Show THE unexpected the saying that it is the unexpected that happens dan can be applied to every walk of life hut but we know of no other business where the unexpected element assumes such proportions it as does in mining it is a business where certainty is almost eliminated and yet one which offers numerous c chances of big success there are those who will take exception to these views and say that certain classes of mining present the safest and surest kind of business but the unexpected often happens even in these large and developed mines are sometimes confronted with conditions which were never considered within the range of possibility such as could not be met until the damage had been done and the remedy of no avail there are so many loopholes in mining where these chance elements can creep in and make failure where success seemed assured assuredly assur edl in the first place the vagaries vagaries of nature can never be fully understood and mans ingenuity and intelligence cannot fully circumvent the changes and ca prices of the wonderful nature forces in mother earth although the modern geologist can read the secrets of the rocks in la a fairly accurate way he be is far from infallible and in his interpretation often skips the page wherein the key is written in mining an apparently trivial mistake often leads to grave consequences and a step in the wrong direction cannot be retraced if the wrong system is adopted in the development of a mining property thousands of dollars may be wasted and a mistake of this kind almost always condemns it from further exploitation often a long tunnel is driven to tap at depth a ledge which shows splendidly on the surface when the objective point is reached the vein has pinched the values have diss appeared or perhaps a fault has cut it off and still greater depth must be attained poor judgment you say not necessarily perhaps every possible condition indicated that this was the proper course to pursue and the failure was due to forces over which no control was ible then again development may be right plenty of ore in sight and seemingly nothing in the way of most profitable operation suddenly a large larg e volume of water is encountered presenting a new a serious cond condition tion which der deranges anges all pro pre ous plans sufficient funds were on hi ha before this change but more capital mi now be raised to meet the emergency a this is not always possible to do merhi P the character of the ore changes after ment has been installed necessitating sh ping where milling had before been pos po ble fluctuation of odthe the metal markets rp r road rates labor troubles litigation and di honesty are a few of the many cli which unexpectedly enter into the apropo tion land and which throw the weli wei 1 l on the wrong side of the scales f and so we must not be too hasty in 01 i judgment over an apparent failure in M n ing quick conclusions without careful investigation are unjust to say least and in the majority of cases are from being correct |