that has been attached to the persons engaged
+in starting up enterprises, there is a real need for more activity in
+the matter of inaugurating real, legitimate mining enterprises. Persons
+who devote their brains and energies in the direction of furthering
+worthy mining propositions do really "promote" the interests of such
+companies. What shall such persons be called if not "promoters"? There
+does not seem to be any other word that expresses the occupation of such
+persons. The real solution of this dilemma in which the honest men
+engaged in such work find themselves placed is to denounce, forcefully,
+the charlatan as being not a real promoter but a gross misrepresentation
+of one.
+
+Let us, therefore, remove the odium from this title and give our
+approbation to those persons who are earnestly endeavoring, by honest
+means, to place mining enterprises upon strictly business-like footings.
+The mining industry needs promotion and promoters.
+
+
+
+
+XV
+
+INCORPORATION AND CAPITALIZATION.
+
+
+Let us consider the legitimate financing of a new or a reorganized,
+worthy, mining proposition. It is the universal custom to own and work a
+mine under the laws that govern a corporation and, for this reason, the
+mining man of the day is familiar with the practices of incorporating.
+
+It is something of a question at the start to decide what is a fair
+price to fix upon a property as a whole--that is, to decide what the
+capitalization should be. There is no rule to be followed in this
+matter. Some organizers will decide to capitalize at what is expected
+will be the value of the property after some time. Other men will stick
+to the idea that it is the proper thing to capitalize for what the
+property will invoice at the time. The higher the capital stock, the
+greater number of shares there are for sale, usually. With a
+conservative capitalization, there may be fewer shares for sale, but
+each share is worth correspondingly more and the chances are much better
+for an advance in the price per share whenever the mine becomes
+productive. There are investors who will carefully investigate this
+feature and will shun any mining stock which has any appearance of
+over-capitalization. It would be well if all investors were to follow
+this precaution.
+
+But what about the price at which to capitalize a prospect? By a
+prospect we here mean a property that has been favorably reported upon
+as worthy of development but in which, up to date, there is little, if
+any, showing of values or reserves. The engineer's report has
+recommended the property as containing the possibilities of a mine. How
+much is it worth? Can he or can anybody even roughly estimate the sum?
+An engineer frequently does fix the sale-purchase price of a property,
+but it is not so usual for him to decide upon a valuation for
+capitalization. A very good guess may be made, perhaps, if there are
+similar and neighboring properties which have been developed.
+
+Assuming a prospect that has been reliably reported to the owners as
+possessing the earmarks of a mine and as warranting expenditures for
+exploitation, upon what basis should a company be capitalized? If the
+owners of the property have capital, the chances are that they will not
+care to share their holdings with other parties. But very frequently
+worthy "prospects" are held by men of no means, and in order to develop
+their mines the owners feel the necessity of cooperation with parties
+who can furnish working funds. In every such instance, there will arise
+this debate as to the proper basis of capitalization.
+
+There is no human means of arriving at a _close_ valuation of any
+prospect, so it becomes a matter of pure judgment as to future
+probabilities and the possibility of placing the stock at the most
+advantageous price. A company will, therefore, be stocked for some round
+number of shares, say 100,000, upon which some empirical par valuation,
+say $1, is placed per share. This is not to be understood as stating nor
+assuming that the property has a present valuation equalling the par of
+the entire capitalization. Who would assert that any mere prospect ever
+had such a value as $100,000? No, it is not the intention of the
+organizers to claim that the ground is worth the par valuation; but some
+start must be made and so, in the absence of something precise, round
+numbers are made to do service.
+
+Stock is then offered at figures much below the par valuation and in
+such quantities as will maintain sufficient capital in the treasury of
+the new concern to get the property's exploitation under way and to so
+sustain it as to make the prospect grow into a mine.
+
+If shares are offered at 10 cents, it does not mean that a prospect is
+worth even that valuation. It does mean (we are considering now only the
+operations of honest concerns) that the men who are managing affairs
+believe that the sale of so many shares at ten cents each will furnish
+adequate means for the development and equipment of the mine. Therefore,
+there is a _prospective_ valuation placed upon all such enterprises.
+
+Is an investment in such a company to be considered as gambling? If
+there have been sound assurances from reliable examiners concerning the
+likelihood of the ground carrying the essentials of a mine and the only
+uncertain element is the ultimate magnitude of the mine, then we might
+say that the investment is not a gamble at all, since there is no chance
+to lose. The purchase of such stock is a very sane investment and there
+is no telling what the returns may reach.
+
+When incorporating a new company, it has become the fashion for the
+owners of the ground to exchange their titles for certain specified
+fractional interests in the company. This is effected usually by going
+through the formality of having the owners sell their holdings outright
+for the entire issue of the capital stock. Then, according to
+prearranged agreements, these owners donate to the treasury of the
+company a portion of this capital stock to be henceforth termed
+"treasury stock." The first step makes the capital stock "fully paid
+for," since it has been accepted in full payment for the property. The
+second step supplies the company with the necessary means for raising
+funds to develop.
+
+There can be no reasonable objection to this practice. But there is much
+criticism of the usual apportionment of the owners' and the treasury
+stock. It is agreed that the incorporators are, as a rule, greedy in
+this respect, since they generally issue more than 50 per cent. (and
+frequently 60 per cent.) of the capital stock to themselves and expect
+to float the project to success upon the money derivable from the sale
+of the balance or treasury stock.
+
+Is a mere prospect, even under the best natural conditions, plus the
+effort incidental to the organization of a mining company, worth
+one-half or more of a producing mine? During an extended experience in
+the business of converting discoveries into patented claims and
+prospects into mines, the writer has found that _there is never an owner
+who is willing to sell a developed mine for twice the price he had set
+upon the original prospect_. The valuation of his holdings goes up by
+greater multiples than mere doubling or even trebling and it is a rare
+thing to find a man willing to sell out a proved mine at less than ten
+times the prevailing valuation that would have been placed upon the same
+piece of property before its development.
+
+Hence, there is no propriety in the act of self-appropriating half the
+capital stock by the organizers. Investors should be wary about taking
+interests in companies which have been so organized. If an owner
+believes that a mine is worth ten times as much as a prospect, let him
+be consistent and offer his undeveloped property for a tithe of the
+capital stock in the anticipated mine. If he has a worthy piece of
+ground, he will reap the same benefits as the holders of the stock who
+place their cash against his title to a tract of virgin territory. If he
+will not thus act fairly, it indicates either a questionable piece of
+property or an avidity undesirable in a partner. It is accordingly
+advisable to shun offerings in such concerns.
+
+Another matter to be considered here is that of overloading a fairly
+good mining enterprise with so much capital investment that the
+property cannot be made to pay proper dividends and fair interest on the
+capital. Many worthy, though perhaps small, mining concerns have made
+failures through a disregard for this economic feature. The proper
+adjustment of this matter is a serious thing and it should not be passed
+over lightly. Investors should look into this phase of mining
+thoroughly.
+
+
+
+
+XVI
+
+MINING INVESTMENTS.
+
+
+One should be able to establish, in his mind, a distinction between the
+value of investments in operating mines and in prospective mines; and he
+should likewise be competent to fix some difference in his attitude when
+purchasing the stocks in these dissimilar projects. One should invest in
+an established mine with the same business precautions that would guide
+him in buying an interest in a mercantile establishment.
+
+It is possible to obtain, through competent engineers, the approximate
+present valuation and the probable life of any mine and thus to arrive
+at conservative figures that will govern one's investments. But, when
+debating the purchase of stock in a prospect, a man should learn all the
+available facts concerning the geology and the organizers and should
+then decide, in his own way, whether he cares to make the purchase. Even
+the prospects offering the finest inducements have been known to
+disappoint, just as some less promising prospects have occasionally
+exceeded expectations.
+
+[Illustration: MILL OF THE ROODEPOORT-UNITED MINES, TRANSVAAL, SOUTH
+AFRICA.]
+
+So, while there are certain safeguards to investments, there should also
+be accepted the uncertainties which must accompany the placing of faith
+in unseen things.
+
+The same general rules for business success will attend both commercial
+and mining enterprises. Any incorporation must be handled according to
+recognized, successful methods, no matter what its scope or activity. In
+most lines of business, there is a likelihood of growth with longevity,
+there being no reason to limit the life of the usual mercantile
+business. With advancing years, a manufacturing company, for instance,
+with good management, will establish a reputation and will gradually
+increase its business and its stock in trade. But with a mine, the
+business is one which is most successful only when actually depleting
+the assets at the most rapid rate. With some kinds of mines such as
+coal, placer, iron or the "reef" gold mines of the Rand, the life can
+be very accurately forecast and all activities may be planned for
+specified periods.
+
+In some kinds of mining ground--as for instance, the irregular masses of
+Leadville or the crooked and uncertain veins of Tonopah--there can be no
+predictions that will reliably or even approximately decide the probable
+life of the mining activities of any company. The duration of mines of
+this second class is wholly problematical. A few years ago, there was
+much discussion of this subject and one writer, who had collected
+statistics over an extended period and covering various kinds of mines,
+arrived at the conclusion that the average life of a mine is about
+eleven years. J. P. Wallace, in his work, _Ore Deposits for the
+Practical Miner_, in discussing this point says, "The average mine, if
+continuously worked, seldom lasts longer than three to five years. A
+mine is valuable not for what it has produced, but for what it is
+capable of producing." This opinion cannot be borne out by facts, for
+the brevity he ascribes to the average mine is altogether unreasonable
+and his statement is pessimistic. The cases of mines which have petered
+out in three or five years are exceptionally few. It must be that the
+experiences of this author have been in "pockety" districts, for he
+could not have lived in any of the worthy mining camps of the world very
+long and have come away with any such notion.
+
+To take care of this intrinsic feature of mining, and to place
+propositions fairly before the public, there should be attention given
+to the matter of recovering the invested capital before the expiration
+of activities through the exhaustion of mining assets, the ore bodies.
+This practice, known as "amortization," is being given more and more
+consideration as people come to realize this peculiarity of mining. Some
+companies are now so organized and managed that there is a guaranteed
+refund, at stated periods, or whenever profits have accrued, of
+fractions of the invested capital with accumulated interest thereon.
+These funds are calculated to continue over the number of years which it
+is presumed the mines will live so that upon the cessation of mining,
+the owners of the stocks will have been completely reimbursed with their
+original outlay in addition to the dividends that have resulted from the
+success of the enterprise. It is here that the problem of the life of a
+mine enters into economics, and it is important that it be given its due
+share of study. Amortization is not of American origin and it has not
+been adopted in this country to the extent which it is bound to be in
+the future.
+
+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. All this efficiency can be
+very readily transferred to the operation of virgin mining property.
+Often much of the equipment of a mine can be moved and used again. When
+a mine is known to be nearing its finish, there is a hesitancy on the
+part of the owners in replenishing the equipment and sometimes the
+mining is kept up through the use of worn-out, inefficient apparatus
+when, were the owners expecting to continue mining, they would purchase
+and install the new equipment when it is needed.
+
+One company in the San Juan region of Colorado prepared for the
+contingency by purchasing neighboring property to which it moved its
+operations. Another large company bought a large piece of mining
+property in Mexico, although its initial operations were in Colorado.
+Placer mining companies frequently dismantle, move and re-erect
+dredges.
+
+
+
+
+XVII
+
+MINE EQUIPMENTS.
+
+
+There is a constant tendency toward the adoption of machinery for the
+performance of every mining act which, formerly, was done by manual or
+animal labor. There are good reasons for this tendency. Good, trained
+labor is scarce; wages are slowly but gradually rising; ores of lower
+grade must be mined, and the tonnages must be correspondingly greater.
+The increased economy in production can be brought about by the adoption
+of devices that will supplant, and even excel, muscular effort.
+
+A machine can now be installed and can be operated by a single man to
+perform the work formerly done by many men. There have been machines
+invented to entirely, or partially, perform every operation in and
+around mines, and one might imagine an ideal mine in which all such
+machines were installed. But even there, we should have to grant the
+presence of some few men, for it would not be possible to keep all the
+machines working without human, intelligent control. In such a mine, it
+might be possible to maintain a large production with very few laborers
+or overseers. Fewer men means less wages, less labor trouble, fewer
+fatalities, and less time occupied in handling men into and out of the
+workings.
+
+In some ways, copper mines are ahead of gold mines in their equipment.
+Coal mines have adopted car loaders which as yet and without any very
+good reasons metal mines have not.
+
+Plants for mines must utilize the same sources of power as are used by
+any other plants. Steam and water have been the usual forms, but
+electricity is gaining in favor in places where it can be cheaply
+obtained. At a coal mine, we naturally expect to see all the power
+generated through the combustion of coal under boilers. At metal
+mines--which are frequently remote from sources of coal supply--we run
+across the use of expensive coal for all power purposes. When it is
+possible to obtain a sufficient supply and head, water is adopted to
+furnish the required power for operation. At mines, with water
+sufficient to produce a part only of the needed power, we may see both
+steam and water power utilized. In the cases of some mines which are
+distant from sources of both coal and water supply, power is generated
+at points where stores of natural energy are available for use and the
+power is transmitted (usually as electricity, sometimes as compressed
+air) over long distances to the mines.
+
+Some mines cannot be economically operated without the treatment of the
+ores upon, or close to, the mining property. With certain sorts of
+low-grade ore, or with those kinds of ores that may be concentrated
+before shipment, provision should be early made for the erection of
+appropriately designed mills. We say the subject should be considered
+early, but we do not advocate the premature erection of any mill. The
+hills of the Western mining states are dotted with monuments to men's
+error in this particular. Here and there (not in our own country alone,
+but throughout the mining world) one may run across an abandoned mine
+plant, a complete mill, a smeltery, a railroad or an aerial tramway, all
+prematurely provided for outputs which failed to materialize.
+
+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. This is a grievous mistake that comes
+about through misconceptions. It is often true that ores of the kind
+these mines are expected to produce should be treated upon the ground.
+But it is also true, and far more essential, that there be enough ore to
+supply the treatment works. It is rank folly then to spend the money
+needed to make a mine upon a plant to handle the product. Money should
+be spent, first, in exploitation and proving the value of a property. If
+the proof is forthcoming, it is then time enough to erect the plant.
+Meanwhile, during the development stages of a mine, the proper amount of
+experimentation can be conducted to ascertain the correct process for
+treating the ore. If ores are produced in abundance, they may be shipped
+for treatment in custom works until such time as the company's own plant
+is ready; or the ores may be stocked up for emergency mill supply at
+future times when it may be compulsory to curtail the mine production
+because of accidents or other unforeseen causes.
+
+One who considers these matters from an economic standpoint will
+recognize that there must exist some proper ratio of mine output to
+treatment capacity. Just what this relationship is constitutes a serious
+problem for each particular mine and there cannot be stated any
+ironclad rules that may be applied to all cases.
+
+In the first place, we believe _a mine will be operated at its greatest
+economy when it is making its largest and most regular output_. This
+being the case, we must agree that the plant and mill must be capable of
+taking care of this maximum output. It would then seem axiomatic that
+the equipment must be calculated according to the mine's capabilities.
+But, in the youth of a mine, how are we to know what its mature capacity
+will be? Here comes the rub.
+
+Very nice discussions along this line have been indulged in by British
+and American representative mining men. When speaking of operations that
+are typical of some foreign mining districts and especially those that
+possess ore-bodies whose extents are readily calculated, no clever
+prophecy is required to ascertain the proper amount of equipment. But
+there are many regions, especially in our own country, where nobody can
+predict, with any degree of accuracy, how extensive will prove to be
+the natural reserves of any mine. It is in such places as these that
+hard study and careful guessing are needed, and we are inclined to agree
+with George J. Bancroft when he says, "To my mind, there is more credit
+due to those who take up the hard propositions and make them pay than to
+those who exploit bonanzas along purely scientific lines. The first
+usually require energy, sagacity, perseverance and, very often, daring;
+while the others need chiefly cool calculation."
+
+It is a safe practice, throughout the world, whenever there is no
+absolute means of reaching figures of a mine's ultimate production, to
+erect the treatment installations in units. By a "unit" is here meant
+the outfit of machinery and the other equipment which will handle a
+specified round number of tons per day. In some districts, a unit will
+be for the treatment of 10 tons; in other districts this number may run
+up to 100 tons. In the plans provisions are made for additions, from
+time to time, as mining development warrants. Very much the same scheme
+should be followed in the erection of the plant for carrying on the
+operations, which are strictly those of obtaining the ore from the
+earth. That is, mining equipment, as well as the milling equipment,
+should be on a flexible plan so as to be readily adapted to an increased
+scale of operation. There must be space provided for harmonious
+additions to the initial plant whenever such extra parts are required.
+
+[Illustration: SPRAY SHAFT HOUSE OF COPPER QUEEN CONSOLIDATED MINING
+CO., BISBEE, ARIZONA.]
+
+
+
+
+XVIII
+
+MINE MANAGEMENT.
+
+
+No matter how splendid a company's holdings may be naturally, there
+cannot be expected any profits from the workings of the deposits if
+there be not a sound business management. H. C. Hoover, the prominent
+mining engineer and mine manager, says, "Good mine management is based
+upon three elements: first, sound engineering; second, proper
+coordination and efficiency of every human unit; third, economy in the
+purchase and consumption of supplies." And he goes on to emphasize the
+fact that "no complete manual will ever be published upon 'How to Become
+a Good Mine Manager.'" In view of this damper upon good intentions one
+might possess, and granting that the subject is one that cannot be
+taught (except along very general lines possibly), no attempt will be
+made to enter into arguments concerning this important subject of Mine
+Management.
+
+Good administrative ability can be improved by cultivation just as can
+an individual of the vegetable kingdom; but there must first be the
+existent, innate ability. No man should attempt such a hard proposition
+as the management of a mine, with its varied phases of activity, unless
+he has found himself possessing the fundamentals that go to assure
+success in managerial positions. Furthermore, he should not think,
+because he has been successful in running a clothing business or any
+other mercantile line, that he is certain to succeed in running a mine.
+
+The duties of directors and president are pretty much the same in all
+sorts of incorporations. 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. To be sure,
+if they are ignorant along mining lines, they can, and often do, place
+the blame for their shortcomings upon their manager, their consulting
+engineer, or their superintendent. But this is not an auspicious state
+of affairs and it were well for stockholders to see to it that they
+elect to the directorate men who are cognizant of mining economics.
+
+The well-organized mining concerns of today maintain their engineering
+staffs just as completely as do other great technical businesses. The
+engineer is a very important man in mining affairs. His duties are
+probably more varied than those that appertain to any other sort of
+engineering. His operations will extend into the realms of the
+mechanical, the civil, the chemical, the metallurgical, the hydraulic,
+and the electrical engineers. He must be posted along the latest
+conceptions in geology, mineralogy, and physics. Besides he should be an
+accurate and rapid mathematician and draftsman.
+
+The manager finds in the engineer his most helpful and trusted aid.
+Often the engineer performs many of the functions usually attaching to
+the office of manager and, in the absence of the latter person, he may
+attend to all of the management. As stated above, the qualities that
+make a good manager are inherent; hence, to a certain extent, we may
+hold the deduction that good mining engineers, also, must possess innate
+qualities. Yet there may be pointed out this distinction between the
+make-up of a good man for manager and that of a good mining engineer:
+one, as said, cannot learn his business except through his own
+experience, while the other can receive vast benefit by _study_ of a
+theoretical nature and by _practice_.
+
+Lately, there is much said about the _consulting_ mining engineer. His
+field of usefulness is broad. He can be asked to add his opinions and
+recommendations to those of the regular engineer, at any time; he can be
+used at times when the duties are too much for the resident engineer; he
+can be called upon to substitute; he need not live near the property,
+but may visit it periodically. Thus, while his retention is deemed
+remunerative, his services are available at a fractional part of what
+he would demand if he were employed exclusively by the company.
+
+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. No new reserve can be
+added--they can simply be found and unpacked, as it were.
+
+This finding entails the greatest amount of concern, and upon its
+successful practice depends the life of the mine. The presumption is
+strong that many mines have been abandoned while they really contained
+possibilities; but lack of knowledge of things geological, or perhaps
+failures to explore, permitted the operators to remain ignorant of the
+splendid assets that were available. Proof of this error has been found
+in many mines that have been subsequently re-opened.
+
+The work of sizing up the quantity and the value of available ore is
+known as sampling. It is not well to limit the practice of sampling to
+the times only when a sale is contemplated. Reports based upon careful
+sampling should be issued frequently. Some companies employ men whose
+sole occupation is the daily sampling of every working face. The assay
+results obtained from the collected samples inform the superintendent
+just "how the stuff is holding up" throughout the mine and he governs
+his work accordingly. At longer intervals, the engineer should go into
+the work more thoroughly by not only taking very careful, scientific
+samples (not the usual "grab" samples taken by the daily sampler) but
+also by making careful memoranda of the physical appearances of the ore
+with its thickness and all geological data that will tend to throw light
+upon the permanency of each body. The engineer's monthly report will
+then be a substantial guide to the manager and the directors.
+
+Managers, too, are expected to make periodical reports--monthly,
+quarterly, or annually--to the directors who, in turn, issue reports to
+the stockholders. The reports of managers and directors are not usually
+technical in their nature, although sometimes it is the practice of a
+manager to attach the engineer's report to his own for the perusal of
+such readers as may desire to dip into the technical affairs of the
+operations. Usually, the directors' reports are of a simple, financial
+nature, stating the conditions of affairs in plain business language to
+the persons whose cash has been invested in the enterprise.
+
+It may happen that, for some reason, a special report is desired by the
+directors who may be contemplating some consolidation or other financial
+move and both the manager and the engineer will be required to furnish
+detailed statements concerning their respective branches. If a sale is
+planned, it may be that not only the company's engineer, but very
+probably another engineer engaged by the contemplative purchaser, will
+make examinations. They may work together or separately, as best suits
+them mutually, but it is upon the reports issued by them that the
+satisfactory price for the exchange of title is based.
+
+
+
+
+XIX
+
+PRICES OF METALS.
+
+
+There is only one product of mines that has a constant market value,
+viz., gold. The precious metals, gold, silver, and platinum, are sold by
+the Troy ounce: the base metals are all handled and dealt with on
+avoirdupois weights. Copper, lead, zinc, tin, and nickel are quoted in
+cents per pound avoirdupois. Iron and manganese are curiously sold by
+mines to smelting companies on the ton of ore basis.
+
+Since gold has been found in every known rock of every geologic age and
+is of world-wide distribution; since it possesses physical properties
+that long ago placed it at the head of the list of desirable metals; and
+further, since it does not occur in very condensed amounts, generally;
+this metal was selected as the standard of value by which the worth of
+every other commodity in the world is fixed. It must therefore be
+possessed of a fixed market value, and one never looks for quotations
+on pure gold. The price of pure gold is set at $20.6718. This very
+peculiar value is known as the "mint value," and is the price which the
+Government of the United States pays for all of its coinage gold. Among
+miners, as a rule, the price is thought of as $20 per ounce, and this is
+probably because this is more nearly the actual return the miner has
+been accustomed to obtain from companies who have bought and treated his
+ores. Most all the gold produced in the world is associated with other
+metals, such as silver, copper, or platinum, so that the bullion
+recovered in milling or smelting will usually contain the gold alloyed
+with such other metals and the gold is said to be not "fine," or pure.
+The fineness of gold in the metallic state is expressed in two ways.
+Jewelers have the carat system, while mints use the decimal system in
+expressing such degrees of purity. Pure gold is 24-carat fine. An alloy
+of 3 parts gold and 1 part copper would be considered as 18-carat gold.
+In the decimal system, pure gold is called 1,000 fine, and the various
+degrees of purity are then expressed in their true proportional amounts.
+Thus the same alloy as cited above would be called 750 fine gold.
+
+Silver has a fluctuating market value although attempts have been made,
+at times, to establish its value at some fixed ratio to the value of
+gold. In fact, a reader may occasionally run across statistics of silver
+production in which it appears as though there were a fixed value for
+the metal, but this will be found to be due to the use of what is known
+as the "coinage value," which is $1.29198. This figure will be
+recognized as our old acquaintance, "16 to 1," _i.e._, this price for
+silver being one-sixteenth of the fixed price for gold. There is
+actually no such fixation, and prices for silver are established every
+business day of the year in the great metal markets of the world, London
+and New York.
+
+Platinum has been increasing in market value during recent years and the
+quotations have ranged up so high that it is now more than twice as
+valuable as gold. The reasons for this high price are that the
+production of the metal is limited, whereas the uses for the metal have
+been increasing. The greatest production of this metal is in the Ural
+Mountains of Russia, and the output from this region is handled by a few
+concerns who virtually possess a monopoly. These companies are able to
+maintain the production practically constant and to cause the market
+price to fluctuate.
+
+Tin is found in commercial amounts in but very few regions. There is but
+one mineral mined as an ore of tin, viz., cassiterite, the oxide, which
+is 78 per cent tin. Tin is found in both veins and placers and the great
+bulk of the metal is now being derived from the latter type of bodies in
+the Malay Peninsula and the Straits of the East Indies. Formerly,
+Cornwall produced the world's supply, from veins. Although the United
+States consumes 35 per cent to 40 per cent of the world's production,
+the country does not produce 1 per cent of this production. Since the
+main source of our tin is British territory, the markets are controlled
+by London, and quotations are issued daily from that center. Such
+quotations are given in units of English money per long ton (2240
+pounds) of metal. However, prices are also quoted at New York, daily, in
+cents per pound, and there is a real difference in value between the two
+quotations to take care of freights and duty. For instance, on a certain
+date, quotations were L190 10s, and 42c. The average price during 1911
+in New York was 42.281 cents.
+
+The chief supply of nickel now comes from the Canadian districts of
+Cobalt and Sudbury, where this metal occurs accompanying rich silver
+deposits. The metal is sold by the pound avoirdupois and prices in
+January, 1912, ranged from 40c. to 50c.
+
+Tungsten is a metal which has been finding more and more uses of late
+years, but the production has remained quite limited. Three-quarters of
+the world's total production in 1911 came from a small district in
+Boulder County. Colorado. The quotations on this metal are given in
+dollars per ton of concentrated ore, and the price is for a certain
+percentage of WO_{3}, the oxide of wolfram (tungsten). The schedule of
+prices announced in April, 1912, for Boulder County ores and
+concentrates provides as follows, a unit being understood to mean 1 per
+cent or 20 pounds per ton: For material assaying 10 per cent WO_{3},
+$3.50 per unit; for 20 per cent WO_{3}, $4.40 per unit; for 40 per cent
+and more, $4.90 per unit. Ore containing, say, 50 per cent of the
+tungsten radical is thus salable at $245 per ton, the mineral itself
+thus bringing a price of 24-1/2 cents per pound.
+
+Although copper is used and sold in very large lots commercially, it
+continues to be quoted upon the pound basis. The United States produces
+about 60 per cent of the whole amount mined in the world and the prices
+are made in New York daily. The amount of copper mined in this country
+in 1911 was 1,431,938,338 pounds and the price varied between 11.989
+cents and 13.768 cents. There are always at least two quotations every
+day on copper, one being on "lake" and another on "electrolytic". By
+these terms are meant, respectively, copper produced in the Lake
+Superior region and the copper from other mines. The Lake Superior
+copper is the purest in the world and it always sells for a fraction of
+a cent per pound more than the other coppers which are refined by
+electrolysis.
+
+Metallic iron is reduced from a number of different ores, but by far the
+bulk of pig-iron is made from the oxides and carbonates of iron. Such
+ores, in the United States, are obtained principally in Minnesota,
+Michigan, Wisconsin, and Alabama. As already stated, the quotations on
+iron are based upon the ores rather than the pig-iron, and there are two
+types of such ore recognized. If the ore is suitable for the making of
+Bessemer steel, it is given a certain quotation per ton, while if it
+cannot be used for such a purpose, it is given a non-Bessemer rating and
+is used for casting. The greatest iron-mining region in the world is in
+the Lake Superior country. Here are a number of districts that are known
+as "ranges." In some of these ranges mining is by underground methods,
+while in others the excavation is entirely in the open by the use of
+great steam shovels. The outputs of these ranges go by rail and water to
+the great smelting points along the Great Lakes and at Pittsburg.
+
+The metallic zinc on the market is known as spelter. All quotations on
+this metal are given in two systems, the "pounds Sterling per long ton"
+and the "cents per pound." The average prices during 1911 were
+respectively, L25.281 and 5.758 c. The American quotations are
+frequently given in the unit of dollars per hundredweight. This offers
+no confusion, whatever, for under this nomenclature, the average price
+for 1911 would be stated as $5.758. In the zinc-mining regions of the
+Mississippi Valley, the producers of ore have a practice of putting the
+mines' products through their own mills at the mines and making
+concentrates of the zinc mineral, which is usually blende or "jack," and
+this concentrated stuff is then sold to smelting companies at the daily
+quotations per ton of 60 per cent ore. During 1911 the average price
+paid in the Joplin District was $41.45. Since this amount bought 1,200
+pounds of metallic zinc, it is evident that the miner received only
+about 3.45 cents per pound for his metal, the discrepancy between this
+sum and the New York quotation being consumed in costs of smelting and
+shipment and in profits to the middlemen.
+
+Lead is sold upon a plan exactly similar to zinc. It has the same
+various quotations. For example, the 1911 prices in London, New York,
+and Joplin averaged, respectively, L13.970, 4.420c., and $56.76.
+
+Quicksilver is sold by the "flask" of 75 pounds. The price ranges in the
+neighborhood of $43 to $45.
+
+There are numerous other metals, but the more common ones are given
+above. Below is given a graphical exhibit of the course of the prices of
+lead, spelter, standard (electrolytic) and lake copper, pig-iron, and
+tin for a number of years. A study of this chart is interesting in
+noting the waves or fluctuations that have covered periods of years.
+This chart is reproduced from _The Engineering and Mining Journal_.
+
+[Illustration: DIAGRAM OF METAL MARKET FOR ONE-THIRD OF A CENTURY]
+
+
+
+
+XX
+
+MINE ACCOUNTING.
+
+
+While there has been a great deal of attention given to the matter of
+keeping systematic mine accounts, both in the main offices and those at
+the works, there still is a lack of uniformity in practice. In the
+bookkeeping of manufacturing and mercantile institutions, uniform
+practices or systems have become a feature. But there have been good
+reasons for the absence of similar methods in mine offices.
+
+There will be found to exist some uniformity in the accounting as
+practised by the mines of a particular district which are operating
+under similar conditions; but when one considers that the mines of
+various districts have quite dissimilar conditions throughout almost
+every phase of the business, it is not surprising that different methods
+must be employed in the keeping of their accounts. It is unavoidable.
+Mines extracting different metals or different kinds of coal will find
+it necessary to keep quite unlike records. Mines with their own mills
+will likewise require a different system of accounting from those that
+ship their products to custom works. Open and underground mines will
+need quite different styles of accounts.
+
+So, it is not possible to recommend any one method of mine accounting.
+The best way to become posted upon this subject is to investigate the
+schemes, the blank forms and the books of some of the established,
+successful companies here and there about the world. In this way, ideas
+will be collected, and it will be possible for the investigator to
+evolve his own schemes for recording the accounts of his company.
+
+It has come to be recognized as contributing to economy to maintain
+systems of accounts that will enter into minutiae concerning every branch
+of the business. Just how far this can be carried without creating
+office expenses that will exceed the benefits to be derived from the
+detailed information remains a question to be decided by each manager.
+There are companies with accounts so perfected that it is possible to
+quickly ascertain, to a fraction of a cent, what the expenditures of any
+day have been for any particular part of the operations, as for
+instance, the haulage per ton underground, or the fuse employed in the
+blasting of a particular stope. Such details are highly useful since
+they prevent leaks in the costs; but it is a problem to decide to what
+extent it is economy to carry them. These data also furnish the
+superintendent information concerning the efficiency of his many
+laborers and the machinery. Labor-saving inventions, such as the printed
+blank form, and the loose leaf, are put to excellent use in mining
+offices.
+
+There are strong companies operating great mining plants whose records
+are open to the perusal of any individual, be he stockholder or not. In
+the office of such a company, a person may turn to the accounts and see
+for himself how much it costs to maintain each and all of the operations
+and he can learn the size and the value of all shipments of products of
+any sort--ore, concentrates, coal, matte, or bullion. Again, there are
+those companies that are so secretive about everything connected with
+their work that even the Government is unable to learn any particulars,
+except at very great trouble.
+
+The Portland Gold Mining Company, operating a great property at Victor,
+in the Cripple Creek District, is an instance of the first sort, while
+the United Verde mine, at Jerome, Arizona, may be taken to represent the
+second sort. Both of these mines have made splendid records. It cannot
+be seen wherein the second mine is required to maintain secrecy, for
+there is no danger of litigation from neighboring property holders, the
+one company controlling, practically, the mining in its neighborhood.
+The presumption is that the owners hold their business to be nobody's
+else and they have a right to keep their affairs secret if they desire.
+On the other hand, the Portland is surrounded by good mines which profit
+by knowing the details of operating costs and incomes of their
+neighbor; but it is found to cost no more to be open and above board
+than to keep things under guard. The Colorado Fuel and Iron Company will
+not divulge any particulars concerning its mining movements; but there
+are other just as great mining companies that will explain every detail.
+
+The Clark copper companies, of Butte, Montana, did not permit much
+information to escape their offices, while the neighboring Amalgamated
+companies gave particulars freely.
+
+The question of secrecy should be considered, and if there is no very
+good excuse for maintaining a privacy it should not be instituted. The
+trend of all modern thought is along the line of publicity in all our
+dealings. The only persons who have a reasonable right to be secretive
+are those who have something they do not care to share or divulge to
+their fellow-men. Law breakers, tax dodgers, and trespassers, could be
+put into one class; persons doing research work which it is premature to
+publish are a more respectable class; manufacturers with strong
+competition in the sales markets are in a measure excusable; even a mine
+which is producing some material in the sale of which it attempts to
+maintain a monopoly might be excusable. But it is hard to see what
+excuse or benefit there is for a coal or a copper mining company to
+prevent a knowledge of its affairs, if the business is being conducted
+along strictly legitimate lines.
+
+
+
+
+XXI
+
+INVESTMENT IN MINING STOCKS.
+
+
+As a feature of investment in mining stocks, there has always been a
+more or less open lure. Generally much larger returns are promised or
+are expected than in other kinds of investments. There may be absolutely
+no intention on the part of the seller to create this impression; but
+there does, somehow, exist in the memories of people accounts of
+wonderful fortunes that have been made in 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.
+Concerning the average stock purchaser, then, we may conclude that it is
+speculation rather than true investment that he is seeking.
+
+The writer hopes that, even in the short preceding discussions, the
+reader will have come to agree with him and to understand that safe
+investments are as possible in mining as in any other business. It would
+be a great benefit to this great industry of mining were the public
+taught to take interests--that is, financial interests--in mining
+concerns with the same precautions and with the same sound business
+sense that accompany the purchases of interests in other enterprises.
+Writing along this line of thought, Mr. P. A. Leonard has this to say in
+_The Mining World_: "One very general difficulty seems to be that the
+man unacquainted with mines who is asked to invest either expects an
+unreasonable return for his money, or he blindly closes his eyes and
+takes what he calls a 'flyer,' expecting little more from it than he
+would if he bought margins on 'change or bet on a horse race."
+
+About the first thing that the promoters of a new mining company do is
+to issue a neat, attractive prospectus. It is a bait, no matter how
+reliable these men may be nor how worthy the property they desire to
+work. Many of these documents are written in absolutely good faith and
+every representation is intended to be accurate. There are occasionally
+offered for sale stocks in mining properties that warrant the fullest
+confidence of the promoters and the investors. However, careful perusal
+of a great many of these pamphlets has led the writer to the conclusion
+that at least 75 per cent. of them are unreliable from the fact that
+they either wilfully misrepresent or because they grossly exaggerate the
+probabilities of success beyond all reason. Exaggeration is a habit with
+some people and it is used many times with no real criminal intent or
+even consciousness upon the part of the offender. But its effect is just
+as baneful when innocently inflicted as when it is used in a
+premeditated manner.
+
+Good, worthy mining property does not need to be hawked, usually. There
+have been periods of financial unrest when it has seemed quite
+impossible for honest men to dispose of interests in what were
+unquestionably reliable mining enterprises. At such times, there has
+been nothing to gain by any amount of teasing the public, and any
+attempts at forceful disposal of interests in the concerns have but
+served to kill any small remnants of confidence that the public may have
+possessed.
+
+Prospectuses are usually prepared for the reading of small investors who
+may feel inclined to risk a few dollars or, in other words, to speculate
+upon the representations contained in the seductive pamphlets. There are
+a few "Don'ts" which it would be well for any person inclined to invest
+in mining stocks to read, consider, and follow. For instance, never
+invest in any new stock whose company _guarantees_ specific dividends.
+Profits in mining, except in rare cases, cannot be so accurately
+foretold as to warrant such a guarantee. We should remember that the
+success of any mine depends upon many, very many, contingencies and that
+some of them are invisible and are among Nature's secrets. Again, avoid
+placing any confidence in those companies that are simultaneously
+selling treasury stock and declaring dividends. This is a very common
+practice of the numerous "get-rich-quick" concerns which Uncle Sam has
+been routing the past few years. Such crooked practice is difficult to
+eradicate, although severe penalties are awarded the transgressors.
+
+The success which has been met in the operation of the _great_ mining
+companies of the world can, in the majority of cases, be traced to the
+common sense which was exercised in the business management. The
+_business of mining is legitimate_. If mining is one of the basic
+industries of the world, how could the operation of a real mine be
+anything but a legitimate business? The mere fact that there have been
+neat opportunities for, and the practice of, fraud in the growth of this
+tremendous industry does not by any means, argue that the whole thing is
+founded upon unstable premises.
+
+What is needed is a presentation of the industry in its legitimate
+aspect before all kinds of investors and this can be done properly and
+effectively only by the rank and file of men interested in mining. These
+men should place themselves boldly on record as combating all sorts of
+deals that smack of fraud, and they should do their utmost to discourage
+all delusions that may exist in the mind of the public with reference to
+the supposed lure offered by mining.
+
+There have been too many causes of failure in mining for even a partial
+enumeration of them. There have been many errors in getting started,
+both on the part of the organizers and the investors. There have been
+many mistakes in management. Many blunders have been evidenced in the
+operation of mines which made very good starts. All of these failures
+are attributable to something outside of the mine's intrinsic worth;
+they are mistakes due to inexperience or misconception. Such
+shortcomings should not be tolerated in the make-up of a mine's
+managerial staff.
+
+Perhaps one of the most common mistakes of mine managers is to submit to
+a condition of nepotism that is often furthered by directors or
+stockholders. No responsible position around a mine should be filled by
+a novice. Just because a director has two or three sons needing
+situations does not make it incumbent upon a superintendent or a manager
+to jeopardize his reputation by employing these young men. Percy
+Williams, a veteran mining man, advised "Don't take your son or nephew
+or your clerk out of your store or business house and send him to
+Arizona or Colorado to run things for you at the mine. Sell out first.
+If you are a director in a mining company, do not force the manager or
+superintendent to find a job for all your unsuccessful friends and
+relatives. Let him hire his own men. Don't convert your mine into an
+asylum for ne'er-do-wells."
+
+As already stated, there is protection obtainable by every investor in
+mining. One may always secure, at reasonable cost, the services of
+competent engineers whose business consists in sizing up the worth of
+mining property. If the services of these men were more generally
+appreciated and secured, there would be a great diminution in the
+number of disappointments following investments in mining. An eastern
+man of means complained to the writer about the way in which he had been
+"stung" in various mining investments. A little catechizing brought
+forth the facts that he knew absolutely nothing about mining in general
+and that, worse still, he had never investigated--that is, in a
+business-like manner--any of the propositions which had absorbed his
+ready money. Receiving no sympathy during the recital of his troubles
+but, instead, the assurance that he "got what was coming to him," he was
+prepared to sit up, take notice, and listen to a severe roasting which
+opened his eyes about mining matters. Now, this man has proved
+successful in other lines of business. He is a prominent lawyer and
+banker in his own city and has numerous, scattered, money-making
+interests. But he was content to go into mining without the
+investigation which it is certain he would have given to any other sort
+of an investment.
+
+The time should come when there would not be such a prevalent
+"slaughter of the innocents" in mining investments. People must learn to
+curb their gullibility in such affairs. But this has proved almost
+impossible. Just as it is in the nature of some persons to gamble, and
+it takes something more than misfortune at gaming to wean them from the
+vice, so it is with a certain class of men who can not overcome the
+temptations of dabbling in mining. Such men will not desist even when
+they have suffered several delusions, and will continue to "send their
+good money after their bad," absolutely defiant of the well-meant advice
+of friends who are often in position to judge of the merits of any
+contemplated investment. Probably every mining engineer of any extended
+experience can tell of instances in which he has endeavored to
+discourage clients from investment in unworthy mining enterprises but in
+which the gambling instinct of the clients has overridden the sound
+advice.
+
+During the early days of the wonderful Cripple Creek District, all sorts
+of wildcat tricks were successfully practiced upon the "tenderfeet" and
+the "down-east suckers." In one case, stock was readily unloaded upon
+the representation that a person could stand in the door of the cabin on
+the property and "look right into the shaft-house of the Independence
+mine." This statement was not untrue, although grossly misleading; for
+while it was actually quite possible by the use of a telescope to span
+the intervening three or four miles, visually, the prospect lacked the
+propinquity to the famous mine that was the bait implied by the
+statement in the prospectus. This is but one of many ingenious tricks
+that were played. Did the outcome of this one fraud cure the victims of
+irrational mining investment?
+
+Railroads, too, have, in the past, added their troubles to the mining
+men. Recent laws have, however, to a great extent, mitigated the
+annoyances and unjust practices that the common carrying companies have
+been in the habit of committing. It is now obligatory upon a railroad
+company to treat all shippers without favor or discrimination, so that
+the difficulties formerly experienced by one mining company in getting
+enough ore cars to transport its shipments while its rival company could
+have cars in abundance, is now almost a thing of the past. It takes time
+to right all wrongs of this sort. It is a slow matter to get laws
+framed, passed through the necessary legislation, and made effective.
+But the outlook is favorable, along this line.
+
+The leasing system has exercised an influence upon the mining activity
+of many districts. By this system is meant the custom of renting or
+letting the whole, or fractional parts, of a mining property to miners
+who enter upon and work the premises, extract the ores, and pay to the
+owners a specified percentage of the receipts from the marketing of the
+ore. This practice has frequently been the only successful way of
+operating some mines. It has, at times, been the manner of operating
+practically every mine in certain districts.
+
+In districts carrying pockets of very rich ore, "high grading" has been
+discouraged in this way, for the "leasers" (incorrect, though common,
+word for lessees) do their own mining and there is much less object in
+stealing.
+
+In other instances of mines which have been operated by the owning
+companies until they were past a profitable stage, it has been proved
+possible to prolong the life of operations very materially by leasing
+the property to miners, who always work with more diligence and economy
+for themselves than they ever do when working under "day's pay." This
+feature of leasing has been quite a factor in the lives of some of the
+mines of the Cripple Creek District. Until the recent drainage of the
+district through the Roosevelt Tunnel, there were numerous small--and
+even some large--properties that had worked all the ore bodies
+previously known to exist above the water level of the district, and had
+been obliged to shut down because of the heavy pumping expenses. Company
+operation did not longer pay. But the plain "leaser" and his partner
+could go into such old workings and they could prospect and find ore
+bodies that had escaped the observation of the superintendents. The
+expenses incurred in leasing are low. It is true that lessees will not
+probably take as good care of mine workings and equipment as will
+"company men," and often a property may be seriously crippled through
+the lack of sufficient timbering after having been in the hands of a set
+of lessees for some time. But, on the whole, there has probably been
+more benefit than loss through the letting of leases.
+
+When, a few years ago, the plans of the National Forestry Service were
+put into effect, there was great complaint recorded concerning the
+rulings that were made against various miners. Some very well
+authenticated cases of wrongs were cited. However, it is now believed by
+all fair-minded men that there has been no intention, on the part of the
+officials of the Forest Service, to interfere with any legitimate mining
+enterprise. There was a well-founded object, viz., to put a stop to
+dishonest practices in obtaining title to timber lands by the
+misrepresentation of mineral finds.
+
+The General Land Office passed a rule authorizing Foresters and
+Assistant Foresters to make inspections of all mining claims within
+their reserves and to report to the Secretary of the Interior. The idea
+embodied in this rule was that these men, being agents of the Government
+and upon the ground, are able to investigate the facts concerning every
+mining claim and its claimant and so to run across any evidences of
+fraud that might be attempted in the securing of title. Trouble
+immediately arose because the Foresters were not all experienced miners
+and prospectors and so were not thoroughly qualified to pass judgment
+upon the merits of mineral lands. This weakness has been admitted by the
+officers of the Service but the excuse has been offered that there was
+an immediate need for a great many Foresters and it was not possible to
+secure men trained in both forestry and mining at such short notice.
+"Just as soon as conditions became better understood, and money was
+available to allow the Service to hire men whose judgment in mining
+matters could not be gainsaid, such men were employed," says Paul G.
+Reddington, recently Forester for the Rocky Mountain Regions. 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. Minerals which
+are not now ores--according to the accepted, scientific definition,
+because the values cannot be recovered at a profit--will, at some future
+period, become ores. It is not safe to make any close predictions along
+this line, for such marked reductions in treatment costs have been going
+on during the last few years that mining men are entertaining great
+expectations. Inventions for improvement in metallurgical lines are
+being placed upon the market so frequently that it is difficult for even
+the professional metallurgist to keep posted. This being true, it is
+clear that the layman cannot expect to keep abreast of the
+metallurgical advance. At the same time, it is well for everybody to be
+slightly conversant with the wonderful advances being made in the
+reduction and dressing of ores. Conspicuous in this field are the
+improvements that have been effected in cyanidation, electrolytic
+amalgamation and extraction, and flotation. These processes are
+applicable to the lower grades of ore. Among the very recent successes
+in the treatment of very low-grade gold ores are the operations
+conducted in the new mills of the Portland Gold Mining Company,
+Stratton's Independence, and the Ajax Gold Mining Company, all in the
+Cripple Creek District. All of these mills are now treating old mine
+dumps, the contents of which were considered as absolutely waste matter
+at the time it was excavated. This stuff is now ore and its treatment is
+making fine profits. There is still a demand for cheaper methods of
+reducing ores of zinc. There are vast quantities of stuff that contains
+very good percentages of zinc, but the material cannot be mined and
+treated at a profit under existing conditions. With the invention of
+something radically new in the metallurgy of this metal, there will be
+opened an entirely different aspect in the zinc-mining regions. The
+Leadville District possesses great reserves of this material that is
+being held until it may become "ore."
+
+[Illustration: FLORENCE MINE AND MILL, GOLDFIELD, NEVADA.]
+
+
+
+
+XXII
+
+THE MEN OF THE FUTURE IN MINING.
+
+
+The mining of the future will probably be largely in the hands of young
+men. To arrive at any conclusions concerning the probabilities of
+success, therefore, we are obliged to recognize the dual conditions. In
+other words, there is to be an interdependence between men and mining.
+Up to this point in our discussion, we have dwelt upon the probabilities
+as viewed from the standpoints of natural resources and of human
+capability. In a certain degree, we have already covered the ground of
+this present chapter; and yet there are some points that must be given
+special consideration.
+
+What is the true status of metal mining? Alarmists would have us believe
+that civilization is rapidly exhausting the world's reserves of
+available metals. Conservative investigation, however, repudiates such
+notions. The best that can be claimed for the reliability of such
+disconcerting statements is that they may apply in _some_ districts, to
+_some_ grades of _some_ kinds of desirable mineral matter.
+
+It may be true that the early miners have removed the "cream" from
+Nature's deposits in some districts, in the sense that they have skimmed
+off, as it were, the rich surface portions. But this does not signify
+the exhaustion of deeper ore bodies, nor does it mean that the pioneers
+were the only capable prospectors.
+
+Why should we have any reason to deny the ability of present or future
+generations to find just as good mineral deposits as did our
+predecessors? Persons in some of the older of the western mining
+states--as for instance, Colorado or California--are apt to carry a
+misconception along this line. They can see a number of idle "camps"
+that are mere relics of former thriving mining communities and they are
+liable to jump to the conclusion that the day of mining at such places
+is past, forever. However, as we look at the subject in a more rational
+light, we shall see that there is no more authority for such an
+assumption than there is for one to the effect that a farm in the
+wintertime is a worthless proposition simply because, temporarily, it is
+not producing its customary summer yield. Just as Nature brings about
+changing conditions for the farmer, so will economic forces establish
+varying degrees of attractiveness to the miner.
+
+It is unfair to judge one of the pioneer mining districts by its
+activity at the present time, if the productiveness happens to be small.
+Let us look for the reasons of the apparent decline. The chances are
+that the inactivity will be shown to be due, not to an exhaustion of ore
+bodies, but to some needed changes in mining or metallurgical methods.
+Very likely, under a readjustment of our notions about that particular
+district there will appear to be as great latent possibilities as ever
+cheered the earlier operators. The prospects may appear to be even
+better than this, and the future may appear to extend greater
+opportunities than were ever manifested in the past. Investigation may
+disclose great bodies of ore that could not be seriously considered in
+the earlier working of the region. In fact, speaking technically, the
+stuff in question was not ore at the time of previous operations, for it
+could not then be made to yield a profit. And yet, by introducing some
+changes in equipment or methods of working or treatment, there may be
+possibilities of making a great deal of money from an abandoned
+property; and the chances are good that this same profit may be won at a
+much more rapid rate than was ever before possible and that therefore
+the economic conditions are enhanced. For we must not lose sight of the
+fact that the greatest profits in mining usually accrue from the most
+rapid exhaustion of the ore bodies.
+
+A mine, or even a whole district, may have been deserted because of
+failure on the part of original miners to recognize the value of certain
+minerals. The recent revival of activity that has been noted in
+Leadville mining circles is but an instance in point. In this district,
+miners have given a delayed recognition to some important minerals of
+zinc, and the indications are that Leadville has entered upon another
+of its eras of mining activity.
+
+But, it is not necessary to restrict our thoughts to the old mining
+regions, for if we can observe how easy it has been to overlook valuable
+deposits in a country that has been subjected to severe mining work, for
+years and years, what must we conclude concerning the possibilities of
+the many and vast undeveloped areas in remote portions of the globe? It
+would seem that there is indeed very small cause for alarm about the
+exhaustion of the earth's metals.
+
+No, it can be shown that mining, which is one of the very fundamental
+industries of the world and the one upon which every other form of
+commercialism rests, will be carried on with a continual increase in
+magnitude just as long as man exists. As the richer and more easily
+mined ore reserves of Nature are exhausted, improved and cheaper methods
+of mining, transportation, and treatment will be introduced and at a
+pace that will equalize this exhaustion. We, of the present generation,
+see the eminently successful handling of copper ores of grades so low
+that they were not given passing consideration ten years ago. The
+outlook would appear to be that the improvements in methods and costs
+will not only keep abreast of needs in such matters, but the
+probabilities are that they will take a very marked lead, with the
+result of a continually increasing scope to the mining industry. Let us
+then entertain optimistic views about the _future of mining_.
+
+Now, as to the future of the young man who engages in mining there is
+just as much to be said as there is concerning the career of a young man
+in any other line of business. This word "business" is used advisedly,
+for the day is past when any person has a right to say that mining is
+anything but strictly legitimate business.
+
+We look to the young men of the present and future to correct all of the
+shortcomings that have hindered the establishment of mining upon its
+deserved plane of stability in the minds of the general public. Young
+blood will take a lead in the dissemination of the correct thoughts
+about mining.
+
+The successful man in mining will be, as heretofore, the one with the
+right qualifications in his make-up. Is a college education an essential
+prerequisite to success in mining? No, the writer is not one to declare
+that young men cannot succeed in the business without college training.
+However, there can be no avoidance of the proposition that the chances
+of the college-trained man are better than are those of the man who has
+not had the benefits of such a career.
+
+A man may be said to engage in mining in three different ways. Thus, he
+may operate mining property; or he may perform any of the manifold lines
+of mining engineering; or he may be an investor in mining property or
+mining stocks.
+
+To prove a success when enrolled in either of the first two classes,
+there is no denying the advantages of technical, mining education. The
+successful investor likewise will do well to make a consistent study of
+mining economics, and the more attention he gives to the many phases of
+approved modern mining, the greater will be his ultimate achievement,
+financially. Just as education along usual school branches is of
+immeasurable benefit to any man of business, so is it to the mining man.
+And in just as great ratio is the possession of innate business ability.
+
+Education and natural ability are the two elements that will count in
+the future of any young man in mining.
+
+Space might be devoted to the discussion of the possibilities of young
+men in the field of research work along scientific lines that would add
+materially to the economy and scope of mining. Such a career offers
+inducements looking to the achievement of honor as well as fortune. The
+field for such service is ready.
+
+
+
+
+XXIII
+
+MISCELLANEOUS CONSIDERATIONS.
+
+
+There are regions producing ores that are too refractory for the simple
+treatments that might be given by company plants located at the mines.
+There are districts that have many small gold and silver mines with ores
+that do not yield to simple milling processes and which must therefore
+be shipped to custom smelteries. Even were the ores amenable to milling
+of some sort, it is often the case that the mines are not of sufficient
+magnitude to warrant the maintenance of their own treatment plants.
+
+Under proper trade and commercial conditions, there is no impropriety in
+shipping ore to a custom plant or in selling it outright to a company
+owning such a plant. But, contemporaneously with much of the mining in
+the West, there has been such a monopoly on ore treatment that great
+injustice has been wrought to the shippers of small lots of ore. Not
+only has this accusation been true of smelting concerns but also of
+milling companies. Once in a while representatives of such corporations
+will arise and attempt to refute these statements, but the evidence is
+overwhelmingly against them, and their arguments of being benefactors of
+the miner fall flat.
+
+By consolidation of companies and the elimination of competition,
+arrogant methods and unreasonable charges have been put into force; and
+the managers of mines have been obliged to accept whatever rates the
+monopolists saw fit to charge for treatment and whatever arbitrary
+prices they cared to pay for the metallic contents of the shipped ores.
+Very gross extortion has been practised and even yet there are many
+mining camps which are so absolutely under the control of these concerns
+that properties which should pay well, under just and favorable
+conditions, are forced to remain idle. These conditions could not be
+expected to prevail forever, and the time is now at hand when the
+extortionate smelting and milling trusts are meeting with pronounced
+opposition and a greatly diminished business. The state of Utah has
+demonstrated the ability of ore producers to bring the oppressors to
+time and the mine owners of that state are in a much more favored
+position right now than are the miners of Colorado, for instance, who
+really have been the greater sufferers. The Utah mining men have
+benefited by the sad experiences of the miners of the sister state. In
+Colorado, the American Smelting and Refining Co. has been a domineering
+factor in the mining industry for years, and the decrease of mining in
+Colorado has been contemporaneous with the oppression of this great
+corporation. The real cheating that has been practised by the ore-buying
+and ore-treating companies is well understood by all mining men who have
+been within their clutches.
+
+It seems to be a fact that every tyrant eventually proves his own
+undoing. In the case of the oppressive smelter trust, the greed resulted
+in an immense income for the time being; but as mines were obliged to
+close down because of the unjust charges imposed for handling the ores,
+the quantities of ore handled continued to diminish. During the past few
+years when mining has been so unusually dull in many of the western
+mining camps, it has been very difficult for the smelting company to
+secure enough ore to keep running, and the present outlook is not
+encouraging. Statistics will show that the production of the metals is
+not really so low as the decrease in tonnages would seem to indicate,
+and the discrepancy is accounted for in the fact that very many mining
+companies have installed their own plants for either actually recovering
+their metals or for reducing their bulk of ores by concentration before
+shipping to the custom treatment plants. Thus the smelting company may
+still be turning out a large amount of metallic lead, for example, but
+it is smelted from concentrates instead of from crude ore and the
+tonnage, the principal basis for estimating smelting charges, is very
+much less than was formerly handled in obtaining the same amount of the
+same sort of product. The investigations started by the oppressed ones
+in their efforts to evade the oppressor have led to wonderful results,
+and it is no longer necessary for the miner to depend upon the smelter.
+
+Some similar sharp practice against the mining fraternity was attempted
+and for a short time successfully carried on by what was termed, in
+Colorado, the milling trust. This concern handled the ores from Cripple
+Creek, principally. The larger mining companies soon began the erection
+of their individual plants and the practice has been extending until it
+is now common for Cripple Creek mines to own and operate their own
+reduction works, much on the order of the practice in the Transvaal
+country.
+
+As a final word in this discussion, the author wishes to reiterate his
+belief in the legitimacy of investment in mines and mining stocks. When
+mining is placed upon sound business principles and every detail of the
+work is carried on with strict attention to sound economy, there can be
+few failures. This means that business judgment and expert advice must
+be used from the very start--in other words, that no false starts must
+be permitted. Then, after getting under way in a worthy enterprise, the
+successful mine operator will exercise just as close scrutiny of every
+operation, method, and employee as do the men who conduct other
+successful lines of business.
+
+This little work has been prepared primarily for the perusal of men and
+women who are not personally acquainted with details of mining, but who
+entertain notions of becoming financially interested. It is hoped that
+the simple descriptions of some of the elementary details will prove of
+use to a great many persons.
+
+
+
+
+        CAPITALIZATION AND DIVIDENDS OF NORTH AMERICAN METAL MINES.
+
+
+===============================================================================
+        Company        | State or |   Metals   | Capitali- | Par/ |Dividends to
+                       | Country  |  Produced  |   zation  |Share|Jan. 1, 1912
+-----------------------+----------+------------+-----------+------+------------
+Alaska-Mexican         |Alaska    |gold        | $1,000,000| $5   | $2,634,381
+Alaska-Treadwell       |Alaska    |gold        |  5,000,000| 25   | 11,385,000
+Amalgamated            |Montana   |copper      |155,000,000|100   | 63,579,315
+Anaconda               |Montana   |copper      | 30,000,000| 25   | 47,700,000
+Arizona                |Arizona   |copper      |  3,669,300|  1.20| 14,373,550
+Baltic                 |Michigan  |copper      |  2,500,000| 25   |  6,050,000
+Boston & Montana Cons. |Montana   |copper      |  3,750,000| 25   | 62,425,000
+Bullion-Beck & Champion|Utah      |silver, gold|  1,000,000| 10   |  2,738,400
+Bunker Hill & Sullivan |Idaho     |silver, lead|  3,000,000| 10   | 12,211,350
+Butte Coalition        |Montana   |copper      | 15,000,000| 15   |  2,450,000
+Calumet & Arizona      |Arizona   |copper      |  2,500,000| 10   | 11,500,000
+Calumet & Hecla        |Michigan  |copper      |  2,500,000| 25   |112,750,000
+Camp Bird              |Colorado  |gold        |  5,387,000|  5   |  6,541,960
+Centennial-Eureka      |Utah      |gold, silver|  5,000,000| 25   |  2,700,000
+Champion               |Michigan  |copper      |  2,500,000| 25   |  5,700,000
+Colorado               |Utah      |silver, lead|    200,000|  0.20|  2,270,000
+Copper Range Con.      |Michigan  |copper      | 40,000,000|100   | 10,751,180
+Crown Reserve          |Ontario   |silver      |  2,000,000|  1   |  2,387,898
+Daly                   |Utah      |gold, lead, |  3,000,000| 20   |  2,925,000
+                       |          |  silver    |           |      |
+Daly-West              |Utah      |gold, lead, |  3,600,000| 20   |  6,201,000
+                       |          |  silver    |           |      |
+DeLamar                |Idaho     |gold, silver|    400,000|  5   |  2,737,520
+Doe Run                |Missouri  |lead        | 10,000,000|100   |  2,448,478
+Elkton Con.            |Colorado  |gold        |  3,000,000|  1   |  2,666,959
+El Oro                 |Mexico    |gold, silver|  5,750,000|  5   | 12,426,590
+Esperanza              |Mexico    |silver, gold|  2,250,000|  5   | 10,752,750
+Federal                |Idaho     |silver, lead| 30,000,000|100   |  8,300,000
+Gemini-Keystone        |Utah      |gold, silver|    500,000|100   |  2,000,000
+Goldfield Con.         |Nevada    |gold, silver| 50,000,000| 10   | 11,027,812
+Granby Con.            |B. C.     |copper,gold,| 15,000,000|100   |  3,778,630
+                       |          |  silver    |           |      |
+Greene Con.            |Mexico    |copper      | 10,000,000| 10   |  6,137,800
+Guggenheim Exploration |Mexico    |all metals  | 22,000,000|100   | 10,151,995
+Hecla                  |Idaho     |silver, lead|    250,000|  0.25|  2,090,000
+Hercules               |Idaho     |silver, lead|  1,000,000|  1   |  3,132,000
+Homestake              |S. Dakota |gold        | 21,840,000|100   | 19,955,550
+Hond. Rosario          |C. A.     |gold        |  1,500,000| 10   |  2,955,000
+Horn Silver            |Utah      |silver      | 10,000,000| 25   |  5,642,000
+Iron Silver            |Colorado  |all metals  | 10,000,000| 20   |  4,250,000
+Kerr Lake              |Ontario   |silver      |  3,000,000|  5   |  2,430,000
+La Rose Con            |Ontario   |silver      |  7,500,000| $5   |  2,890,912
+Mammoth                |Utah      |gold,silver,| 10,000,000| 25   |  2,220,000
+                       |          |  copper    |           |      |
+Mohawk                 |Michigan  |copper      |  2,500,000| 25   |  2,150,000
+Mountain               |California|copper      |  6,250,000| 25   |  4,216,250
+Naica                  |Mexico    |silver, lead|     30,000|300   |  3,190,000
+Nevada Con             |Nevada    |copper      | 10,000,000|  5   |  2,400,000
+Nipissing              |Ontario   |silver      |  6,000,000|  5   |  5,490,000
+North Butte            |Montana   |copper,gold,|  9,000,000| 15   |  9,040,000
+                       |          |  silver    |           |      |
+North Star             |California|gold        |  2,500,000| 10   |  2,786,988
+Ontario                |Utah      |silver, lead|  5,000,000|100   | 14,962,500
+Osceola                |Michigan  |copper      |  2,500,000| 25   |  8,958,650
+Panuco                 |Mexico    |gold, silver|  2,000,000|      |  7,465,000
+Parrot                 |Montana   |copper      |  2,300,000| 10   |  6,991,138
+Penoles                |Mexico    |silver, gold|  2,000,000| 50   |  4,741,687
+Phelps, Dodge & Co     |U. S.     |copper      | 50,000,000|100   |  8,766,747
+Plumas, Eureka         |California|gold        |  1,406,250| 10   |  2,831,294
+Portland               |Colorado  |gold        |  3,000,000|  1   |  8,677,080
+La Rose Con            |Ontario   |silver      | $7,500,000| $5   | $2,890,912
+Mammoth                |Utah      |gold,silver,| 10,000,000| 25   |  2,220,000
+                       |          |  copper    |           |      |
+Mohawk                 |Michigan  |copper      |  2,500,000| 25   |  2,150,000
+Mountain               |California|copper      |  6,250,000| 25   |  4,216,250
+Naica                  |Mexico    |silver, lead|     30,000|300   |  3,190,000
+Nevada Con             |Nevada    |copper      | 10,000,000|  5   |  2,400,000
+Nipissing              |Ontario   |silver      |  6,000,000|  5   |  5,490,000
+North Butte            |Montana   |copper,gold,|  9,000,000| 15   |  9,040,000
+                       |          |  silver    |           |      |
+North Star             |California|gold        |  2,500,000| 10   |  2,786,988
+Ontario                |Utah      |silver, lead|  5,000,000|100   | 14,962,500
+Osceola                |Michigan  |copper      |  2,500,000| 25   |  8,958,650
+Panuco                 |Mexico    |gold, silver|  2,000,000|      |  7,465,000
+Parrot                 |Montana   |copper      |  2,300,000| 10   |  6,991,138
+Penoles                |Mexico    |silver, gold|  2,000,000| 50   |  4,741,687
+Phelps, Dodge & Co     |U. S.     |copper      | 50,000,000|100   |  8,766,747
+Plumas, Eureka         |California|gold        |  1,406,250| 10   |  2,831,294
+Portland               |Colorado  |gold        |  3,000,000|  1   |  8,677,080
+Quincy                 |Michigan  |copper      |  3,750,000| 25   | 19,330,000
+Richmond               |Nevada    |gold, silver|  1,350,000|  1   |  4,453,797
+                       |          |  lead      |           |      |
+San Rafael             |Mexico    |gold, silver|     60,000| 25   |  3,218,338
+Sta. Gertrudis         |Mexico    |gold, silver|  3,000,000|      |  3,960,000
+Sta. Maria del Paz     |Mexico    |gold, silver|    120,000| 12.50|  5,568,000
+St. Joseph             |Missouri  |lead        | 20,000,000| 10   |  7,208,357
+Silver King Coalition  |Utah      |silver      |  6,250,000|  5   | 12,522,385
+Smuggler               |Colorado  |silver,lead,|  1,000,000|  1   |  2,235,000
+                       |          |  zinc      |           |      |
+Standard Con           |California|gold, silver|  2,000,000|  1   |  5,194,130
+Stratton's Ind         |Colorado  |gold        |  5,500,000|  5   |  5,028,568
+Strong                 |Colorado  |gold        |  1,000,000|  1   |  2,275,000
+Tamarack               |Michigan  |copper      |  1,500,000| 25   |  9,420,000
+Tennessee              |Tennessee |copper      |  5,000,000| 25   |  2,056,250
+Tomboy                 |Colorado  |gold, silver|  1,500,000|  5   |  2,561,000
+Tonopah                |Nevada    |gold, silver|  1,000,000|  1   |  6,450,000
+United                 |Montana   |copper      | 50,000,000|100   |  7,625,000
+United Verde           |Arizona   |copper      |  3,000,000| 10   | 26,722,000
+Utah Copper            |Utah      |copper      | 15,268,000| 10   |  5,629,785
+Utah Con               |Utah      |copper      |  1,500,000|  5   |  6,900,000
+Vindicator Con         |Colorado  |gold        |  1,500,000|  1   |  2,227,500
+Wolverine              |Michigan  |copper      |  1,500,000| 25   |  6,300,000
+-----------------------+----------+------------+-----------+------+------------
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+    Accidents, 104
+
+    Adit, advantages of, 97, 100, 101, 104
+
+    Adit, defined, 95
+
+    Ajax mine, 200
+
+    Alaska, 8, 44, 67, 123
+
+    Amortization, 151
+
+    Anaconda mine, 44, 119
+
+    Arizona, 77
+
+    Australia, 26, 125
+
+
+    Bancroft, Geo., 160
+
+    Bankets, 116
+
+    Bassick mine, 112
+
+    Batea, 64
+
+    Bingham Canyon Dist., 73
+
+    Black Hills, 33, 74
+
+    Blanket vein, 111
+
+    Brazil placers, 8, 67
+
+    Buried placers, 61
+
+    Butte District, 44, 183
+
+
+    Cages, 102
+
+    California mining, 26, 31, 42, 61, 67
+
+    Camp Bird mine, 33, 121
+
+    Canadian mining claims, 54, 55
+
+    Capitalization, 140, 216
+
+    Charleton, A. G., 16
+
+    Chimneys, 112
+
+    Churn drilling, 65
+
+    Climatic influences, 83
+
+    Coal mining, 20, 23
+
+    Coal washing, 17
+
+    Colorado Fuel & Iron Co., 183
+
+    Colorado lode claims, 52
+
+    Comstock lode, 43, 91, 99
+
+    Concentration, 13, 156
+
+    Consulting engineer, 165
+
+    Copper mining, 24, 43, 73
+
+    Copper, price of, 175
+
+    Cornwall, 25, 122
+
+    Cost of patenting claims, 58
+
+    Cradle, 64
+
+    Cripple Creek District, 91, 109, 112, 125, 193, 196, 200, 214
+
+    Crosscuts, 96
+
+    Custom treatment, 210
+
+
+    Dead work, 79
+
+    Dikes, 108
+
+    Directors' functions, 163
+
+    Dividends of N. Amer. mines, 216
+
+    Dry placers, 71
+
+
+    Egypt, 22
+
+    Ely District, 74
+
+    Esperanza mine, 125
+
+    Examination of mines, 130, 191
+
+    Exploitation, 79, 166
+
+    Extralateral rights, 53
+
+
+    Failures in mining, 190
+
+
+    Gash veins, 111
+
+    Gangue, 118
+
+    Giants, 68
+
+    Gold, price of, 170
+
+    Gold production, 30 to 38
+
+    Golden Fleece, explained, 24
+
+    Grab samples, 167
+
+    Greece, mining in, 25, 122
+
+
+    High-grading, 126, 195
+
+    Homestake mine, 33, 123
+
+    Hoover, H. C., 162
+
+    Hydraulicking, 68, 70
+
+
+    Inclines, 95, 100
+
+    Incorporation, 140
+
+    Iron ore prices, 176
+
+
+    Joplin District, 13, 91
+
+
+    Kansas coal mining, 5
+
+    Kemp, Jas. F., 18
+
+    Kentucky lead mining, 8, 85
+
+    Keweenaw Peninsula, 116
+
+    Kimberly diamond mines, 43, 112, 127
+
+
+    Labor considerations, 84, 85
+
+    Lead, prices of, 178
+
+    Leadville, 44, 114, 150, 201, 205
+
+    Leasing, 195
+
+    Leonard, P. A., 186
+
+    Life of a mine, 92, 150
+
+    Lode defined, 51, 109, 110
+
+    Long tom, 65
+
+    Low-grade mining, 122, 200
+
+
+    Machinery, 89, 154
+
+    Management, 162
+
+    Mass, defined, 113
+
+    Metallurgy, 14
+
+    Mexico, 34, 43, 125
+
+    Mexican mining claims, 55
+
+    Milling, 14
+
+    Mine accounts, 179
+
+    Mine, definition of, 4, 8, 20
+
+    Mine promotion, 134, 139, 146, 186
+
+    Mine reports, 168
+
+    Miner's licenses and certificates, 55
+
+    Miner's pan, 64
+
+    Mine sampling, 130, 167
+
+    Mine timbers, 88
+
+    Mining, defined, 20, 80
+
+    Mining engineer's functions, 164, 191
+
+    Mining plants, 105, 154, 155, 157, 160
+
+    Minnesota iron ranges, 6, 42, 72, 127
+
+    Monitors, 68
+
+    Mount Morgan mine, 6, 73
+
+
+    Nevada Cons. Copper Co., 6, 74
+
+    New Zealand, 61
+
+    Nickel mining, 34, 43
+
+    Nickel, price of, 174
+
+
+    Ore defined, 18, 19
+
+    Ore deposition, 117
+
+    Ore dressing, 14, 16
+
+    Ore in sight, 131
+
+    Ore reserves, 131
+
+    Oroya-Brownhill mine, 125
+
+    Open pit mining, 72
+
+    Ophir, location, 24
+
+
+    _Pertinencia_, 56
+
+    Placer dredging, 66, 153
+
+    Placer defined, 60
+
+    Placering, 14
+
+    Platinum mining, 33
+
+    Platinum, price of, 172
+
+    Political considerations, 87
+
+    Porphyry mines, 76
+
+    Portland mine, 182, 200
+
+    Prospecting, 39
+
+    Prospects, 148
+
+    Prospect drilling, 65
+
+    Prospectuses, 186, 188
+
+
+    Quicksilver mining, 43
+
+    Quicksilver, price of, 178
+
+
+    Reddington mine, 43
+
+    Reddington, P. G., 198
+
+    Reefs, 116
+
+    Richard, R. H., 15
+
+    Rickard, T. A., 127
+
+    Riffles, 68
+
+    Robinson mine, 128
+
+    Rocker, 64
+
+    Roosevelt tunnel, 196
+
+
+    San Juan Region, 33, 99, 153
+
+    Secondary enrichment, 119
+
+    Secrecy in operations, 183
+
+    Shafts, 94, 98, 100
+
+    Silver, price of, 172
+
+    Silver production, 36
+
+    Skips, 102
+
+    Slope, defined, 95
+
+    Sluices, 68, 69
+
+    Sorting, 14
+
+    South Africa, 24, 33, 35, 128, 149
+
+    Spain, 122
+
+    Spurr, J. E., 120
+
+    Steam shovelling, 7, 72
+
+    Stock, defined, 112
+
+    Stratton's Independence mine, 194, 200
+
+    Stripping, 75
+
+    Sudbury district, 43
+
+    Supplies, mine, 87, 88
+
+    Surveyor-General offices, 58
+
+    Sutro tunnel, 99
+
+
+    Tin, price of, 173
+
+    Title to property, 81
+
+    Tonopah district, 13, 150
+
+    Topographical considerations, 82, 99
+
+    Transportation considerations, 82, 194
+
+    Transvaal, 13, 91
+
+    Treadwell mine, 44, 123
+
+    Treasury stock, 144
+
+    Treatment monopolies, 210, 214
+
+    Tungsten, price of, 174
+
+    Tunnel, defined, 94
+
+
+    Unionism, 85
+
+    United Verde mine, 182
+
+    U. S. Bureau of Mines, 28
+
+    U. S. coal claims, 47, 48
+
+    U. S. Forestry service, 197
+
+    U. S. lode claims, 46, 51
+
+    U. S. mineral output, 32 to 37
+
+    U. S. mineral surveyors, 56, 58
+
+    U. S. placer claims, 49
+
+    U. S. Postal Dept., 138, 189
+
+    Utah Copper Co., 6, 73
+
+
+    Van Hise, C. R., 115
+
+    Vein, defined, 107
+
+
+    Wallace, J. P., 150
+
+    Wallaroo mine, 43
+
+    Wasp No. 2 mine, 74
+
+    Wildcatting, 137, 193
+
+    Williams, Percy, 191
+
+
+    Zinc, price of, 177
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Business of Mining, by Arthur J. Hoskin
+
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #38903 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/38903)