Show THE prospector AND IRS BURRO I 1 4 the tendency of the day said the prospector to his burro is to form big corporations for the development and operation of a mining property A certain amount of stock is set aside for treasury purposes and this is offered the public in blocks and at certain figures this is all right if the men behind the enterprise are honest and efficient and if the buyer of treasury stock is lacking in mining experience and knowledge and fully satisfied to trust his money and interest with those who are fully qualified to bring to a successful termination the mining venture in hand for you know that there are thousands of people with money to invest who cannot give their time and attention 40 the personal care of mining propositions ions in which they propose to invest and yet there are other methods lor for profitable connection with mining operations one of which especially appeals to me and one which I 1 am sure with your intimate association with the industry you will fully concur in my plan is this suppose for instance that three or four men with a combined capital of or were to band together for the purpose of prospecting locating and operating a mine in a small way this capital would not be sufficient lelent to work a mine on an extensive scale but the prospect when found could be easily and economically no handled by four able bodied and experienced miners and prospectors we will take it that these men will start out on a prospecting expedition taking with them team and wagon tent provisions and supplies A good gold prospect is found a proposition with a lot of ore showing on the surface that is not rich enough to ship but which would pass for a high grade milling proposition ordinarily such a prospect would require thousands of dollars expenditure before it could be placed on a producing and paying basis but these mining men have the right idea in anticipation of such a find they have made partial arrangements for a little two stamp mill one that can easily be hauled around in a wagon and which can be worked by hand if necessary A two horsepower gasoline engine is easily added to the equip equipment m i ent and with this small and comparatively inexpensive plant the quartette is ready for actual mining and milling operations the mill will treat possibly three or four tons a day two men can operate it while the other two can tunnel in on the vein and keep enough ore on the dump to keep the mill in constant operation during the shift suppose the ore assays essays 20 a ton and that a saving of 15 a ton was made on the plates if treating four tons of ore a day this would amount to 60 a day which would pay all running expenses and leave a handsome surplus in the treasury at the end of each month this is what I 1 would call good business as the mine by this method would be paying for its own development and at the same time its owners would be building up a fund with which to equip the property later on with machinery and eventually with large reduction works then there is another phase of this system that appeals strongly to me without this pigmy milling plant in successful and profitable operation this little company working in partnership might wait a number of months to find a buyer for its property were it thought best to sell but with a small equipment as above described the fact that it was turning out bullion daily would soon be noised about the country and it would not be long before flattering offers would be received for this bonanza in embryo 1 I want to tell you old long ears continued the prospector the dividing line between failure and success is sometimes as thin as was your breakfast this morning and a little sound reasoning and the application of good sense will bring about success with but small expenditure while by pursuing old methods accompanied by lavish waste and inefficiency failure is almost always recorded by pursuing the plan I 1 have just outlined success will come sooner than if had been expended in the development of this prospect and at a cost so small that it would be hardly noticed 1 I see by the way you wag your ears you old mountain canary that you catch the idea but I 1 am satisfied that your brain capacity is too small to grasp the immensity of the proposition which from a ridiculously small beginning may eventually assume grand proportions I 1 know what I 1 am talking about and can cite an instance of this kind which came under my notice while we were prospecting up in idaho about five years ago you remember the place I 1 know for the grass was so high in this little mountain meadow and the water so sweet and plentiful that you were rolling fat and as slick as a whistle when we left there A mile up the canyon from this little meadow a man and his wife had camped and the man a little way up the cliff had made the discovery of a quart ledge carrying about fifteen inches of free milling gold that would average about 15 to the ton with here and there little pockets which would assay better than a hundred the couple were as poor as church mice too poor in fact to even make the effort to interest capital in their find so a permanent camp was made during the day the man worked on the ledge his wife helping him when she could at night with a hand mortar they crushed the richest of the ore and panned it sometimes by fihs means they would recover from 10 to 15 a day sometimes more the next spring an was put in which would treat several tons of ore daily the condition of the pocketbook pocket book by this time warranted the employment of additional help and a man or two was put on A fine cabin was then built and the worthy couple began to live in comfort the next spring a 5 stamp mill was installed and the returns were appreciably greater in the meantime the mine was being systematically developed and from year to year such progress has been made that now the mine has a mill of fifty stamps and the owner has over a million to his credit at the bank 1 I knew that this would make you open your eyes the thing has been done and can be done again and it can be done in such a way that the expenditure of money is hardly felt this method is like getting down to the rudiments it sounds so crude the enterprise is not launched with a blare of trumpets nor is the public taken into the confidence of its originators but the trimmings come later when the four men or six or eight come into town and make a big fat deposit in the bank or place a big roll in the safe at the corner saloon for safekeeping nothing succeeds like success but you must know how to succeed before engaging in any enterprise mining or otherwise |