Show difficulties OF MINING the majority of people who are not engaged in mining operations have but i a vague conception of the many difficulties which attend the development of a mine or prospect and especially when such properties are located some distance from railroad facilities and where it is sometimes almost impossible to secure transportation advantages after a prospect is found be it ever so good it often requires a period of from two to five years before it can be placed on a regular paying basis even though the owners are possessed of ample capital and yet there are those who making an investment in mining propositions expect material returns within six months or a year this class even though its members may be of broad gauge and ready to go into their pockets to meet every requirement of mine development and equipment are impatient for quick results and for the simple reason that they do not understand conditions in the mining camps of the west and this impatience is frequently very embarrassing barr assing to the mine management and to those who are striving to push operations economically and to the best possible advantage the writer has known of mining enterprises where the work seemed to drag interminably and yet it has since transpired that the management and officials of such companies companie s have struggled heroically with difficulties and hardships which would have completely discouraged and heartened disheartened dis men of less sterner mold men who would have proclaimed it an utter impossibility conditions existing in to overcome certain mining minin operations one of the greatest obstacles to successful f ul mining during the past winter and spring of the roads has been the impassability leading to many of 0 f our mining camps and districts cainas and districts where work in mine development must be regularly maintained in order to comply with the terms of options and bonds or to obey the instructions of eastern managers who living in luxury and ease in new york or boston imagine that to accomplish certain results the only thing required is for them to give the order the indian said it is easy to see the white man mow it is also easy for an eastern manager to say do this and do that to issue orders for ore shipments for the equipment of mining property but it is another thing entirely for the superintendent in to comply with these orders no matter how much he may desire to obey such commands to the letter during the past six months the matter of transportation to interior and isolated camps has been a serious one it has often required three days to freight in a light load of supplies and provisions over a road thirty miles in length and even then the teams have been stalled in the mud wagons have been broken horses injured and the drivers have had to camp out overnight over night in snowstorm and rain and have been compelled to endure almost every hardship imaginable in order to get into camp with the supplies consigned to their care cake such cases are not at all isolated and the attendant expense seems enormous to those who sitting by cheerful fi resides cannot dundei stand why so much money is being spent in the development of a mere prospect or why it is that ore shipments have not been made that were virtually promised by the management six months before why it is that the railroads are several weeks behind in the delivery of mine supplies and machinery or why communication with the mines has been interrupted the man who has not the patience of a job should steer clear of mining in all its branches and phases if he is engaged in the industry he must expect all manner of delay all kinds of difficulties and more he must be determined to surmount them but in his calculations lie he must consider that he will lose some time even when conditions seem to be the most favorable |