Show TALK ON MILL BUILDING more failures in mining operations can be attributed to mistakes in mill building than to almost any other cause and this statement can be amply proven by reference to the many fine plants in various mining camps which are idle because of a lack of ore or for the reason that the process employed in reduction is not suited to the character of ore produced by the mines for which the mills were built the losses emanating from such failures running up into the millions and often causing the shutdown shut down and abandonment of many really meritorious properties this condition is recognized by every experienced mining man and engineer and the tendency at the present time is to build reduction works in units rather than to erect mammoth plants until the ore pro capacity of the property in question is clearly demonstrated and proven and still there are ard many mines in this intermountain country that are deserving of reduction works that cannot be profitably operated because their owners are financially unable to put in plants for ore treatment this condition is also recognized by mining men and it is a mooted question as to which is the worse off the mine with a mill and no ore with a mill employing a process that is not adapted to the ore or a mine with plenty of ore and with no plant for its treatment the mining review being of the opinion that the latter condition Is preferable to the first as the mine with plenty of ore in sight has a chance to work out its own salvation while the first is in almost a hopeless state with great losses confronting those who made the fatal mistake of building these fine milling plants the owner of a productive mine has some chance to work out of the condition confronting him notwithstanding the fact that he is lacking in means and financial assistance that is if he is a man of mental resources and possessed of a dogged determination to succeed and if he is willing to adapt himself to circumstances and content to make advancement slowly in other words he can succeed if he will begin at the lower rung of the ladder and work his way up to the top to illustrate our meaning we will refer to one or two incidents showing how men with good properties but with no means have met with success where at the first failure seemed inevitable in one case the man in question had a good prospect in which there was showing a foot of good milling free gold ore he was extremely poor and with his wife lived in a rude cabin near his idaho mine though poor in this worlds goods he was rich in faith determination and persistent industry for a month or two after the Ois discovery covery of his ore body he ground out gold old in a hand mortar until he had sufficient means for the building of an ond and the purchase of a horse for its motive power A few months later he was able to put in a little two stamp mill which was later enlar enlarged gea by the addition of more stamps and by degrees the plant was improved and enlarged until now it is one of the finest reduction works to be found in i lie state and today this man is worth a million and his mine is one of the best developed mining properties in this intermountain region not long ago a young man in oregon located a promising prospect being without means he would work a portion of his time in adjoining mines and with the money so earned he developed his own property until he also had uncovered bodies of pay ore with the assistance of his father he constructed an at first the ore was free milling and handsome returns were received from the crude plant in use but as depth was attained in mine opera operation tiou the ore became base to a certain extern extent and to save the values value s escaping from the a small cyanide plant of pounds capacity was put in with wath the employment of these two methods a saving of 25 was made for every ton of ore treated and now the young man is in a position to equip his mine with a plant suitable to its requirements quire ments the moral is plain but there are rare instances of such successes as the majority of mine owners are not willing to begin mill operations on so small a scale prefer ing to idle away their time until capital comes to them with a proposition to equip their comparatively undeveloped properties with large reduction works with thera them it is a question of starting off on a gigantic giganti C scale or not at all with the result that the most of them never make a start and meet with complete failure |